The Doctrine of the Trinity -- An Introduction

Copyright 1996-2004 Robert Nguyen Cramer, BibleTexts.com (version 4.10.13.2)

Trinity - An Introduction

As most Bible dictionaries point out (see examples below), the Nicene Creed's doctrine of the Trinity as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit -- all constituting the same, one God -- is not found in the New Testament. It is a theological doctrine first articulated near the end of the 2nd century A.D. That trinitarian doctrine was first codified and enforced in the church via the Constantine-sponsored Nicene Creed in 325 A.D. Even after that the issue continued to be hotly debated, until such debate ultimately was brutally suppressed.

BibleTexts.com Note: Regarding Emperor Constantine's remoulding of Christianity to suit his political, imperial needs, see "313 A.D.: the year Constantine began coopting and corrupting Christian theology, practice, and organization" at http://www.bibletexts.com/terms/313ad.htm.

The Greek term for the Trinity, trias, was not used in connection with a Christian godhead until 180 A.D., and even then the Trinity was described as "God, his Word, and his Wisdom." It was only later that the concept evolved that the Trinity constituted a single godhead, with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit comprising the same, one God. This concept was unknown to the Christians of the first century. Most critical biblical scholars today have concluded that neither Jesus, his men and women disciples, nor Paul believed that Jesus was/is God.

A justification of the Trinity does appear in the KJV's errant wording of 1Jo 5:7,8, which reads:

Only the words above in bold represent the original Greek text of 1 John. The italicized words were added to Erasmus' Greek text of 1 John in his 1522 edition. The added wording had not been in Erasmus' original 1514 edition, so a church official manipulated Erasmus to add the wording to his Greek text. As conservative biblical scholar F.F. Bruce (History of the English Bible, Third Edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 1978, pages 141-142) explains:

The words ["in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth."] omitted in the R.V. [Revised Version, 1881] were no part of the original Greek text, nor yet of the Latin Vulgate in its earliest form. They first appear in the writings of a Spanish Christian leader named Priscillian, who was executed for heresy in A.D. 385. Later they made their way into copies of the Latin text of the Bible. When Erasmus prepared his printed edition of the Greek New Testament, he rightly left those words out, but was attacked for this by people who felt that the passage was a valuable proof-text for the doctrine of the Trinity. He replied (rather incautiously) that if he could be shown any Greek manuscript which contained the words, he would include them in his next edition. Unfortunately, a Greek manuscript not more than some twenty years old was produced in which the words appeared: they had been translated into Greek from Latin. Of course, the fact that the only Greek manuscript exhibiting the words belonged to the sixteenth century was in itself an argument against their authenticity, but Erasmus had given his promise, and so in his 1522 edition he included the passage. (To-day one or two other very late Greek manuscripts are known to contain this passages; all others omit it.)

The words that Erasmus added appear to have come from a glossed/annotated version of the Latin Vulgate that was translated into Greek and handed to Erasmus as proof that the text was in the original Greek text. (For more details, browse: http://www.bibletexts.com/versecom/1jo05v07.htm.)

The result was that Tyndale's New Testament (1525/1635), the Great Bible (1539/1540), the German Luther Bible (1545), the Geneva Bible (1560/1562), the Bishop's Bible (1568/1602), the Rheims Bible (1582), the KJV (1611 & 1769), and other Bible versions whose New Testaments were based upon Erasmus' Greek text included that errant text of 1Jo 5:7,8, which for the next four centuries gave theologians a false justification for believing that the 325 A.D. Nicene Council's doctrine of the Trinity was clearly articulated in the Bible.

In Biblical Hermeneutics (edited by Bruce Corley, Steve W. Lemke, and Grant Lovejoy, Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002, page 388), Harold Freeman, in his chapter on "Biblical Criticism and Biblical Preaching" writes:

Textual criticism is the discipline that seeks to identify the original wording of an ancient document. Textual criticism of the Bible benefits preaching by preventing nonbiblical sermons. ...We regret giving up a nice doctrinal sermon on the Trinity based on 1 John 5:7b (KJV). Nevertheless, if it is determined that these are additions to the original writings, whether intentional or accidental, biblical preaching based on these texts cannot occur... Sermons based on spurious or corrupted texts cannot be genuinely biblical. The determination of exactly what the Scripture said is the starting point for biblical preaching.

Also in the same Biblical Hermeneutics, William David Kirpatrick, in his chapter on "From Biblical Text to Theological Formulation," notes (page 366):

Otto Weber calls the doctrine of the Trinity the "classic example of a 'dogma,' in that it interprets the testimony of Scripture" (Weber, 1:350). In Jesus Christ and through the witness of the Spirit, the "unity, life, and revelation [of God] are expressed ... in reflection and interpretation" (Weber, 1:371).

To explore Christ Jesus as reflecting God, as the image and likeness of God, see:

Many early Christians were very concerned that the developing doctrine of the Trinity was a departure from monotheism. Some Christians clearly saw it as polytheistic heresy. It had been bitterly debated until it was settled by Constantine's coercion and edict at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. Even with that pronouncement of the Nicene Creed, the theological pendulum swung back and forth until later in the century, as different Roman church officials went in and out of power. Those who were on the losing side at any given time were banished, and some even lost their lives over the issue.

The Father

God is our Father

The Son

17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 18 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone."

• Joh 20:17 (ESV)

17 Jesus said to her [Mary Magdalene], "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "

• Joh 10:30; 17:20-23 (ESV)

30 I and the Father are one.

20 I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Christians gratefully acknowledge and honor the individual roles of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, which Mat 28:19 lists together in the same sentence, but Christians are not bound to any non-biblical, later theological hypotheses, including the one that all three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are somehow the same, one God. Even in the biblical passages that some use to justify that hypothesis, a more careful examination of those texts in context lead to a different interpretation.

One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (called the Twin), was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” Thomas said to them, “Unless I see the scars of the nails in his hands and put my finger on those scars and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” A week later the disciples were together again indoors, and Thomas was with them. The doors were locked, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands; then stretch out your hand and put it in my side. Stop your doubting, and believe!” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Do you believe because you see me? How happy are those who believe without seeing me!”

• 1Jo 4:20 (TEV)

We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we know the true God. We live in union with the true God—in union with his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and this is eternal life.

24 ...Christ will overcome all spiritual rulers, authorities, and powers, and will hand over the Kingdom to God the Father. 25 For Christ must rule until God defeats all enemies and puts them under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be defeated will be death. 27 For the scripture says, "God put all things under his feet." It is clear, of course, that the words "all things" do not include God himself, who puts all things under Christ. 28 But when all things have been placed under Christ's rule, then he himself, the Son, will place himself under God, who placed all things under him; and God will rule completely over all.

As Jesus was starting on his way again, a man ran up, knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to receive eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone."

God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. (See also an explanation of the correct translation of the Greek text of these verses at http://www.bibletexts.com/versecom/joh01v18.htm.)

No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and his love is made perfect in us. We are sure that we live in union with God and that he lives in union with us, because he has given us his Spirit. And we have seen and tell others that the Father sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. If anyone declares that Jesus is the Son of God, he lives in union with God and God lives in union with him.

We all should readily admit that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, as 1Jo 4:15 insists; we all can gratefully admit that the Son is "the same as God" (Joh 1:18) just as the image in the mirror is the same as the subject in front of the mirror; but there is no biblical basis for having to declare that Jesus is God. (See also an explanation of the correct translation of the Greek text of Joh 1:1 description of "the Logos" as being "the same as God" at http://www.bibletexts.com/versecom/joh01v01.htm.) We, however, do learn from the Scriptures about our own relationship with God -- as the image of God, as Genesis 1:26,27 tells us:

The Holy Spirit

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament refer to God's Spirit, or the Holy Spirit, to represent God's active presence and power. Also Jesus in the Gospel of John (e.g., Joh 14:15-16:15) and Paul in Romans (Rom 8:26-29) both refer to the Holy Spirit as an advocate or defense attorney on our behalf, as the Spirit of truth, as an intercessor. This presence and power of God represents the mind of God. It is not another person with a mind of its own.

More information on the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, may be found at:

What is God? -- as described in the New Testament and other early Christian writings? (listed in alphabetical order)

God is "all in all"

God is Life

God is Love

God is Mind

Athenagoras [writing between 176-180 A.D.] was the first apologist to identify God as Mind (Leg. 10.3). Philo accasionally referred to God in this way, treating him as "active cause, the most pure and unsullied Mind of the universe" (On the Creation of the World 8), but such a doctrine was only one of his interpretations. Athenagoras himself also used the term "Mind" in regard to the Son...

Both Athenagoras and Theophilus [writing in the late 2nd century A.D.] are willing to call the Son or Logos the Mind of the Father (Clement calls the Logos the Son of the Father-Mind).

• Clement of Alexandria (150-215 A.D.) in his Exhortation to the Greeks 10, as found in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Genesis I-II, edited by Andrew Louth and Marco Conti (Downers Grove, IL, USA: InterVarsity Press, 2001, page 29) wrote:\

  For "the image of God" is his Word (and the divine Word, the light who is the archetype of light, is a genuine son of Mind [the Father]); and an image of the Word is the true man, that is, the mind of man, who on this account is said to have been created "in the image" of God and "in his likeness," because through his understanding heart he is made like the divine Word or Reason [Logos], and so rational [logikos]

God is Soul

God is Spirit

God is Truth

Diverse views in early Christianity

Early Christians, even those in the apostolic period of the first century, had far more differences than is generally recognized. They sometimes changed allegiances and parted ways. For example, Paul and Barnabas split up (Gal 2:11-14, or Act 15:36-40?), but they remained as part of the same Christian community, the same church of Christ.

The second chapter of Paul's letter to the Galatians gives clear evidence of differences between three of the most significant people of the apostolic period, Jesus' brother James, Simon Peter, and Paul. Yet on some issues there is evidence that they agreed to disagree and respect each other's differences. Unfortunately over the future decades various Christian individuals and/or groups claimed the high ground of being the sole representatives of authentic Christian orthodoxy. Even worse, in order to articulate the difference between themselves, the self-designated orthodox Christians (which each believed they were) labeled others as part of a "denomination" (the first century meaning of the word "heresy") -- rather than part of the real church -- and removed from their own teachings some of the authentic teachings that their "heretic" brothers and sisters had in their teachings. Each group did this. The result was that no group preserved the entire teaching. Scholars today are trying to piece it back together.

Attempts have been made by brave Christians throughout the centuries to reinstate earliest Christian teachings and practices. This includes Peter Waldo; the Anabaptists and their spinoffs, the original Amish and Mennonites; John Wesley; Barton Stone; Thomas and Alexander Campbell; Edward Pusey; Mary Baker Eddy; and Leo Tolstoy, to name just a few. Below are listed some resources that provide details regarding (1) efforts to reinstate earliest Christianity, including those efforts labeled and persecuted as heresies by opponents, and (2) modern exploration of what actually constituted earliest Christian teachings and practicesaearly Christianand related background info may be found at:

1. History of efforts to reinstate earliest Christianity, including those efforts labeled and persecuted as heresies by opponents

• http://www.bibletexts.com/glossary/heresy.htm
• http://www.bibletexts.com/bibliogr/13the.htm#controversy-issues
• Crimes of Perception: An Encyclopedia of Heresies and Heretics, by Leonard George (NY: Paragon House, 1995)
• Heresies: Heresy and Orthodoxy in the History of the Church, by Harold O.J.Brown (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1988)
• Heretics: The Other Side of Early Christianity, by Gerd Ludemann (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996)
• The New Birth of Christianity: Why Religion Persists in a Scientific Age, by Richard A. Nenneman (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992)
• Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity, 2nd Edition, by Walter Bauer (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1996)
• Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up: A New Look at Today's Evangelical Church in the light of Early Christianity, by David Bercot (Tyler, TX: Scroll Publishing, 1999, especially Chapter 17, "The Quest to Restore Early Christianity")

2. Modern exploration of what historically constituted earliest Christian teachings and practices

• http://www.bibletexts.com/bibliogr/12his-nt.htm
• http://www.bibletexts.com/bibliogr/13the.htm#controversy-issues
• http://www.bibletexts.com/bibliogr/13the.htm#controversy-canon-and-criticism
• http://www.bibletexts.com/bibliogr/13the.htm#controversy-texts
• Backgrounds of Early Christianity, Second Edition, by Everett Ferguson (Grand Rapids, MI; Eerdmans, 1993)
• Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, by Elaine Pagels (NY: Random House, 2003)
• The Birth of Christianity: Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately after the Execution of Jesus, by John Dominic Crossan (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998)
• A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More Than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers, edited by David W. Bercot (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998)
• Early Christians Speak: Faith and Life in the First Three Centuries, Revised Edition - by Everett Ferguson (Abilene, TX: Abilene Christian University Press, 1987)
• The Early Church: Origins to the Dawn of the Middle Ages, by E. Glenn Hinson (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1996)
• Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, Second Edition, edited by Everett Ferguson (NY: Garland Publishing, 1998)
• The Gnostic Gospels, by Elaine Pagels (NY: Random House,1978) - Very interesting and thought-provoking.
• History of Primitive Christianity, by Hans Conzelmann (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1973)
• Introduction to the New Testament, Volume 2: History and Literature of Early Christianity, 2nd Edition - by Helmut Koester (Berlin: Aldine de Gruyter, 2000)
• Lost Christianities: The Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew, by Brad D. Ehrman (NY: Oxford University Press, 2003)
  
• The New Birth of Christianity: Why Religion Persists in a Scientific Age, by Richard A. Nenneman (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992, especially "The Early Church" pages 55-82)
• The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament, by Brad D. Ehrman (NY: Oxford University Press, 1997)
  
• The Rise of Christianity, by W.H.C. Frend (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984)
• When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome, by Richard E. Rubenstein (NY: Harcourt, 1999)
• The Worship of the Early Church, by Ferdinand Hahn (Fortress Press)

Christians of all denominations have much to learn from each other -- more from the spirit of Christ, the spirit of truth and love, to which they bear living testimony, than from their theological reasoning.

The Oxford Companion to the Bible

Edited by Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan (NY: Oxford University Press, 1993, pages 782-283, by Daniel N. Schowalter)

Trinity. Because the Trinity is such an important part of later Christian doctrine, it is striking that the term does not appear in the New Testament. Likewise, the developed concept of three coequal partners in the Godhead found in later creedal formulations cannot be clearly detected within the confines of the canon.

Later believers systematized the diverse references to God, Jesus, and the Spirit found in the New Testament in order fight against heretical tendencies of how the three are related. Elaboration on the concept of a Trinity also serves to defend the church against charges of di- or tritheism. Since the Christians have come to worship Jesus as a god (Pliny, Epistles 96.7), how can they claim to be continuing the monotheistic tradition of the God of Israel? Various answers are suggested, debated, and rejected as heretical, but the idea of a Trinity -- One God subsisting in three persons and one substance -- ultimately prevails.

While the New Testament writers say a great deal about God, Jesus, and the Spirit of each, no New Testament writer expounds on the relationship among the three in the detail that later Christian writers do.

The earliest New Testament evidence for a tripartite formula comes in 2 Corinthians 13.13, where Paul wishes that "the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit" be with the people of Corinth. It is possible that this three-part formula derives from later liturgical usage and was added to the text of 2 Corinthians as it was copied. In support of the authenticity of the passage, however, it must be said that the phrasing is much closer to Paul's understandings of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit than to a more fully developed concept of the Trinity. Jesus, referred to not as Son but as Lord and Christ, is mentioned first and is connected with the central Pauline theme of grace. God is referred to as a source of love, not as father, and the Spirit promotes sharing within the community. The word " holy" does not appear before "spirit" in the earliest manuscript evidence for this passage.

A more familiar formulation is found in Matthew 28:19, where Jesus commands the disciples to go out and baptize "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." The phrasing probably reflects baptismal practice in churches at Matthew's time or later if the line is interpolated. Elsewhere Matthew records a special connection between God the Father and Jesus the Son (e.g., 11.27), but he falls short of claming that Jesus is equal with God (cf. 24.36).

It is John's gospel that suggests the idea of equality between Jesus and God ("I and the Father are one"; 10.30) [but note also Joh 17:20-23]. The Gospel starts the affirmation that in the beginning Jesus as Word (see Logos) "was with God and ... was God" (.1) [but note also alternative translation and explanation], and ends (chap. 21 is most likely a later addition) with Thomas's confession of faith to Jesus, "My Lord and my God!" (20.28) [but note also Joh 20:17]. The Fourth Gospel also elaborates on the role of the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete sent to be an advocate for the believers (John 14:15-26).

For the community of John's gospel, these passages provide assurance of the presence and power of God both in the ministry of Jesus and in the ongoing life of the community. Beyond this immediate context, however, such references raise the question of how Father, Son, and Spirit can be distinct and yet the same. This issue is debated over the following centuries and is only resolved by agreement and exclusion during the christological disputes and creedal councils of the fourth century and beyond.

While there are other New Testament texts where God, Jesus, and the Spirit are referred to in the same passage (e.g., Jude 20-21), it is important to avoid reading the Trinity into places were it does not appear. An example is 1 Peter 1.1-2, in which the salutation is addressed to those who have been chosen "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in holiness of spirit." This reference may be to the holiness of the believers, but translators consistently take it as the Holy Spirit in order to complete the assumed trinitarian character of the verse: "who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sactified by the Spirit" (NRSV). This translation not only imposes later trinitarian perspectives on the text but also diminshes the important use of the spirit of human beings elswhere in 1 Peter (e.g., 3.4, 19)

Harper’s Bible Dictionary

edited by Paul J. Achtemier (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1985)

The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible

edited by George Arthur Buttrick (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1976, Volume 4, page 711)

Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, Second Edition

edited by Everett Ferguson (NY: Garland Publishing 1999, pages 1142, 1147, by Daniel F. Wright)

(You are strongly recommended to add to your library this excellent resource.)

Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, Second Edition,

edited by Everett Ferguson (NY: Garland Publishing 1999, pages 810-812, by Herman J. Vogt)

(You are strongly recommended to add to your library this excellent resource.)