The Hebrews have never believed in a trinity the way the Western
world does. They have always believed that there is only one God
with a triune nature, and man was created in that image. The
Hebrews have recited the prayer of "sh'ma" (pronounced shma) every
day for centuries now, and it comes in part from Deut. 6:4, "Hear O
Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD." (KJV)
This is the Hebrew text, It reads like this if we substitute our
alphabet for the Hebrew symbols, "sh'ma yisrael YHVH elohénu YHVH
ekhad."
When the Bible translates the word, (elohénu), it simply gives us
"God", "God of us", or "our God". What some people don't know is
that all Hebrew words have numeric and gender specific values. This
word is both masculine and feminine, but more importantly, its
numeric value is three or more. This would seem contradictory to
the word, ekhad, which is translated as "one" unless you know that
ekhad means one by the joining of many, like a rope. So the meaning
of elohénu is, "Our God who is above all gods, three or more in
number, both masculine and feminine, superior in power and might,
by the joining of many becoming greater in strength in unity as
one."
If you take a single strand of rope between your hands and yank
really hard, you can easily brake it. However, if you take three or
more strands and wind them together very tightly, you probably
won't be able to break the rope. The idea of one by the joining of
many is that no part or portion is complete without the other. God
has no body outside of the Son, The Son has no Spirit outside of
the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost has no soul outside the Father.
They are not separated in any way. They are not three, separate or
distinct entities. They are three, separate and distinct facets of
one entity.
In Gen. 2:23-24, Adam says two things that are important for us to
understand. First, the text says, "because she was taken out of
Man." (KJV) Here is the Hebrew, Transliterated into our alphabet it
looks like this, "meish luqakhahzot." The first word, meish, means
"from man or from husband." The words, luqakhahzot, mean "this was
taken out." In other words, everything that makes a woman female
was inside of the man in the first place. God took those things out
of the man, who was created perfect, complete, and whole in the
image of God, then He created a woman. Adam then says, "and they
shall be one flesh." (KJV) They shall be "ekhad" flesh. This word
has absolutely nothing to do with sex in any way. The idea of the
man and woman becoming ekhad is that they are incomplete one
without the other. Simply put, a man is only half a human, and a
woman is only half a human. A man and a woman combining their
thoughts, emotions, passions, wants, needs and desires creates one
whole Adam which means human.
In John 10:30, the Pharisees (Hebrews) asked the Lord to tell them
plainly if He was the Messiah. The Lord didn't answer their
question, instead He said, "ani v'haav ekhad." Translated literally
into English that simply says, "I and the Father are one." To the
Hebrew mind, this was an outrageous and blasphemous thing to say,
because to the Hebrews what the Lord said was, "I am God." "I am
one of the strands that is God. That makes me God.(the flesh)" We
know without a doubt that this is how the Hebrews took the
statement, because in the very next verse, they picked up stones to
kill Him. The punishment for blasphemy was death by stoning.
There is only one God, and He is made up of many strands like a
rope. To split God into three, distinct parts is actually a
simplification of who He is. God is Righteousness, Love, Joy,
Peace, Power, Might, Flesh, Spirit, Soul, Body, etc., all bound
together like the chords of a rope making Him one God, who is
Savior and Lord of all. God does not exist without righteousness
anymore than He exists without His Spirit.
Shalom,
Robert Allon
