The Trinity in the Old Testament

Originally posted by islamispeace

people who actually know Hebrew and who are in the position to comment on it.

I can't tell whether you are saying you actually know Hebrew or you are just relying on secondary sources. I can assure you that I certainly know Biblical Hebrew well enough to carry on an intelligent debate on the subject. As a matter of fact I know a total of ten languages (including Koine Greek) so I am perfectly at home vis-a-vis linguistic argumentation.

 

Let me first counter your secondary source with one which I feel sums up the argument very nicely. This comment is specifically on Genesis 1:26a which, for reference reads as follows:

 

ויאמר אלהים נעשה אדם בצלמנו כדמותנו

 

The plural form of the sentence raises the question, With whom took he counsel on this occasion? Was it with himself, and does he here simply use the plural of majesty? Such was not the usual style of monarchs in the ancient East. Pharaoh says, "I have dreamed a dream" Genesis 41:15. Nebuchadnezzar, "I have dreamed" Daniel 2:3. Darius the Mede, "I make a decree" Daniel 6:26. Cyrus, "The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth" Ezra 1:2. Darius, "I make a decree" Ezra 5:8. We have no ground, therefore, for transferring it to the style of the heavenly King. Was it with certain other intelligent beings in existence before man that he took counsel? This supposition cannot be admitted; because the expression "let us make" is an invitation to create, which is an incommunicable attribute of the Eternal One, and because the phrases, "our image, our likeness," when transferred into the third person of narrative, become "his image, the image of God," and thus limit the pronouns to God himself. Does the plurality, then, point to a plurality of attributes in the divine nature? This cannot be, because a plurality of qualities exists in everything, without at all leading to the application of the plural number to the individual, and because such a plurality does not warrant the expression, "let us make." Only a plurality of persons can justify the phrase. Hence, we are forced to conclude that the plural pronoun indicates a plurality of persons or hypostases in the Divine Being.

Barnes notes on the Bible - Gen 1:26

 

And here is my primary argument: If you read the OT in Hebrew, you cannot help but be struck by the fact that God is alternately presented in both the plural and in the singular. Genesis 11:7a is aother example:

 

הבה נרדה ונבלה שם שפתם

 

Thus, the only honest conclusion you can come to when reading the OT in Hebrew is that God is a plurality that is also a singularity. As I have already pointed out, this is perfectly expressed mathematically as:

 

1 + 1 + 1 = 3 - The three members of the Trinity are distinct persons

 

However:

 

1 x 1 x 1 = 1  - The three members of the Trinity are one God

 

Also, as Thomas N points out, numerous examples of three yet oneness can be adduced from the natural realm (additionally, an egg = shell, yoke, white but one egg, water = steam, ice, liquid, etc.). Thus the common Muslim claim that the Trinity is not logical is silly--it can be demonstrated mathematically and in nature and thus is perfectly logical.

 

The Muslim god is only half a god--one but not three. The God of the Bible, OT and NT is both three and one.

 

(I suggest we zero in on the Trinity in the Hebrew Bible and address your additional points about John 1:1 and the Quran afterward).