09.04. The Trinity in the Old Testament

STUDIES IN THEOLOGY (1947AD edition) by LORAINE BOETTNER. TH.M., D.D.

CHAPTER III THE TRINITY 4. The Trinity in the Old Testament In regard to all of the great doctrines of the Bible we find that revelation has been progressive. What is only intimated at first is set forth clearly and fully as time goes on. The obscure hint in the Old Testament is found to coincide perfectly with the fuller revelations in the New. As with our physical eyesight God does not cause the sun to rise with a sudden flash, lest such strong and glorious light should blind us, so He has also borne with our immature spiritual eyesight; He did not at first manifest Himself in the wonderful personality of the Messiah, the sun of Righteousness, and in the personality of the Holy Spirit, but revealed Himself gradually, precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little, until our understanding was prepared to receive the whole truth. Since the doctrine of the Trinity is one which arises out of the completed redemption as it is presented to us in the New Testament and cannot be intelligently comprehended apart from that redemption, we should not expect to find it set forth with any clearness in the Old Testament. And yet, if the doctrine is a vital and necessary part of the Christian system we would expect that at least some foregleams or intimations of it might be given. And this we find actually to be the case.

"The Old Testament," says Dr. Warfield, "may be likened to a chamber richly furnished but dimly lighted; the introduction of light brings into it nothing which was not in it before; but it brings out into clearer view much of what is in it but only dimly or even not at all perceived before. The mystery of the Trinity is not revealed in the Old Testament; but the mystery of the Trinity underlies the Old Testament revelation, and here and there almost comes into view. Thus the Old Testament revelation of God is not corrected by the fuller revelation which follows it, but only perfected, extended and enlarged" (Biblical Doctrines, p. 142). The orderly, progressive way in which these doctrines are revealed, through the successive writings in the sixty-six books and over a period of approximately fifteen hundred years, is one of the strongest arguments for the Divine origin of the Bible. As all that is in the full grown tree was potentially in the seed, so we find that the clearly revealed doctrines of the New Testament were given in rudimentary form in the earliest chapters of Genesis. This is true of doctrines such as those of redemption, the Person and work of the Messiah, the nature of the Holy Spirit, and the future life. But in regard to no other doctrine is this more true than in regard to that of the Trinity. Indirect allusions to the Trinity were permitted by the Holy Spirit who presided over the writing of the books, but there is no reason to believe that the truth was apprehended in any adequate way even by the prophets themselves. The doctrine itself was veiled and held in reserve until the accompanying work of Christ in redemption made it intelligible to the human mind.

Hence the Old Testament emphasizes the unity of God and special care is taken not to aggravate the constant tendency of Israel toward polytheism. A premature revelation of the Trinity might have been a hindrance to religious progress; for the race then, like the child now, needed to learn the unity of God before it could profitably be taught the Trinity. Otherwise it might have fallen into tritheism. Abraham in Chaldea, and the Israelites in Egypt and later in Palestine, needed to be guarded against the almost universal urge toward polytheism. The first and greatest commandment of the Decalogue was directed against polytheism, and the second and next most important was directed against idolatry with its strong tendency toward polytheism. For centuries this was drilled into the consciousness of Israel and established as a primal truth; then at long last a new day dawned, the Messiah came personally to live among and instruct His people, and the Holy Spirit was manifested in power in the early Church. The Church was then ready for the further truth that while God is One, He, nevertheless, exists as three Persons. Even after the New Testament revelation men have found it extremely difficult to state the doctrine of the Trinity without verging on Tritheism on the one hand, or Modalism or Unitarianism on the other.

PLURAL NAMES AND PRONOUNS In Genesis 1:1-31, as well as in many other places, we find that the names of God are in the plural, Elohim, also Adonai; and with these plural forms of the divine name singular verbs and adjectives are usually joined, - a remarkable phenomenon in view of the fact that the Hebrew language also contained the singular term El, meaning God. Along with the plural name, God sometimes uses plural pronouns in referring to Himself: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26-27); "And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil" (spoken of Adam after the fall) (Genesis 3:22); "Come, let us go down, and there confound their language" (at the tower of Babel) (Genesis 11:7); "And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" (Isaiah 6:8). In these verses we have counsel within the Trinity, God speaking with Himself. He is not taking counsel with, nor asking advice of, the angels, as some have suggested; for the angels are not His counsellors, but His servants, and, like man, infinitely below Him in knowledge. In the Divine nature itself, the Bible teaches us, is to be found that plurality of personal powers which polytheism separated and sought to worship in isolation. The words of Moses which are so often quoted by the Jews today, "Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah" (Deuteronomy 6:4), are in the English translation an unmeaning repetition of words, but in the original Hebrew they contain much sound instruction. "Jehovah our Elohim is one Jehovah" the word Elohim being plural shows that God the Lord, in covenant engagement and manner of existence, is more than one, yet is "one Jehovah" as regards essence of being. THE ANGEL OF JEHOVAH

Very important is the fact that, beginning with the book of Genesis and continuing with ever-increasing clearness throughout the remainder of the Old Testament, we find a distinction made between Jehovah and the Angel of Jehovah who presents Himself as one in essence with Jehovah yet distinct from Him. Such an event, in which God assumes the form of an angel or of a man in order to speak visibly and audibly to man, is commonly known as a "theophany." As the revelation is unfolded by the procession of the prophets we find that divine titles and divine worship are given to this Angel and accepted by Him, that He is revealed as an eternal Being, the Mighty God, the Prince of peace, the Adonai, the Lord of David, that He is to be born of a virgin, that He will be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, that He will bear the sin of many, and that he will, above all, set up the kingdom of righteousness which is to increase until it fills the whole earth. These prophecies, as the New Testament makes clear, were fulfilled in Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, who in His Divine-human capacity wrought redemption for His people and who is to rule until all enemies have been placed under His feet. In Genesis 16:7-13 we have an account of a theophany in which the Angel of Jehovah appeared to Hagar out in the wilderness, commanded her to return to her mistress, and promised that He would multiply her seed exceedingly. Now it is clear that no created angel, speaking in his own name, could have claimed such authority. Here we are face to face with God Himself under a different manifestation; and Hagar, realizing this great truth, "called the name of Jehovah that spake unto her, Thou art a God that seeth: for she said, Have I even here looked after him that seeth me?" In Genesis 18:1 to Genesis 19:29 we have a remarkable revelation of God to Abraham with the idea of the Trinity in the background. There we read: "And Jehovah appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre . . . and he looked, and, lo, three men stood over against him ... and when he saw them . . . he bowed himself to the earth, and said, My Lord (not lords), If now I have found favour in thy sight . . . And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. And he (Jehovah) said, I will certainly return unto thee when the season cometh round; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, and well stricken in age. . . . And Sarah laughed within herself. . . . And Jehovah said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh? . . . Is anything too hard for Jehovah?" Although the visitors appear as three men, that is, three persons, Abraham addresses them in the singular, and throughout this passage the singular references to Jehovah and the plural references to the three men are used interchangeably. And after the two "men" had gone on toward Sodom, Jehovah still stands before Abraham who pleads with Him to spare the city. Yet when the two men appear before Lot in Sodom it is Jehovah who speaks to him. "And he (Jehovah) said, Escape for thy life ... And Lot said unto them (plural) ... Let me escape thither (to Zoar). . . . And he (Jehovah) said, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which thou hast spoken." In other words, Jehovah who appeared to Abraham and the three men that Abraham saw apparently were the same, and Jehovah who appeared to Lot and the two men that Lot saw apparently were the same. In Genesis 22:1-19 we have references to God and also to one who is "the angel of Jehovah." In Genesis 22:2 God commands Abraham: "Take now thy son . . . and offer him there for a burnt offering," while in Genesis 22:12 the Angel of Jehovah retracts and nulllifies the command of God, with the words: "Lay not thy hand upon the lad." In Genesis 22:15-18 this angel of Jehovah swears by Himself as Jehovah, saying that He is Jehovah, and gives Abraham the promise of threefold blessing. In Genesis 32:22-32 Jehovah appeared to Jacob under the guise of a mysterious person who wrestled with him all the night. In the morning Jacob realized that he had been face to face with God, and asked for His blessing. He called the name of the place "Peniel," "for," said he, "I have seen God face to face." The Angel of Jehovah appeared to Moses in the burning bush and commissioned him to go back to Egypt and deliver the Israelites. He gave Moses the promise that He would be with them and that He would lead them out (Exodus 3:1-22). In this passage the terms "God" and "Angel of Jehovah" are used interchangeably. A little later God talked with Moses on Mount Sinai and gave him the Ten Commandments. In the New Testament Stephen tells us that it was the Angel who spoke to Moses on the Mount (Acts 7:38), and Paul tells us specifically that Christ was the spiritual "rock" which followed the Israelites throughout their wilderness journey (1 Corinthians 10:4). In Exodus 23:20-23 God, speaking through Moses, promises to send His Angel before the children of Israel to keep them and to bring them into the promised land. In regard to this Angel they were especially warned: "Take ye heed before him, and hearken unto his voice; provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgression: for my name is in him." Here we find that the Angel of Jehovah has power to forgive sins; and this in itself identifies Him with Jehovah, for we are taught that only God can forgive sins. In the New Testament we find that this power and authority belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Deuteronomy 18:18-19 we find a most wonderful prophecy given through Moses. "I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put my words in his mouth. and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." Concerning this prophecy ex-Rabbi Leopold Cohn says:

"Every Jewish scholar will admit that there has not been any other prophet like unto Moses outside of the Lord Jesus, who was even greater than Moses. That this promised future prophet is identical with the Angel of Exodus 23:21 is proven by God’s command to obey Him. In addition to all these previous names and characteristics God calls Him here prophet and tells us that He will be born of a woman and be like one of our brethren. (And) notice, please, the particular punishment for disobeying this wonderful Person. ’I will require it of him.’ That means that in case of Israel’s disobedience to the Messiah, God is going to punish continually until they will repent and obey" (Pamphlet, The Trinity in the Old Testament, p. 8). In Joshua 5:13 to Joshua 6:3 another strange appearance is recorded. "And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? But he said, Nay; but as prince of the host of Jehovah am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? And the prince of Jehovah’s host said unto Joshua, Put off thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. . . . And Jehovah said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thy hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. . . ." This "man," this "prince of Jehovah’s host," whom Joshua discovered to be Jehovah Himself, is quite plainly the promised Angel who was to go before the children of Israel and lead them into the land. In the light of the New Testament this Angel of Jehovah who appeared in Old Testament times, who spoke as Jehovah, exercised His power, received worship and had the authority to forgive sins, can be none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, who comes from the Father (John 16:28), speaks for Him (John 3:34; John 14:24), exercises His power (Matthew 28:18), forgives sin (Matthew 9:2), and receives worship (Matthew 14:33; John 9:38), God the Father has not been seen by any man (John 1:18), neither could He be sent by any other; but God the Son has been seen (1 John 1:1-2), and has been sent (John 5:36). Apart from Christ the puzzling question would be, Who can this mysterious personality be?

Indirect allusions to a complexity of persons within the Godhead are found in numerous other places. Examples are: "Jehovah saith unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool" (Psalms 110:1), a passage which in the New Testament Christ applies to Himself (Mark 12:35-37). "Jehovah said unto me, Thou art my son; This day have I begotten thee" (Psalms 2:7), which Paul tells us was fulfilled in Christ (Acts 13:33). "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever" (Psalms 45:6) ; and the writer of the book of Hebrews tells us that this relates to Christ and His kingdom (Hebrews 1:8). The fact of the matter is that the Old Testament predictions of the coming Messiah, - such as that He should be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), born in Bethlehem of Judea (Micah 5:2), the son of David and heir to his throne (2 Samuel 7:12-16; Isaiah 9:7), that the government should be upon His shoulder, and His name should be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), that He should work miracles in opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, healing the lame, and causing the dumb to speak (Isaiah 35:5-6), that He should be a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, having no special beauty, that He should be a suffering Messiah, wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, our substitute as a sacrifice to God (Isaiah 53:1-12), that He should suddenly come to His temple (Malachi 3:1), that in His official entry into Jerusalem He should come in meekness, riding upon an ass (Zechariah 9:9), etc., - taken in connection with the descriptions of the One known as the Angel of Jehovah, were designed to make it possible for the people to recognize the Lord Jesus Christ at once by comparing these descriptions with His works, and, accepting Him, to receive forgiveness for sins. THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Ordinarily the Old Testament references to the Spirit were so indistinct that they were understood to refer only to an energy or influence which proceeded from God. Nowhere is the Spirit specifically called a person; yet when He is spoken of it is in terms that may properly be applied to a person. As read in the light of the New Testament, however, there are a number of places in which He is seen to be a distinct Person. Examples are: "Who hath directed the Spirit of Jehovah, or being his counsellor hath taught him?" (Isaiah 40:13); "Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them" (Nehemiah 9:20); "My Spirit shall not strive with man for ever" (Genesis 6:3); "Take not thy holy Spirit from me" (Psalms 51:11); "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?" (Psalms 139:7); and in Isaiah 63:7-11 we may say that the Trinity actually comes into view, for here we have a reference to "Jehovah" who is the God of Israel and who bestows great blessings upon His people, to the "angel of his presence" who "was their Saviour," and to the "holy Spirit" who was in their midst and who was "grieved" at their rebellion. Three times He is called the "holy Spirit" (Psalms 51:11; Isaiah 63:10-11). Some theologians have understood the threefold ascription of praise in the seraphim’s song, "Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory" (Isaiah 6:3), with its close parallel in the angelic chorus of Revelation 4:8, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come," as having reference to the Trinity. Certainly the divinely given formula which the priests were to use in blessing the people, "Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee: Jehovah make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace" (Numbers 6:24-26), finds its counterpart with explicit reference to the Trinity in the Apostolic Benediction of the New Testament Church: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Yet it is beyond question that, apart from the New Testament revelation, these intimations of the distinct personalities of the Son and of the Spirit were obscure, - and purposely so, we may say, since the people were not then ready to grasp the meaning of such a revelation. No scholars using the Old Testament alone have ever arrived at a trinitarian conception of God. In fact Jews unite with Mohammedans in accusing Trinitarians of polytheism. At New Testament times those who had been trained under the law, the Pharisees, for instance, appear to have thought of the Spirit of God and the power of God as equivalent terms. But while not fully revealed and not recognized until Pentecost, the Holy Spirit as the executive of the Trinity was from the beginning the sustainer and moulder of the laws of nature, the One who inspired the prophets and who could be sinned against and grieved. In the second verse of the very first chapter in Genesis we read that "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," - the marginal reading says, "was brooding upon."

"Amid the darkness that surrounded the primeval chaos," says Dr. J. Ritchie Smith, "the Spirit of God is discovered, brooding upon the face of the waters, like a bird upon its nest" (The Holy Spirit in the Gospels, p. 34).

Just as electricity was present in nature and played a vitally important part in the lives of men long before they discovered it and learned to make it serve so many wonderful purposes, so the Holy Spirit was living and active as a distinct Person in the Godhead from eternity and moulded the affairs of men without His distinct personality being known to them.

"Even in Genesis 1:1-31," says Dr. Charles Hodge, "the Spirit of God is represented as the source of all intelligence, order, and life in the created universe; and in the following books of the Old Testament He is represented as inspiring the prophets, giving wisdom, strength, and goodness to statesmen and warriors, and to the people of God. This Spirit is not an agency, but an agent, who teaches and selects; who can be sinned against and grieved; and who, in the New Testament, is unmistakably revealed as a distinct person. When John the Baptist appeared, we find him speaking of the Holy Spirit as of a person with whom his countrymen were familiar, as an object of divine worship and the giver of saving blessings. Our Divine Lord also takes this truth for granted, and promises to send the Spirit, as a Paraclete, to take His place; to instruct, comfort, and strengthen them, whom they were to receive and obey. Thus, without any violent transition, the earliest revelations of this mystery were gradually unfolded, until the Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit, appear in the New Testament as the universally recognized God of all believers" (Systematic Theology, I, p. 447).

JEWISH MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE DOCTRINE The Christian doctrine of the Trinity has been generally misunderstood among the Jewish people, with the result that they believe we worship three Gods. To set forth this idea and the reason for its strong hold on the Jewish people to-day we propose to quote rather extensively from the writings of one who is in a position to understand the problem, - from the writings of Ex-Rabbi Leopold Cohn. Says he:

"The reason that the Jews have become estranged from the doctrine of the Triune God is found in the teachings of Moses Maimonides. He compiled thirteen articles of faith which the Jews accepted and incorporated into their liturgy. One of them is ’I believe with a perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His name, is an absolute one’ (Hebrew, ’Yachid’ ) . This has been repeated daily by Jews in their prayers, ever since the twelfth century, when Moses Maimonides lived. This expression of an ’absolute one’ is diametrically opposed to the word of God which teaches with great emphasis that God is not a ’Yachid,’ which means an only one, or an ’absolute one,’ but ’achid,’ which means a united one. In Deuteronomy 6:4 God laid down for His people a principle of faith, which is certainly superior to that of Moses Maimonides, inasmuch as it comes from God Himself. We read, ’Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is ONE,’ stressing the sense of the phrase ’one’ by using not ’yachid,’ which Moses Maimanides does, but ’achid,’ which means a united one.

"We want now to trace where these two words, ’yachid’ and ’achid,’ occur in the Old Testament and in what connection and sense they are used, and thus ascertain their true meaning.

"In Genesis 1:1-31 we read, ’And there was evening and there was morning, one day.’ Here the word ’achid’ is used, which implies that the evening and the morning - two separate objects - are called one, thus showing plainly that the word ’achid’ does not mean an ’absolute one,’ but a united one. Then in Genesis 2:24 we read, ’Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.’ Here too the word ’achid’ is used, furnishing another proof that it means a united one, referring, as it does in this case, to two separate persons.

"Now let us see in the Word of God where that expression ’yachid,’ an ’absolute one,’ is found. In Genesis 22:2 God says to Abraham, ’Take now thy son, thine only son.’ Here we read the word ’yachid.’ The same identical word, ’yachid,’ is repeated in Genesis 22:12. In Psalms 25:16 it is again applied to a single person as also in Jeremiah 6:26, where we read, ’Make thee mourning as for an only son.’ The same word, conveying the sense of one only, occurs in Zechariah 12:10, ’And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son.’

"Thus we see that Moses Maimonides, with all his great wisdom and much learning, made a serious mistake in prescribing for the Jews that confession of faith in which it is stated that God is a ’yachid,’ a statement which is absolutely opposed to the Word of God. And the Jews, in blindly following the so-called ’second Moses’ have once more given evidence of their old proclivities of perverting the Word of the living God. The Holy Spirit made that serious complaint against them through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ’For ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts our God’ (Jeremiah 23:36).

"This is therefore the belief of the true Christian. He does not have three gods, but ’one,’ a Scriptural one, which is in Hebrew ’achid,’ and which consists of three personal revelations of God as we shall see in the following Scriptures.

"In the very first verse of the Bible we find two, manifestations of the Godhead. ’In the beginning God created . . , and the Spirit of God moved.’ Here we see plainly that God taught us to believe that He is the creator of all things and that His Spirit is moving upon this world of ours to lead, guide and instruct us in the way He wants us to walk. So here in the first chapter of the Bible are two manifestations of God.

"It will interest the reader to know that the most sacred Jewish book, the Zohar, comments on Deuteronomy 6:4 - ’Hear O Israel, Jehovah our God, Jehovah is one,’ saying, ’Why is there need of mentioning the name of God three times in this verse?’ Then follows the answer. ’The first Jehovah is the Father above. The second is the stem of Jesse, the Messiah who is to come from the family of Jesse through David. And the third is the way which is below (meaning the Holy Spirit who shows us the way) and these three are one.’ According to the Zohar the Messiah is not only called Jehovah but is a very part of the Triune Jehovah." (The Trinity in the Old Testament, pp. 3, 4).