The origin of the trinity commonly called (trinitarianism) part 1

Although it is a topic much discussed and accepted within religious circles, the trinity or trinitarianism is little studied, especially its origin and who led this new belief, as well as its structure.

Our objective is to present in a simple and clear way, seeking to present this subject in summary form.

The trinity today has been the subject of great controversy in the religious world, for many judge it to be one of the main parts of Christianity, and that this dogma is directly linked to the Holy Scriptures, but is that true? Was the trinity instituted by God? Has it existed since the beginning of the world, or was it created after the death of the apostles?

We will see next what history tells us, and we will be able to compare it with biblical records, and thus be enlightened by the light of the Word of God.

Trinitarianism is the belief in the existence of three persons in one God. This has been affirmed in various ways, such as "one God in three Persons", or "three persons in one substance." It affirms that, in God, there are three distinctions of essence and not merely of activities.

The names given to these three persons are: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

The orthodox trinitarian doctrine, as it developed through the centuries, also affirms that these three persons are co-equal in power and authority, that they are co-eternal in the past, present, and future, and that the same divine nature is fully contained in each of them. However, each of these persons receives a unique characteristic when viewed in relation to the others: the Father was not begotten, the Son was begotten, and the Spirit was originated.

Trinitarians sometimes affirm that the singularity of the Father is displayed in creation and that of the Son in redemption, and that of the Spirit in sanctification, yet all three actively participate in each work with functions of different importance. Since each one participates in the work of the others, there is no clear basic distinction between them.

Trinitarians call these three persons the trinity or triune God. A trinitarian scholar describes the trinity as follows: "The Trinity should not be understood as a God in three manifestations nor as a symmetrical triad of persons with separate functions; rather the Trinity means one God in three modes of existence - Father, Son, and Spirit, and each of these participates in the activity of the others." Trinitarians frequently use the figure of a triangle to explain their doctrine. The three corners represent the three members of the trinity, while the complete triangle represents God as the entire trinity. Thus, the Father is not the Son is not the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, neither the Father, the Son nor the Spirit is completely God without the others.

Orthodox trinitarians deny tritheism which is the belief in three gods. However, when called upon to explain how there can be three distinct persons and still only one God, they finally explain that the trinity is a mystery that our finite human minds cannot fully comprehend.

Considering that trinitarians try to reject the concept of three gods, they are usually reluctant to describe God in terms of three beings, personalities, or individuals. One trinitarian stated: "No important Christian theologian has argued that there are three self-conscious beings in the Godhead.

"Another trinitarian writer rejects the idea that the trinity is composed of three individuals, but he denounces an exaggerated emphasis on unity which (he says) leads to a Jewish view of God.

This reluctance to use terms that distinctly divide God is commendable; however, person is in itself one of those words. Webster defines person as "an individual human being" and "the individual personality of a human being".

It is not merely a matter of terminology; throughout the history of trinitarianism, many trinitarians have interpreted the concept of person both practically and even theologically as meaning three beings. For example, the three Cappadocians of the fourth century (Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory Nazianzus, and Basil of Caesarea) emphasized the triplicity of the trinity to the point of accepting three personalities. Boethius (c. 480 - c. 524) defined person as an “individual substance with a rational nature." From medieval times to today, trinitarians have often represented the trinity with the figure of three men, or with the figure of an old man, a young man, and a dove.

Today, in trinitarian Pentecostal circles, there is a concept of Godhead that implies stated tritheism. This becomes evident in the following statements made by three trinitarian Pentecostals - a famous biblical commentator, a prominent evangelist, and a writer.

"What we understand by Divine Trinity is the fact that there are three separate and distinct persons in the Godhead, each of whom possesses his own personal spiritual body, personal soul, and personal spirit in the same sense that each human being, angel or any other being possesses his own body, soul, and spirit... Thus, there are three separate persons in divine individuality and divine plurality. The word God is used as singular or a plural word, as for example, the word sheep, which in English means both a sheep and a flock." "Thus, there are three separate persons in divine individuality and divine plurality... Individually each one is called God; collectively we may refer to them as one God because of their perfect unity...

Everything that can belong collectively to God can also apply equally to each member of the Godhead as individuals. However, there are some particularities that are related individually to each of the persons of the godhead with respect to position, office, and work that cannot be attributed to any other of the members of the Godhead".

The third Pentecostal trinitarian, a writer, cites a definition of person from Webster's Dictionary: "a particular individual." He then gives his own definition ": A person is one who has intellect, sensibility, and will". He attempts to reconcile the trinitarian use of the word person.

"When the term person is applied to any created being, it represents an absolutely separate individual from others; but when applied to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the meaning of person must be qualified to exclude a separate existence, for although the three are distinct, they are inseparable - one God.

Nevertheless, with this qualification, person remains the term that most nearly states the permanent mode of existence in the Godhead".

It is evident that many trinitarians interpret their doctrine to mean three personalities, three beings, three minds, three wills, or three bodies in the Godhead. They deny that by person they mean merely manifestations, roles, or relationships with mankind. Instead, they defend an eternal triplicity of essence while admitting that it is an incomprehensible mystery. They reduce the concept of God's oneness to a unity of various persons. By their definition, they convert monotheism into a kind of polytheism, differing from pagan polytheism in the fact that there is perfect agreement and perfect unity among the gods. Despite trinitarian denials, this is polytheism - tritheism, to be exact - and not the monotheism taught by the Bible and supported by Judaism.

Trinitarians also deny any form of subordination of one person to another in power or eternity. However, they frequently say that God the Father is the head of the trinity, God the Son is begotten by the Father, and the Spirit originated from the Father, the Son or both. Again, they insist that there is no contradiction, because our finite minds simply cannot comprehend the fullness of the meaning described by these relationships.

However, we know that throughout history, prominent trinitarians have interpreted their own doctrine in a way that subordinates Jesus Christ or makes him inferior.

Tertullian, the first prominent expositor of trinitarianism, taught that the Son was subordinate to the Father and that the trinity is not eternal. He taught that the Son did not exist at the beginning as a separate person, but was begotten by the Father to accomplish the creation of the world. Furthermore, Tertullian affirmed that the distinction of persons would cease in the future. Origen, the first great proponent of trinitarianism in the East, also saw the Son as subordinate to the Father in existence and he suggested that even prayer should be made only to the Father.

Both men wanted to mention the divinity of Christ when they used the term Son. So, it can be said that trinitarianism began with a doctrine that subordinates Jesus to God.

In modern trinitarian circles, there is a form of subordinationism when trinitarians use the human limitations of Christ to prove a distinction between God the Father and "God the Son" rather than merely a distinction between Christ's divine nature (Father) and his human nature (Son). For example, they use Christ's prayers, demonstrating a lack of knowledge, and lack of power to prove that "God the Son" is different from God the Father. Even when they affirm the co-equality of the Son and Father, they deny it in a practical way and confess that they do not understand what this really means.

Unitarian believers declare that the Son was subordinate to the Father. However, they do not believe that Jesus is subordinate to the Father in the way trinitarians do. Instead, they affirm that Jesus in his human role as the Son was subordinate and limited, but Jesus in his divine role as the Father was not subordinate or limited.

In other words, the human nature of Jesus was subordinate to the divine nature of Jesus. By separating the Father and Son into distinct (separate) persons, trinitarians deny that Jesus is the Father, thus inevitably diminishing the full deity of Jesus. Despite their denials, their doctrine effectively subordinates Jesus to the Father in deity.

There are serious problems with trinitarian terminology. First, the Bible nowhere uses the word trinity. The word three does not appear in relation to God in any translation of the Bible except in the English King James Version, and only once in that translation - in the doubtful verse of 1 John 5:7.

Even in this passage it reads, "these three are one." [Likewise the various versions of the Holy Bible in the Portuguese language do not refer to God with the word three, nor does the word trinity appear.

The translators of the Revised Version according to the Best Texts in Hebrew and Greek recognized that part of the doubtful text of 1 John 5:7 was erroneously added by translators in antiquity, and they left out the part normally found in brackets, which indicates that it is not found in the original texts.

The word person does not appear in relation to God either, except twice in the KJV. Job 13:8 refers to showing partiality. Hebrews 1:3 says that the Son is the express image of God's own person [The Bible in the Portuguese language does not use the word person in this instance, but the word Being.] (where it means nature or substance), not a second person. The Bible never uses the plural word persons to describe God. (The only possible exception would be in Job 13:10, "it shall reprove you sharply if in secret you show partiality" but this verse would obviously undermine trinitarianism if it applied to God!)

In summary, as many trinitarian students admit, the Bible does not expressly state the doctrine of the trinity. The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: There is recognition on the part of exegetes [interpreters] and biblical theologians… that one should not speak of Trinitarianism in the New Testament without serious qualifications… exegesis [interpretation] of the New Testament is now accepted as not only having shown this for the verbal language, but even the patterns of characteristic thought of the patristic [church fathers] and the conciliar development [councils of the churches] would have been quite foreign to the mind and culture of the writers of the New Testament."

Protestant trinitarian theologian Emil Brunner declared, "The doctrine of the Trinity in itself, however, is not a biblical doctrine and this is really not by accident, but by necessity. It is the product of theological reflection on the problem…. The ecclesiastical doctrine of the Trinity is not only the product of genuine biblical thinking, it is also the product of philosophical speculation that is remote from the thinking of the Bible."

If trinitarianism did not come from the Bible, where then did it originate? There is no question that Christian trinitarianism developed over several centuries of time after the New Testament was written. According to The New Catholic Encyclopedia, historians of dogma and systematic theologians recognize "that when one speaks of unqualified Trinitarianism, one has moved from the period of Christian origins to, say, the last quadrant of the 4th century… From what has been seen so far, it could arise the impression that the Trinitarian dogma is ultimately a recent invention of the 4th century.

In a certain sense, this is true but it insinuates an extremely rigid interpretation of the key words Trinitarian and dogma… The formulation one God in three Persons was not solidly established, certainly not completely assimilated in Christian life and its profession of faith, before the end of the 4th century. But it is precisely this formulation that has first claim to the title of trinitarian dogma.".

We briefly trace the historical development of this doctrine in Christendom, but first let us explore some pagan roots of trinitarianism.

The trinitarian scholar Alexander Hislop asserts that - the Babylonians praised a God in three persons and used the equilateral triangle as a symbol of this trinity. In his book, Hislop shows that pictures were used in ancient Assyria and Siberia to represent triune deities. He also traces further the trinitarian ideas in the Babylonian worship of father, mother, and son, saying that the Babylonian trinity was "the Eternal Father, the Spirit of God incarnate in a human mother, and the Divine Son, the fruit of that incarnation.".

Historian Will Durant describes the trinity in ancient Egypt. "Ra, Amon, and another god, Ptah, were combined as three incorporations or aspects of a supreme and triune deity." Egypt also had a divine trinity of father, mother, and son in Osiris, Isis, and Horus.

Trinities exist in other important pagan religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Hinduism has had a supreme trinity since ancient times: Brahma the Creator, Shiva the Destroyer, and Vishnu the Preserver. A scholar described this belief: "Brahman-Atman, the impersonal ultimate reality achieves a religiously significant triple manifestation or trimurti [triad of gods] through the three personal deities that represent the divine functions of creation, destruction, and preservation respectively." This trinity is sometimes represented by a kind of one God with three heads.

Buddhism also has a kind of trinity. The Mahayana (northern) school of Buddhism has the doctrine of a "triple body" or Trikaya. According to this belief there are three "bodies" of Buddha-reality. The first is the eternal, cosmic reality, the second is the divine manifestation of the first, and the third is the earthly manifestation of the second. Furthermore, many Buddhists worship statues of Buddha with three heads.

Taoism, the ancient mystical religion of China, has an official trinity of supreme gods - the Jade Emperor, Lao Tzu, and Ling Pao - called the Three Purities.

The philosophical trinity appears in Plato and becomes very significant in Neo-platonism. Of course, Greek philosophy, and particularly Platonic and Neo-platonic thought, had a major influence on the theology of the ancient church.

For example, the trinitarian doctrine of the Logos originated from the Neo-platonic philosopher Philo. Thus, we can see that the idea of a trinity did not originate with Christendom. But it was a significant characteristic of pagan religions and philosophies before the Christian era, and its existence today in various forms suggests an ancient pagan origin.

 

The Scriptures do not teach the doctrine of the trinity, but trinitarianism has its roots in paganism. How, then, did this pagan doctrine come to find a place in Christendom? For an answer to this question, we have relied primarily on seminary professors mainly Lutheran Otto Heick and E. H. Klotsche, the professor of church history at Yale University, Roland Bainton, professor at John Noss University, the notable philosopher-historian Will Durant, and the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics.

We know that the post-apostolic fathers (90 - 140 A.D.) did not embrace the idea of a trinity. On the contrary, they emphasized the monotheism of the Old Testament, the deity of Christ, and the humanity of Christ. The Greek apologists (130 - 180 A.D.) also emphasized the unity of God. However, some of them moved toward trinitarianism.

This tendency toward trinitarianism began by making the Logos (the Word of John 1) a separate person. Following a thought in Greek philosophy, particularly in the teachings of Philo, some of the Greek apologists began to see the Logos as a separate person from the Father. However, this was not trinitarianism but a form of binitarianism, and one that subordinated the Logos to the Father. For them only the Father was the true God and the Logos was a second-order created divine being. Eventually, the Logos was compared with the Son.

Apparently, the triadic baptismal formula became a practice among some Christian churches, although there are few early references to it could be recitations of Matthew 28:19 or interpolations added by later copyists. Furthermore, during this time, a named apologist called Theophilus used the word triad (triados) to describe God. However; he did not use this to mean a trinity of persons probably, but rather a triad of God's activities.

Irenaeus (died c. 200) is often considered the first true theologian of this period. He emphasized the manifestation of God in Christ because of redemption. Some scholars have characterized Irenaeus's beliefs as "economic trinitarianism." By this they mean that he did not believe in an eternal trinity or an essence of the trinity but only in a trinity that is temporary in nature - probably the trinity of God's activities or only his operations. Irenaeus who did not use the Greek doctrine of the Logos identified the Logos with the Father. His theology had three key characteristics: a strong biblical emphasis, a reverence for apostolic tradition, and a strong Christocentric emphasis. It seems that he was not a true trinitarian but at best a transitional figure.

In summary, in the first century after the apostles, the doctrine of the trinity had not yet even developed. However, in some circles a form of subordinationistic binitarianism emerged based on Greek philosophical ideas, a doctrine denounced in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. The New Catholic Encyclopedia says of trinitarianism in this period in the history of the church: "Among the Apostolic Fathers, remotely there had been nothing yet equal and arrived at such a mentality or perspective; among the Apologists of the second century, little more than focusing on the problem as that of plurality within the One Godhead… In the final analysis, the realization of the theology of the second century was limited… A trinitarian solution was still in the future".

 

Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, or simply Tertullian (150 - 225 A.D.) was the first person recorded by history to use the words trinity (Latin: trinitas), substance (substantia), and person (persona) in relation to God. He was the first to speak of three persons in one substance (Latin: una substantia et tres personae). Tertullian adhered to the economic conception of the trinity. That is, he believed that the trinity exists only for the purpose of revelation, and after this has been accomplished the distinction between the persons would cease. However, he definitely differed from Irenaeus, he used the doctrine of the Logos from the Greek apologists. Tertullian compared the Logos with the Son. He believed that the Father brought the Logos into existence for the creation of the world and that the Logos was subordinate to the Father.

The doctrine of the trinity presented no problem for Tertullian, for his entire theology was supported by the thought that the more impossible the object of faith is, the more certain it is. He was characterized by the statement, "I believe because it is absurd."

There is some question about what Tertullian really meant by his trinitarian formulation, especially his use of the Latin word persona. According to the handbook of theological terms, in Roman law the word means a legal entity or person. In drama it means the mask worn by an actor or, by extension, a role played by an actor. Neither use necessarily indicates the modern meaning of person as a self-conscious being.

For example, an actor could play various roles (personae) and a legal corporation (persona) could consist of various individuals. On the other hand, presumably the word could also designate individual human beings.

In the fourth century, the Greek word hypostasis was used in the official formulation of trinitarian doctrine. According to Noss, hypostasis was an abstract word meaning subsistence or individualized manifestation. He says, "When this formulation was translated into Latin, the somewhat abstract Greek manifestation of individualized became the quite concrete word persona, and connotations of distinct and self-sufficient personality were suggested, in a way not understood by the original Greek phrasing."

However, this Latin word concretely was precisely the one that Tertullian had used previously. Another scholar declares that by the time hypostasis was translated persona the two words were basically equivalent both meaning "individual being."

It is apparent that many people in Tertullian's time opposed his new formulation. They rejected his doctrine for two reasons: His Rule of Faith (early creed or statement of belief) forbade polytheism, and his doctrine divided the unity of God. Our knowledge of the early modalist believers (Unitarians) Noetus and Praxeas come from their strong opposition to Tertullian and his strong opposition against them. If Tertullian meant only that God had three roles, masks, or manifestations, there was no conflict with modalism, especially because Tertullian did not believe in an eternal trinity. Then, we conclude that Tertullian meant three essential differences in God and that persona did not connote or imply a distinct personality, as suggested by Noss. In any case, it is clear that in Tertullian's time the Unitarian believers saw his doctrine as sharply opposed to the majority belief of the time.

Although Tertullian, an African, knew Greek, he preferred to write in Latin. His works reflect the Roman inclination for practicality and for emphasizing morality. This influential lawyer attracted many other writers to his favored language.

While Greek Christians debated the divinity of Christ and his relationship with the Father, Tertullian sought to unify the faith and clarify the orthodox position. In doing so, he created a formula that is used even today: God is one unique substance, consisting of three persons.

In introducing the formula what became the doctrine of the Trinity, Tertullian drew his terminology not from philosophers, but from Roman courts.

Here is a final note about Tertullian. He became a follower of Montanus, an early heretic who claimed to be the Paraclete (Comforter) promised in John 14 and the last prophet before the end of the world. Tertullian eventually began to praise celibacy and condemn marriage. In the end, he was excommunicated along with the rest of the Montanists.