The New Testament, the Old Testament, and the Trinity

In my last post, I examined how paying close attention to some key Old Testament citations in the Gospel of Mark can help us better understand the theological teachings of Mark’s Gospel.  In this post, I will examine how paying close attention to how the New Testament uses the Old Testament to talk about Jesus can help us better understand the Biblical foundations of the doctrine of the Trinity.  For many Christians, the doctrine of the Trinity is a speculative, esoteric doctrine that has little practical relevance for the Christian life.  The term “trinity,” along with terms used to articulate this concept, such as “substance,” “consubstantial,” and “perichoresis,” appears nowhere in Scripture, leading some Christians to suspect that the doctrine of the Trinity is a product of unwarranted theological speculation.  Given this, it is valuable to take a step back and examine how the doctrine of the Trinity is firmly grounded in what the New Testament has to say about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

The Name of God in Scripture

In the Old Testament, there are a number of generic terms used to refer to the God of Israel, such as El (god), Adonai (Lord), and Elohim (god/gods).  However, the personal Name that the God of Israel reveals to His people is Yahweh.  The Name Yahweh seems to be related to the Hebrew word “to be,” and God’s response to Moses when Moses asks Him His name seems to indicate that the meaning of the Divine Name Yahweh is “I AM” (Exod 3:13-15).  

In the Ten Commandments, God instructed His people, “You shall not misuse the Name of Yahweh your God, for Yahweh will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His Name” (Exod 20:7).  The ancient Israelities took this command very seriously.  In fact, they took it so seriously that at some point, in order to make sure that they would not speak God’s Name irreverently, they stopped reading God’s Name out loud altogether.^[1]Because of this, we can not be totally certain about how the Divine Name is supposed to be pronounced.  Often, it is simply written as YHWH.  However, most scholars believe Yahweh to be the … Continue reading  Whenever they came to the Divine Name Yahweh in the text, they would instead say, Adonai (Lord).^[2]Originally, the texts of the Hebew Scriptures contained only consonants; the vowels and pronunciation were passed along by oral tradition.  Eventually, however, Hebrew scholars added vowel … Continue reading  Most English translations follow this tradition by translating the Divine Name Yahweh  as “the LORD” (with all capital letters).  

By the time the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek (from the 3rd to the 1st century B.C.), the tradition of saying Adonai (Lord) in place of Yahweh when reading the Scriptures was well established.  So, whenever the Jewish translators came across the Divine Name in Hebrew Scriptures, they typically translated it into Greek simply as Kyrios (Lord).  It was this Greek translation of the Old Testament, in which kyrios (Lord) was often a stand-in for the Divine Name Yahweh, that was, for the most part, the Old Testament used and cited by the authors of the New Testament.  So when the writers of the New Testament affirm that Jesus the Messiah is Kyrios (Lord), we must ask, are they merely affirming that Jesus is Lord, or are they affirming that Jesus is Yahweh?  There are at least some passages, in which a New Testament writer applies an Old Testament passage speaking of “the LORD” to Jesus, in which it is clearly the latter which is the case.

The Name of God and New Testament Christology

“A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the LORD; make His paths straight!” (Isa 40:3).  This prophecy from Isaiah promises that the presence of the LORD will one day return to Mount Zion, and God’s relationship with His covenant people will be restored.  All four gospels cite this prophecy of Isaiah and apply it to John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus (Matt 3:1-6; Mark 1:1-8; Luke 3:1-6; John 1:19-23).  The “LORD” in this prophecy of Isaiah is the Divine Name, Yahweh.  If John, the one preparing the way for Jesus, is the one preparing the way for the LORD, then the message is clear: Jesus, in fact, is Yahweh in person who has come to His people.  Jesus is sent by His Heavenly Father, the God of Israel, but at the same time, Jesus Himself is the God of Israel in person.  

In Romans 10:9-13, the apostle Paul writes, “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. . . For ‘everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.’”  The Old Testament Scripture Paul cites here is Joel 2:32: “Then everyone who calls on the Name of the LORD will be saved, for there will be an escape for those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, as the LORD promised, among the survivors the LORD calls.”  Again, the “LORD” in this prophecy is the Divine Name, Yahweh. Here Paul identifies the Christian confession of faith that “Jesus is Lord” with calling on the Name of the LORD (Yahweh).  The message is clear: Jesus, in fact, is Yahweh.  

In Phillipians 2: 5-11, the apostle Paul presents a beautiful (possibly pre-Pauline) hymn about the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus the Messiah.  Jesus, though “existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage.  Instead, He emptied Himself, by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men.  And when He had come as a man in His external form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death–even to death on a cross” (vv. 6-8).  It is important to note here that Paul is not saying that Jesus is a human being who then became God; he is saying that Jesus pre-existed in the “form of God,” as God’s equal, and then took on human existence.  Jesus is obedient to God the Father, so there is a distinction between Him and God the Father, yet at the same time He is God, God made flesh.  

The second half of the hymn then speaks of Christ’s exaltation.  Because Jesus was willing to humble Himself and die on the cross, “God highly exalted Him and gave Him the Name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow–of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth–and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (vv. 9-11).  Here Paul clearly is using Isaiah 45:18-25, in which Yahweh says, “There is no other God but Me, a righteous God and Savior; there is no one except Me. . . Every knee will bow to Me, every tongue will swear allegiance,” and applying it to Jesus.  The “Name that is above every name” should be understood to be, not “Jesus,” but “Yahweh.”  This Divine Name has been given to Jesus, such that every tongue will confess that Jesus the Messiah is LORD (Yahweh).  All this makes sense only if Jesus, though distinct from God the Father, is in fact Yahweh Incarnate.  It should be noted that this passage in Isaiah is one of the most fiercely monotheistic, anti-idolatry, passages in the Old Testament.  Paul, without compromising Jewish monotheism, places Jesus right at the center of it.  

In 1 Corinthians 8:4-6, the apostle Paul, in the midst of affirming Jewish monotheism against pagan idolatry, writes, “For us there is one God, the Father.  All things are from Him, and we exist for Him.  And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ.  All things are through Him, and we exist through Him.”  There are clearly allusions here to Deuteronomy 6:4: “Listen, Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one,” a central Jewish confession of faith.  Paul, in the midst of repudiating polytheism and affirming the Oneness of God, places Jesus at the center of this Jewish monotheisitic confession of faith.  Again, this only makes sense if Jesus, though distinct from God the Father, is in fact Yahweh Incarnate.

The New Testament and the Trinity

There are, of course, many more New Testament passages that provide the foundation for the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.  I have restricted myself in this post to examining some key New Testament passages that use an Old Testament text to talk about Jesus and His relationship with God the Father.  These passages show that the New Testament identifies Jesus with Yahweh, the Old Testament God of Israel.  There is no suggestion that Jesus is another God alongside the God of Israel; in fact, the New Testament affirmation of Jesus’s Divine Identity takes place firmly within the context of an affirmation of Jewish monotheism.  At the same time, we see a distinction made between Jesus the Son of God and God the Father; Jesus is sent by God the Father, becomes human, and submits to His Father’s will, while God the Father sends the Son and does not become human.  An examination of what the New Testament has to say about the Holy Spirit’s relationship with the Father and the Son shows a similar pattern of identity and distinction.  

There is only one God.  That God has revealed Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  And Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct.  This is the foundation of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.  It is not a speculative, esoteric doctrine; it is simply an explication of who God has revealed Himself to be in Scripture.