02 — The Scriptural Witness

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not stated in the vocabulary of the councils anywhere in Scripture, and the Church has never claimed otherwise. What Scripture contains is the material the councils were defending: a God who acts by his Word and his Spirit, a Son who is worshipped and called God, a Spirit who is sent and who proceeds, and a command to baptize into one threefold name. This section sets out that witness precisely, including where it is contested.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Contents

File Description
the-old-testament-and-the-divine-plurality.md The hermeneutical rule of Luke 24:27, stated first so that nothing here is read as proof-texting; the absolute monotheism that is never surrendered; Genesis 1:26 with the patristic and modern critical readings both given; the three at Mamre and the two patristic exegeses the Church has not decided between; Word, Wisdom (and the Arian use of Proverbs 8:22 LXX), and Spirit; the Angel of the Lord and Augustine’s divergence; the Thrice-Holy
the-new-testament-and-the-baptismal-faith.md The faith as practice before doctrine; Matthew 28:19 and the singular “name,” with the Eusebian text-critical objection set out and answered; the Pauline triadic formulas and their asymmetry; the Son called God and worshipped; the Johannine material on both sides of the fourth-century argument, and John 15:26; and the Johannine Comma, which has no standing and is given up

The Discipline of This Section

Two temptations are refused here. The first is the apologetic habit of presenting Old Testament plurals as though they demonstrated the Trinity to a reader without the Gospel; the Fathers who used those texts did not think they did, and saying so costs nothing. The second is the reverse error of conceding that the New Testament evidence is thin because the technical terms are absent. It is not thin. A practice that every first-century document presupposes — baptism into a threefold name, prayer to the Father through the Son in the Spirit — is older and harder evidence than any formula.

Two texts are handled here against the grain of a good deal of popular Orthodox writing. Genesis 1:26 carries a structured note giving the modern critical reading alongside the patristic one. The Johannine Comma (1 John 5:7) is given up outright: it is absent from the Greek tradition the Church has always used, and the Fathers who fought Arius did not have it. Retaining it would weaken the case it was meant to strengthen.

See Also