Trinity

== New Testament ==
[[File:Andrej Rublëv 001.jpg|thumb|[[Trinity (Andrei Rublev)|Russian icon of the Old Testament Trinity]] by [[Andrei Rublev]], between 1408 and 1425]]
While the developed doctrine of the Trinity is not explicit in the books that constitute the [[New Testament]], the New Testament contains several [[Trinitarian formula]]s, including Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Ephesians 4:4–6, 1 Peter 1:2, and Revelation 1:4–6.{{sfn|Januariy|2013|p=99}}{{sfn|Fee|2002|p=52}} Reflection by early Christians on passages such as the [[Great Commission]]: "Go therefore and make [[Disciple (Christianity)|disciples]] of all nations, [[Baptism|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 in Christianity|love of God]] and the [[Koinonia|fellowship]] of the Holy Spirit be with you all", leading theologians across history in attempting to articulate the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Eventually, the diverse references to God, Jesus, and the Spirit found in the New Testament were brought together to form the concept of the Trinity—one [[Godhead in Christianity|Godhead]] subsisting in three persons and one [[Consubstantiality|substance]]. The concept of the Trinity was used to oppose alternative views of how the three are related and to defend the church against charges of worshiping two or three gods.{{sfn|Metzger|Coogan|1993|pp=782–783}}

===1 John 5:7–8===
Modern Biblical scholarship largely agrees that 1 John 5:7 seen in Latin and Greek texts after the 4th century and found in later translations such as the King James Translation, cannot be found in the oldest Greek and Latin texts. Verse 7 is known as the [[Johannine Comma]], which most scholars agree to be a later addition by a later copyist or what is termed a [[Bible gloss|textual gloss]]{{sfn|Metzger|Ehrman|1968|p=101}} and not part of the original text.{{efn|name=1john5}} This verse reads:
{{blockquote|Because there are three in Heaven that testify – the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit – and these three are one.}}

This verse is absent from the Ethiopic, Aramaic, Syriac, Slavic, Armenian, Georgian, and Arabic translations of the Greek New Testament.

=== Jesus in the New Testament ===
[[File:Meister Bertram von Minden 009.jpg|thumb|God in the person of the Son confronts [[Adam and Eve]], by [[Master Bertram]] (d. c. 1415)]] 
In the [[Pauline epistles]], the public, collective devotional patterns towards Jesus in the early Christian community are reflective of Paul's perspective on the divine status of Jesus in what scholars have termed a "binitarian" pattern or shape of devotional practice (worship) in the New Testament, in which "God" and Jesus are thematized and invoked.{{sfn|Hurtado|2010|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=0aCaqJGgJvAC&q=binitarian+pattern]}} Jesus receives prayer (1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 12:8–9), the presence of Jesus is confessionally invoked by believers (1 Corinthians 16:22; Romans 10:9–13; Philippians 2:10–11), people are baptized in Jesus' name (1 Corinthians 6:11; Romans 6:3), Jesus is the reference in Christian fellowship for a religious ritual meal (the [[Eucharist|Lord's Supper]]; 1 Corinthians 11:17–34).{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|pp=134–152}} Jesus is described as "existing in the very form of God" (Philippians 2:6), and having the "fullness of the Deity [living] in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9). Jesus is also in some verses directly called God (Romans 9:5,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Is Jesus God? (Romans 9:5) |url=https://www.billmounce.com/monday-with-mounce/jesus-god-rom-9-5 |access-date=15 July 2022 |website=billmounce.com |language=en}}</ref> Titus 2:13, 2 Peter 1:1).

The Gospels depict Jesus as human through most of their narrative, but "[o]ne eventually discovers that he is a divine being manifest in flesh, and the point of the texts is in part to make his higher nature known in a kind of intellectual epiphany."{{sfn|Litwa|2019|p=53}} In the Gospels Jesus is described as forgiving sins, leading some theologians to believe Jesus is portrayed as God.<ref>{{Cite book |last=CS Lewis |title=Mere Christianity |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2001 |pages=51–52}}</ref> This is because Jesus forgives sins on the behalf of others, people normally only forgive transgressions against oneself. The teachers of the law next to Jesus recognizes this and said<blockquote>"Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Mark 2:7</blockquote>Jesus also receives {{lang|grc|προσκύνησις}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|[[proskynesis]]}}) in the aftermath of the resurrection, a Greek term that either expresses the contemporary social gesture of bowing to a superior, either on one's knees or in full prostration (in Matthew 18:26 a slave performs {{lang|grc|προσκύνησις}} to his master so that he would not be sold after being unable to pay his debts). The term can also refer to the religious act of devotion towards a deity. While Jesus receives {{lang|grc|προσκύνησις}} a number of times in the [[synoptic Gospels]], only a few can be said to refer to divine worship.{{sfn|Kupp|1996|p=226}}

This includes Matthew 28:16–20, an account of the resurrected Jesus receiving worship from his [[Disciple (Christianity)|disciples]] after proclaiming his authority over the cosmos and his ever-continuing presence with the disciples (forming an inclusion with the beginning of the Gospel, where Jesus is given the name Emmanuel, "God with us," a name that alludes to the God of Israel's ongoing presence with his followers throughout the Old Testament (Genesis 28:15; Deuteronomy 20:1).{{sfn|Hays|2014|pp=44–45}}{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|pp=337–338}} Whereas some have argued that [[Matthew 28:19]] was an interpolation on account of its absence from the first few centuries of early Christian quotations, scholars largely accept the passage as authentic due to its supporting manuscript evidence and that it does appear to be either quoted in the [[Didache]] (7:1–3){{sfn|Ferguson|2009|pp=134–135}} or at least reflected in the Didache as part of a common tradition from which both Matthew and the Didache emerged.{{sfn|Sim|Repschinski|2008|pp=124–125}} Jesus receiving divine worship in the post-resurrection accounts is further mirrored in Luke 24:52.{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|p=345}}{{sfn|Bauckham|2017|pp=516–519}}{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|p=345}} [[Acts of the Apostles|Acts]] depicts the early Christian movement as a public cult centered around Jesus in several passages. In Acts, it is common for individual Christians to "call" upon the name of Jesus (9:14, 21; 22:16), an idea precedented in the Old Testament descriptions of calling on the name of YHWH as a form of prayer. The story of Stephen depicts Stephen invoking and crying out to Jesus in the final moments of his life to receive his spirit (7:59–60). Acts further describes a common ritual practice inducting new members into the early Jesus sect by baptizing them in Jesus' name (2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5).{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|pp=194–206}} According to [[Dale Allison]], Acts depicts the appearances of Jesus to Paul as a divine [[theophany]], styled on and identified with the God responsible for the theophany of [[Ezekiel]] in the Old Testament.{{sfn|Allison |2016|pp=807–826}}

The [[Gospel of John]] has been seen as especially aimed at emphasizing Jesus' divinity, presenting Jesus as the ''[[Logos (Christianity)|Logos]]'', pre-existent and divine, from its first words: "[[John 1:1|In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God]]" (John 1:1).<ref name="bbc-john"/> The Gospel of John ends with Thomas's declaration that he believed Jesus was God, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28).{{sfn|Metzger|Coogan|1993|pp=782–783}} There is no significant tendency among modern scholars to deny that John 1:1 and John 20:28 identify Jesus with God.{{sfn|Brown|1970|pp=1026, 1032}}  However, in a 1973 [[Journal of Biblical Literature]] article, Philip B. Harner, [[Professor Emeritus]] of Religion at [[Heidelberg College]], claimed that the traditional translation of John 1:1c ("and the Word was God") is incorrect. He endorses the [[New English Bible]] translation of John 1:1c, "and what God was, the Word was."<ref>Philip B. Harner, "Qualitative Anarthrous Predicate Nouns: Mark 15:39 and John 1:1", ''[[Journal of Biblical Literature]]'' 92, 1 (March 1973),</ref> It should be noted however that Harner claim has been criticized by other scholars.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://bible.org/article/revisiting-colwell-construction-light-masscount-nouns |title=Revisiting the Colwell Construction in Light of Mass/Count Nouns|last=Hartley |first=Donald|website=bible.org |access-date= 1 November 2022}}</ref> In the same article, Harner also noted that; "Perhaps the clause could be translated, 'the Word had the same nature as God". This would be one way of representing John's thought, which is, as I understand it, that the logos, no less than the theos, had the nature of theos," which in his case means the Word is as fully God as the person called "God".<ref>{{cite journal|author=Philip B. Harner|date=March 1973|title=Qualitative Anarthrous Predicate Nouns: Mark 15:39 and John 1:1|journal=Journal of Biblical Literature|publisher=The Society of Biblical Literature|volume=92|issue=1|pages=75–87|doi=10.2307/3262756|jstor=3262756}}</ref><ref name="Rhodes">Rhodes, Ron. "Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah's Witnesses" Harvest House Publishers, 2009, p. 104-105.</ref> John also portrays Jesus as the agent of creation of the universe.{{sfn|Hoskyns|1967|p=142}}

====Jesus in later Christian theology====
Some have suggested that John presents a hierarchy{{sfn|Clarke|1900|pp=161ff.}}{{sfn|Polkinghorne|2008|pp=395–396}} when he quotes Jesus as saying, "The Father is greater than I", a statement which was appealed to by [[Nontrinitarianism|nontrinitarian]] groups such as [[Arianism]].{{sfn|Simonetti|Oden|2002|p=}} However, Church Fathers such as [[Augustine of Hippo]] and [[Thomas Aquinas]] argued this statement was to be understood as Jesus speaking about his human nature.<ref name="de-trinitate1"/><ref name="dhspriory.org">{{cite book |last1=Aquinas |first1=Thomas |title=Summa Contra Gentiles Book Four Chapter 8 |url=https://dhspriory.org/thomas/ContraGentiles4.htm#8 |access-date=11 January 2019 |archive-date=28 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180728185342/http://dhspriory.org/thomas/ContraGentiles4.htm#8 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Holy Spirit in the New Testament ===
Prior Israelite theology held that the Spirit is merely the divine presence of God himself,{{sfn|Goodman|Blumberg|2002|p=36}} whereas [[Orthodoxy|orthodox]] [[Christian theology]] holds that the Holy Spirit is a distinct person of God the Father himself. This development begins early in the New Testament, as the Spirit of God receives much more emphasis and description comparably than it had in earlier Jewish writing. Whereas there are 75 references to the Spirit within the [[Old Testament]] and 35 identified in the non-biblical [[Dead Sea Scrolls]], the New Testament, despite its significantly shorter length, mentions the Spirit 275 times. In addition to its larger emphasis and importance placed on the Spirit in the New Testament, the Spirit is also described in much more personalized and individualized terms than earlier.{{sfn|Hurtado|2018|p=62}} [[Larry Hurtado]] writes;
{{blockquote|Moreover, the New Testament references often portray actions that seem to give the Spirit an intensely personal quality, probably more so than in Old Testament or ancient Jewish texts. So, for example, the Spirit "drove" Jesus into the wilderness (Mk 1:12; compare "led" in Mt. 4:1/Lk 4:1), and Paul refers to the Spirit interceding for believers (Romans 8:26–27) and witnessing to believers about their filial status with God (Romans 8:14–16). To cite other examples of this, in Acts the Spirit alerts Peter to the arrival of visitors from Cornelius (10:19), directs the church in Antioch to send forth Barnabas and Saul (13:2–4), guides the Jerusalem council to a decision about Gentile converts (15:28), at one point forbids Paul to missionize in Asia (16:6), and at another point warns Paul (via prophetic oracles) of trouble ahead in Jerusalem (21:11).{{sfn|Hurtado|2018|p=62}} }}

The Holy Spirit is described as God in the book of the [[Acts of the Apostles]]<blockquote>But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God". Acts 5:3–4</blockquote>Peter first says Ananias is lying to the Holy Spirit, he then says he is lying to God.

In the New Testament, the Spirit is not portrayed as the recipient of [[Cult (religious practice)|cultic]] devotion, which instead, is typically offered to God the Father and to the risen/glorified Jesus. Although what became mainstream Christianity subsequently affirmed the propriety of including the Spirit as the recipient of worship as reflected in the developed form of the [[Nicene Creed]], perhaps the closest to this in the New Testament is in Matthew 28:19 and 2 Corinthians 13:14 which describe the Spirit as the subject of religious ritual.{{sfn|Hurtado|2018|p=64}}

====Holy Spirit in later Christian theology====
As the [[Arian controversy]] was dissipating, the debate moved from the deity of Jesus Christ to the equality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and Son. On one hand, the [[Pneumatomachi]] sect declared that the Holy Spirit was an inferior person to the Father and Son. On the other hand, the [[Cappadocian Fathers]] argued that the Holy Spirit was equal to the Father and Son in nature or substance.

Although the main text used in defense of the deity of the Holy Spirit was Matthew 28:19, Cappadocian Fathers such as [[Basil the Great]] argued from other verses such as "But Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.{{' "}} (Acts 5:3–4).

Another passage the Cappadocian Fathers quoted from was "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host" (Psalm 33:6). According to their understanding, because "breath" and "spirit" in Hebrew are both "רוּחַ" ("ruach"), Psalm 33:6 is revealing the roles of the Son and Holy Spirit as co-creators. And since, according to them,{{sfn|Basil of Caesarea|1980|loc=Ch. 16}} because only the holy God can create holy beings such as the angels, the Son and Holy Spirit must be God.

Yet another argument from the Cappadocian Fathers to prove that the Holy Spirit is of the same nature as the Father and Son comes from "For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:11). They reasoned that this passage proves that the Holy Spirit has the same relationship to God as the spirit within us has to us.{{sfn|Basil of Caesarea|1980|loc=Ch. 16}}

The Cappadocian Fathers also quoted, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16) and reasoned that it would be blasphemous for an inferior being to take up residence in a temple of God, thus proving that the Holy Spirit is equal with the Father and the Son.{{sfn|Basil of Caesarea|1980|loc=Ch. 19}}

They also combined "the servant does not know what his master is doing" (John 15:15) with 1 Corinthians 2:11 in an attempt to show that the Holy Spirit is not the slave of God, and therefore his equal.{{sfn|Basil of Caesarea|1980|loc=Ch. 21}}

The Pneumatomachi contradicted the Cappadocian Fathers by quoting, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14) in effect arguing that the Holy Spirit is no different from other created angelic spirits.{{sfn|Arendzen|1911}} The Church Fathers disagreed, saying that the Holy Spirit is greater than the angels, since the Holy Spirit is the one who grants the foreknowledge for prophecy (1 Corinthians 12:8–10) so that the angels could announce events to come.{{sfn|Basil of Caesarea|1980|loc=Ch. 16}}