Blessed Trinity

The Christendom doctrine of the Trinity (Latin: Trinitas, lit. 'triad', from trinus, "threefold")[1]
holds that God is three consubstantial persons or hypostasesthe Father, the Son (Jesus Christ),
and the Holy Spiritas "one God in three Divine Persons". The three persons are distinct, yet
are one "substance, essence or nature" (homoousios). In this context, a "nature" is what one is,
whereas a "person" is who one is.
According to this central mystery of most Christian faiths, there is only one God in three
persons: while distinct from one another in their relations of origin (as the Fourth Lateran
Council declared, "it is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit
who proceeds") and in their relations with one another, they are stated to be one in all else, coequal, co-eternal and consubstantial, and each is God, whole and entire Accordingly, the whole
work of creation and grace is seen as a single operation common to all three divine persons, in
which each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, so that all things are "from the
Father", "through the Son" and "in the Holy Spirit"
While the Fathers of the Church saw even Old Testament elements such as the appearance of
three men to Abraham in Book of Genesis, chapter 18, as foreshadowings of the Trinity, it was
the New Testament that they saw as a basis for developing the concept of the Trinity. The most
influential of the New Testament texts seen as implying the teaching of the Trinity was Matthew
28:19, which mandated baptizing "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit". However, Eusebius (in book 3 of his Demonstratio Evangelica), states that earlier
versions of Matthew had 'baptize in my name', with no mention of the Trinity. Reflection,
proclamation and dialogue led to the formulation of the doctrine that was felt to correspond to
the data in the Bible. The simplest outline of the doctrine was formulated in the 4th century,
largely in terms of rejection of what was considered not to be consonant with general Christian
belief. Further elaboration continued in the succeeding centuries
Scripture contains neither the word Trinity, nor an expressly formulated doctrine of the Trinity.
Rather, according to the Christian theology, it "bears witness to" the activity of a God who can
only be understood in Trinitarian terms. The doctrine did not take its definitive shape until late in
the fourth century.] During the intervening period, various tentative solutions, some more and
some less satisfactory, were proposed.] Trinitarianism contrasts with nontrinitarian positions
which include Binitarianism (one deity in two persons, or two deities), Unitarianism (one deity in
one person, analogous to Jewish interpretation of the Shema and Muslim belief in Tawhid),
Oneness Pentecostalism or Modalism (one deity manifested in three separate aspects).

One God as three persons

In Trinitarian doctrine, God exists as three persons or hypostases, but is one being, having a
single divine nature. The members of the Trinity are co-equal and co-eternal, one in essence,
nature, power, action, and will. As stated in the Athanasian Creed, the Father is uncreated, the
Son is uncreated, and the Holy Spirit is uncreated, and all three are eternal without
beginning"The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" are not names for different parts of God,
but one name for Godbecause three persons exist in God as one entity. They cannot be separate
from one another. Each person is understood as having the identical essence or nature, not
merely similar natures.
For Trinitarians, emphasis in Genesis 1:26 is on the plurality in the Deity, and in 1:27 on the
unity of the divine Essence. A possible interpretation of Genesis 1:26 is that God's relationships
in the Trinity are mirrored in man by the ideal relationship between husband and wife, two
persons becoming one flesh, as described in Eve's creation later in the next chapter

Biblical background
From the Old Testament the early church retained the conviction that God is one. The New
Testament does not use the word (Trinity) nor explicitly teach the Nicene Trinitarian
doctrine, but it contains several passages that use twofold and threefold patterns to speak of God.
Binitarian passages include Rom. 8:11, 2 Cor. 4:14, Galatians 1:1, Eph. 1:20, 1 Tim. 1:2, 1 Pet.
1:21, and 2 John 1:13. Passages which refer to the Godhead with a threefold pattern include
Matt. 28:19, 1 Cor. 6:11 and 12:4ff., Gal. 3:1114, Heb. 10:29, and 1 Pet. 1:2. These passages
provided the material with which Christians would develop doctrines of the Trinity. Reflection
by early Christians on passages such as the Great Commission: "Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and
Paul the Apostle's blessing: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all",] while at the same time the Jewish Shema Yisrael:
"Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one" led the early Christians to question how the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are "one". Later, the diverse references to God, Jesus, and the Spirit
found in the New Testament were systematized into a Trinityone God subsisting in three
persons and one substanceto combat heretical tendencies of how the three are related and to
defend the church against charges of worshiping two or three gods.
Some scholars dispute the idea that support for the Trinity can be found in the Bible, and argue
that the doctrine is the result of theological interpretations rather than sound exegesis of
scripture. The concept was expressed in early writings from the beginning of the 2nd century

forward, and other scholars hold that the way the New Testament repeatedly speaks of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit is such as to require one to accept a Trinitarian understanding
The Comma Johanneum, 1 John 5:7, is a disputed text which states: "For there are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." However,
this passage is not considered to be part of the genuine text, and most scholars agree that the
phrase was a gloss.

Jesus as God
God in the person of the Son confronts Adam and Eve, by Master Bertram (d. c.1415)
The Gospel of John has been seen as especially aimed at emphasizing Jesus' divinity, presenting
Jesus as the Logos, pre-existent and divine, from its first words, "In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Gospel of John ends with Thomas's
declaration that he believed Jesus was God, "My Lord and my God!" There is no significant
tendency among modern scholars to deny that John 1:1 and John 20:28 identify Jesus with God.
John also portrays Jesus as the agent of creation of the universe.
There are also a few possible biblical supports for the divinity of Jesus found in the Synoptic
Gospels. The Gospel of Matthew, for example, quotes Jesus as saying, "All things have been
handed over to me by my Father." This is similar to John, who wrote that Jesus said, "All that the
Father has is mine." These verses have been quoted to defend the omnipotence of Christ, having
all power, as well as the omniscience of Christ, having all wisdom.
Expressions also in the Pauline epistles have been interpreted as attributing divinity to Jesus.
They include: "For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and
for him" and "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form",and in Paul the
Apostle's claim to have been "sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the
Father".
Some have suggested that John presents a hierarchy when he quotes Jesus as saying, "The Father
is greater than I", a statement which was appealed to by nontrinitarian groups such as Arianism.
[86]
However, Church Fathers such as Augustine of Hippo argued this statement was to be
understood as Jesus speaking in the form of a man

Old Testament parallels

In addition, the Old Testament has also been interpreted as foreshadowing the Trinity, by
referring to God's word, his spirit, and Wisdom, as well as narratives such as the appearance of
the three men to Abraham. However, it is generally agreed among Trinitarian Christian scholars
that it would go beyond the intention and spirit of the Old Testament to correlate these notions
directly with later Trinitarian doctrine.

Some Church Fathers believed that a knowledge of the mystery was granted to the prophets and
saints of the Old Testament, and that they identified the divine messenger of Genesis 16:7,21:17,
31:11, Exodus 3:2 and Wisdom of the sapiential books with the Son, and "the spirit of the Lord"
with the Holy Spirit.] Other Church Fathers, such as Gregory Nazianzen, argued in his Orations
that the revelation was gradual, claiming that the Father was proclaimed in the Old Testament
openly, but the Son only obscurely, because "it was not safe, when the Godhead of the Father
was not yet acknowledged, plainly to proclaim the Son".
Genesis 1819 has been interpreted by Christians as a Trinitarian text. The narrative has the Lord
appearing to Abraham, who was visited by three men. Then in Genesis 19, "the two angels"
visited Lot at Sodom. The interplay between Abraham on the one hand and the Lord/three
men/the two angels on the other was an intriguing text for those who believed in a single God in
three persons. Justin Martyr, and John Calvin similarly, interpreted it such that Abraham was
visited by God, who was accompanied by two angels. Justin supposed that the God who visited
Abraham was distinguishable from the God who remains in the heavens, but was nevertheless
identified as the (monotheistic) God. Justin appropriated the God who visited Abraham to Jesus,
the second person of the Trinity.
Augustine, in contrast, held that the three visitors to Abraham were the three persons of the
Trinity. He saw no indication that the visitors were unequal, as would be the case in Justin's
reading. Then in Genesis 19, two of the visitors were addressed by Lot in the singular: "Lot said
to them, 'Not so, my lord.'" Augustine saw that Lot could address them as one because they had a
single substance, despite the plurality of persons.[
According to Swedenborg, the three angels which appeared to Abraham do represent the Trinity,
but a Trinity of one being: the Divine Itself, the Divine Human and the Divine Proceeding. That
one being is represented is indicated by the fact that they are referred to in the singular as
Jehovah and Lord. The reason why only two of the angels went to visit Sodom and Gomorrah is
that they represent the Divine Human and the Divine Proceeding, and to those aspects of the
Divine belongs judgment, as Jesus declared that all judgment was entrusted by the Father to the
Son. The three angels did indeed appear to Abraham as three men, but they are only a symbolic
representation of the Trinity, which should not be taken literally as three distinct persons. In the
Old Testament, Swedenborg finds the earliest direct reference to a Trine in the Divinity in the
account of Moses' encounter with the Lord in Exodus which states, "And Jehovah passed by
upon his face, and called, Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious."
Some Christians interpret the theophanies or appearances of the Angel of the Lord as revelations
of a person distinct from God, who is nonetheless called God. This interpretation is found in
Christianity as early as Justin Martyr and Melito of Sardis, and reflects ideas that were already
present in Philo. The Old Testament theophanies were thus seen as Christophanies, each a
"preincarnate appearance of the Messiah