Where is the Trinity?

When discussing Baptism recently it was noted that we would use a form of words widely heard throughout Church services, that of the Trinity: Father God, Jesus, the son of God, and the Holy Spirit. Who is this God is a topic for those interested in interfaith matters as well. But where is the Trinity phrase in the Bible?

What really we actually referring to?

First let us focus upon what we actually mean here. If we are talking of the Father God, Jesus, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit, then we are referring to three distinct beings, or three facets or just one person? Herein lies the problem.

New Testament

So where is the Trinity? In the New Testament there are a few verses which relate to the three : Father, Son and Holy Ghost/Spirit. These verses are as follows.

1 Cor 12:4-6, which speaks different gifts as to the Spirit, ministries as to the Lord, and operations to God – “all things in all”;

2 Cor 13:14, which relate to ‘The Grace’;

Ephesians 4:4-6, which speaks one body, one Spirit, One Lord, One faith, One Baptism, One God and Father of all;

1 Peter 1:2, which says “who have been chosen by God, sanctified by the Spirit and obedient to Jesus”; and

Matthew 28:19, which speaks of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – but no mention of 3 in 1.

It gets more complicated in the beautifully but metaphorical Gospel according to John, John 14:17, where the Father is linked to the Advocate and ourselves, and Jesus will be with us. They called this Perichoresis – the origin of the word choreography. {We sought to include the word perichoresis in every essay in training, regardless the context.}

History

So when the four Gospels (in our Bible) were being written, by the end of the 1st Century, some theologians were wrestling with the nature of God. In the Didache (a teaching manual) and in the writing of Ignatius of Antioch we see the combination of the Christ, Father and Holy Spirit. Trinity was introduced as a term in the late 2nd C by Theophilus of Antioch. (The name Theophilus means God lover, and a name to which Luke directed his Gospel.)

By the early 3rd C there were differences rising up. Sabellius taught that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were really essentially the same, just described verbally different. Not everyone agreed, so he was excommunicated for his trouble in 322AD. The crime was deemed to be heresy.

Creeds or a Set of Beliefs

By 325 AD, Emperor Constantine, desperate for peace across the Empire, brought together Bishops from near and afar to Nicaea. Here they thrashed out the Nicene Creed. The key phrase being “Christ being of one substance with the Father..and the Holy Ghost as one incarnate of the Virgin Mary”. It might not look much to us, but in the lingua franca of the day, the word substance or homoousia defined the whole issue : three persons, one being. The word persons, then, refers, as in theatre, to faces seen. Is that the Trinity? Where is the Trinity?

By 381 AD, at the Council of Constantinople, they moved towards the Nicene-Constantinople Creed. This agreed that the “Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father, with the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified“. There is a linkage between all three now being established and confirmed.

The Cappodocian Fathers (Basil and the two Gregory’s) brought further understanding to its current form at the end of the 4th C. All seems well.

By the end of the 6th C the word Filioque was added “and of the son”. This denoted procession of the Holy Spirit from Jesus – hence linking of the two. This seemingly inconsequential addition resulted in the Great Schism in 1054. Oops.

Where has that got us?

Well, we still haven’t seen it in the Bible as Trinity yet, or a firm linkage in Scripture. Here we need to turn to the Complutensian Polyglot. Yes, This was to be an edition of the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation. Here the text of the Bible would be given in different ancient languages in parallel columns. The Hebrew Scriptures (called by some the Old Testament), for example, was given in three columns: Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. The Roman Catholic Church funded this 6 volume blockbuster. Volume 5 is the one of interest to us, as it contained the New Testament. Completed in 1517, it was eventually published in 1522, but was beaten to the finish line by the humanist Erasmus.

Erasmus

The problem was Erasmus didn’t have all of the latest Greek Manuscripts to hand…but he did have some Latin manuscripts. So despite this was to be the first printed Bible translated from the original Greek, he started to look at some Latin translations. Sadly he didn’t just use the Latin Vulgate, but one of his own translations. The final edition was released in 1516.

Erasmus‘ great issue was with 1 John 5:7-8 – where the Trinity is explicitly stated. He didn’t have the latest Greek translation for this passage.

In the Latin version it would read: “There are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and these three are one; and there are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, the water and the blood, and these three are one.” Is this the answer to where is the Trinity?

In the latest Greek version Erasmus held, it read: “There are three that bear witness: the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three are one.” – where was the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

Erasmus was charged with ‘tampering with the text’. So he agreed to change his version if a Greek manuscript was provided to him. One manuscript duly arrived and he changed it. Some scholars believe that the manuscript was a Greek translation of the Latin above. Not exactly an original Greek Translation.

This information was obtained through the Ehrman post on the Trinity. There are arguments against this story, by de Jong in 1980.

I repeat Where has that got us?

The Trinity is not explicitly in the New Testament. The doctrine of the Trinity has grown, developed and become understood as the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. As we grown in our understanding of God – just contrast the Hebrew Scriptures with the New Testament depictions of God – we seek to provide more clarity about God. Here is just one example, that the Trinity has taken on huge significance to many people, and to our Church. We see the three in one in Creeds and in the baptismal service….or is it that we see the description of the Father, Son and the Spirit used?

Bottom line (or nearly). How do we not only see God, Jesus and the Spirit, but know of God? It is that dance of God, Jesus and the Spirit that we see God at work.

Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Priest of cac.org, writes that the Trinity is knowing God on a : Transpersonal level, as Father (or Mother); the Personal level as Jesus; and the Impersonal level as the Spirit” – it is “the radical relatedness, a perfect communion between all three”.

Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance (London: SPCK, 2016), p27, 82.
My addition of the Mother.