Nontrinitarianism

==Arguments for the pagan origins of the Trinity==
{{More citations needed section|date=November 2010}}
[[File:Egypte louvre 066.jpg|thumb|150px|Horus, Osiris, and Isis]]
[[File:Autel tricephale MuseeStRemi Reims 1131a.jpg|thumb|150px|Altar depicting a tricephalic god identified as [[Lugus]]]]

Some nontrinitarians also say that a link between the doctrine of the Trinity and the Egyptian Christian theologians of [[Alexandria]] suggests that Alexandrian theology, with its strong emphasis on the deity of Jesus, served to infuse Egypt's pagan religious heritage into Christianity. They accuse the Church of adopting these Egyptian tenets after adapting them to Christian thinking by means of Greek philosophy.<ref>'At times he forms one of a trinity in unity, with Ra and Osiris, as in Fig. 87, a god with the two sceptres of Osiris, the hawk's head of Horus, and the sun of Ra. This is the god described to Eusebius, who tells us that when the oracle was consulted about the divine nature, by those who wished to understand this complicated mythology, it had answered, "I am Apollo and Lord and Bacchus," or, to use the Egyptian names, "I am Ra and Horus and Osiris." Another god, in the form of a porcelain idol to be worn as a charm, shows us Horus as one of a trinity in unity, in name, at least, agreeing with that afterwards adopted by the Christians—namely, the Great God, the Son God, and the Spirit God.'—[[Samuel Sharpe (scholar)|Samuel Sharpe]], [https://archive.org/details/egyptianmytholo01shargoog <!-- quote="Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity". --> ''Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity''], 1863, pp. 89–90.</ref>

They say the development of the idea of a co-equal triune godhead was based on pagan Greek and Platonic influence, including many basic concepts from [[Aristotelianism|Aristotelian]] philosophy incorporated into the biblical God. As an example, they mention that [[Aristotle]] stated: "All things are three, and thrice is all: and let us use this number in the worship of the gods; for, as [[Pythagoreans]] say, everything and all things are bound by threes, for the end, the middle, and the beginning have this number in everything, and these compose the number of the Trinity."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ucg.org/booklet/god-trinity/how-ancient-trinitarian-gods-influenced-adoption-trinity/|title=How Ancient Trinitarian Gods Influenced Adoption of the Trinity|work=United Church of God|access-date=5 March 2015|date=2011-07-22}}</ref><ref>Michael Barber – [https://books.google.com/books?id=u5hkIwXJVxoC&dq=All+things+are+three%2C+and+thrice+is+all%3A+and+let+us+use+this+number+in+the+worship+of+the+gods%3B+for%2C+as+Pythagoreans+say%2C+everything+and+all+things+are+bound+by+threes%2C+for+the+end%2C+the+middle%2C+and+the+beginning+have+this+number+in+everything%2C+and+these+compose+the+number+of+the+Trinity.&pg=PA78 Should Christianity Abandon the Doctrine of the Trinity?] – Universal-Publishers, Nov 1, 2006 – Part Three, p. 78.</ref> However, Trinitarians have argued that the words attributed to Aristotle differ in a number of ways from what has been published as the philosopher's original text in [[Greek language|Greek]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%A0%CE%B5%CF%81%CE%AF_%CE%9F%CF%85%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%BF%CF%8D/1#.CE.9A.CE.B5.CF.86.CE.AC.CE.BB.CE.B1.CE.B9.CE.BF_1|title=Περί Ουρανού/1|access-date=5 March 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/philosophes/Aristote/ciel1gr.htm|title=Aristote: Traité du Ciel (livre I – texte grec)|access-date=5 March 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/95303712/Aristotle-Opera-I-Bekker-v2-Greek-De-Caelo-Libri-IV |title=Bekker edition of Aristotle's works, volume II, p. 211 |access-date=2017-09-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140827163240/http://www.scribd.com/doc/95303712/Aristotle-Opera-I-Bekker-v2-Greek-De-Caelo-Libri-IV |archive-date=2014-08-27 }}</ref> which omits "let us use this number in the worship of the gods", and are not supported by translations of the works of Aristotle by scholars such as Stuart Leggatt, [[W. K. C. Guthrie]], J.{{nbsp}}L. Stocks, [[Thomas Taylor (neoplatonist)|Thomas Taylor]] and [[Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire]].<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Review|journal=The Philosophical Review|volume=108|issue=2|pages=285–287|jstor = 2998305|last1=McKirahan|first1=Richard D.|year=1999|doi=10.2307/2998305}}</ref>

Some anti-trinitarians note also that the Greek philosopher Plato believed in a special "threeness" in life and in the universe. In ''Phaedo'', he introduces the word "triad" (in Greek τριάς),<ref>''Phaedo'' 104e.</ref> which is rendered in English as "trinity". This was adopted by 3rd and 4th{{nbsp}}century professed Christians as roughly corresponding to "Father, Word, and Spirit (Soul)".<ref>Course of Ideas, pp. 387–388.</ref> Nontrinitarian Christians contend that such notions and adoptions make the Trinity doctrine extra-biblical.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} They{{who|date=May 2017}} say there is a widely acknowledged synthesis of Christianity with [[Platonism|Platonic]] [[philosophy]] evident in trinitarian formulas appearing by the end of the 3rd{{nbsp}}century. They allege that beginning with the Constantinian period, these pagan ideas were forcibly imposed on the churches as Catholic doctrine. Most groups subscribing to the theory of a [[Great Apostasy]] generally concur in this thesis.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}

The early apologists, including [[Justin Martyr]], [[Tertullian]] and [[Irenaeus]], frequently discussed the parallels and contrasts between Christianity, Paganism and other [[syncretism|syncretic religions]], and answered charges of borrowing from paganism in their [[Christian apologetics|apologetical]] writings.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}

===Hellenic influences===
{{see also|Hellenization}}
Stuart G Hall (formerly Professor of Ecclesiastical History at King's College, London) describes the subsequent process of philosophical/theological amalgamation in ''Doctrine and Practice in the Early Church'' (1991), where he writes:
{{blockquote|The apologists began to claim that Greek culture pointed to and was consummated in the Christian message, just as the Old Testament was. This process was done most thoroughly in the synthesis of Clement of Alexandria. It can be done in several ways. You can rake through Greek literature, and find (especially in the oldest seers and poets) references to 'God' which are more compatible with monotheism than with polytheism (so at length Athenagoras.) You can work out a common chronology between the legends of prehistoric (Homer) Greece and the biblical record (so Theophilus.) You can adapt a piece of pre-Christian Jewish apologetic, which claimed that Plato and other [[Greek philosophers]] got their best ideas indirectly from the teachings of Moses in the Bible, which was much earlier. This theory combines the advantage of making out the Greeks to be plagiarists (and therefore second-rate or criminal), while claiming that they support Christianity by their arguments at least some of the time. Especially this applied to the question of God.<ref>Stuart George Hall (1992). ''Doctrine and Practice in the Early Church''. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 50. {{ISBN|0-8028-0629-5}}</ref>}}

The [[neo-Platonic]] trinities, such as that of [[Neoplatonism#The One|the One]], the [[Nous]] and the [[Plato's theory of soul|Soul]], are not considered a trinity necessarily of consubstantial equals as in mainstream Christianity. However, the neo-Platonic trinity has the doctrine of emanation, or "eternal derivation", a timeless procedure of generation having as a source the One and claimed to be paralleled with the generation of the light from the Sun. This was adopted by Origen and later on by Athanasius, and applied to the generation of the Son from the Father, because they believed that this analogy could be used to support the notion that the Father, as immutable, always had been a Father, and that the generation of the Son is therefore eternal and timeless.<ref>''Select Treatises of St. Athanasius'' – In Controversy With the Arians – Freely Translated by John Henry Cardinal Newmann – Longmans, Green, and Co., 1911</ref>

The synthesis of Christianity with [[Platonism|Platonic]] philosophy was further incorporated in the trinitarian formulas that appeared by the end of the 3rd century. "The Greek philosophical theology" was "developed during the Trinitarian controversies over the relationships among the persons of the Godhead".<ref>A. Hilary Armstrong, Henry J. Blumenthal, Platonism. ''Encyclopædia Britannica.'' Retrieved May 13, 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD.</ref> The allegation of borrowing was raised by some disputants when the Nicene doctrine was being formalized and adopted by the bishops. For example, in the 4th&nbsp;century, [[Marcellus of Ancyra]], who taught the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were one person (hypostasis), said in his ''On the Holy Church, 9'':{{blockquote|Now with the heresy of the Ariomaniacs, which has corrupted the Church of God&nbsp;... These then teach three hypostases, just as [[Valentinus (Gnostic)|Valentinus]] the heresiarch first invented in the book entitled by him 'On the Three Natures'. For he was the first to invent three hypostases and three persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he is discovered to have filched this from [[Hermes Trismegistus|Hermes]] and [[Plato]]."<ref>Logan A. Marcellus of Ancyra (Pseudo-Anthimus), 'On the Holy Church': Text, Translation and Commentary. Verses 8–9. Journal of Theological Studies, NS, Volume&nbsp;51, Pt.&nbsp;1, April 2000, p. 95.</ref>}}

In his Introduction to the 1964 book ''[[Meditations]]'', the Anglican priest Maxwell Staniforth discussed the profound influence of [[Stoicism|Stoic philosophy]] on Christianity. In particular:
<blockquote>Again in the doctrine of the Trinity, the ecclesiastical conception of Father, Word, and Spirit finds its germ in the different Stoic names of the Divine Unity. Thus [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]], writing of the supreme Power which shapes the universe, states, 'This Power we sometimes call the All-ruling God, sometimes the incorporeal Wisdom, sometimes the holy Spirit, sometimes Destiny.' The Church had only to reject the last of these terms to arrive at its own acceptable definition of the Divine Nature; while the further assertion 'these three are One', which the modern mind finds paradoxical, was no more than commonplace to those familiar with Stoic notions.<ref>{{cite book |last=Aurelius |first=Marcus |author-link=Marcus Aurelius| title=Meditations |url=https://archive.org/details/meditations0000marc_m9z0 |url-access=registration |year=1964 |location=London |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |page=25 |isbn=978-0-14-044140-6}}</ref></blockquote>