The Old Testament and the Trinity

Adopted from Dr. S. Lewis Johnson’s Lecture entitled

What Is God Like?, or the Being, Names and Attributes of God - I

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The verse that is the banner of Judaism is called the Shema Yisrael - Deuteronomy 6:4:

Shema Yisrael Adonai Elochenu Adonai Echad

This is the verse that our Jewish friends use to stress that God is a unity

Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!

It’s almost as if this text was to refute Christianities Trinity, but you know its striking how it appears in the Hebrew, “The Elohim [Jehovah/LORD in the plural ie Gods] is a unity.” I don’t want to make much of the Elohim in the plural, rather on the word Echad. This word refers to the compound unity of God, not the absolute unity. There is another word in the Hebrew that refers to the absolute unity Yachid.

After all you may talk to a Jewish person that is really open about the Trinity. He may ask you how you can understand the Trinity in light of Deut. 6:4? If he knows Hebrew ask him to turn to Genesis 1:5:

God called the light day, and the darkness He called night And there was evening and there was morning, one [Echad] day.

In other words, the day is composed of both morning and evening , a compound unity.

Now turn to Genesis 2:24, which makes the point even clearer:

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one [Echad] flesh.

In other words the two, who are different, who are their own flesh, are now conceived of as a compound unity in the sight of God. This is what the unity in Deut. 6:4 is referring to, One Lord - a compound unity, like the Father, Son, and Spirit.

To see the other word, Yachid, go to Genesis 22:2. This word, by the way, is never used to refer to God in the Old Testament, not even once!

He said, "Take now your son, your only [Yachid] son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.

Isaac, is one of a kind, an absolute unity. Remember this is never used of God.

Morris Zutral, was a worker among Jews and he once led a rabbi to the Lord using Deut. 6:4, with what I just wrote you. They were really good friends and the rabbi wanted him to read a book on the unity of God. Mr. Zutral said he would very much like to and asked the rabbi what word is used of God’s unity and he said Yachid. However, Mr. Zutral pointed out that, Yachid, was never used of God’s unity, in the Old Testament. The rabbi stopped, thought, and agreed. He then went onto explain Deut. 6:4 and the rabbi saw that implicit in his own text was the plurality in the Deity.

The Old Testament also refers to the Trinity explicitly, but not in the fullness of the New Testament, but nonetheless it is there. Now you may be thinking Genesis 1:26 which says, “Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image,” but this only speaks to the plurality of the Godhead, not His Trinity. But now let us turn to Isaiah 48:12-16 (remember this God who is talking):

12"Listen to Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called;
I am He, I am the first, I am also the last.
13"Surely My hand founded the earth,
And My right hand spread out the heavens;
When I call to them, they stand together.
14"Assemble, all of you, and listen!
Who among them has declared these things?
The LORD loves him; he will carry out His good pleasure on Babylon,
And His arm will be against the Chaldeans.
15"I, even I, have spoken; indeed I have called him,
I have brought him, and He will make his ways successful.
16"Come near to Me, listen to this:
From the first I have not spoken in secret,
From the time it took place, I was there
And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit."

Right here in the text in v.16 there is Trinity in the Deity.

16"Come near to Me [1], listen to this:
From the first I [1] have not spoken in secret,
From the time it took place, I[1] was there
And now the Lord GOD [2] has sent Me [1], and His Spirit [3]."

Remember, the “[1]” is the same person from v. 12 “I am He, I am the first, I am also the last.” [The number designations, are not 1 = Father, 2 = Son, and 3 = Spirit, rather used to denote the 3 Divine persons referred to in this verse.]

Another Excellent Source can be found here:

Jewishness and the Trinity