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The Trinity

by "Richard Young"

These notes briefly comment on the idea of Jesus being God in human flesh and the idea of the trinity (the One God consisting of three persons).

The unique thing about Jesus is that he was fully man and fully God. That is, He is God come in the flesh. So, just as the tabernacle was the place where God dwelt among the Israelis so was Jesus. That is why John wrote:

"And the Word [i.e., God - see John 1:1] became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14).

In the Old Testament we see God clothe Himself in a cloud, a pillar of fire (see Ex 13:21), and as a man when He appeared to Abraham (see Gen 18). [Jesus was tempted but without sin, His death was because He was punished for our sins which were put upon Him, I'll not dwell on this aspect of the incarnation but go into the main idea of the trinity].

The concept of the "trinity" is that God consists of three persons who are one in being and nature. The concept of the "trinity" is not something that one just reads a verse or two and says "so there it is!" The word itself is not a translation of any word or phrase found in the Bible. The concept is derived and "falls out" of the evidence. Without Jesus' revelation when He was on earth I would say that the idea of the trinity would be difficult to determine from the Hebrew Scriptures, for after all, Deuteronomy 6:4 states "the LORD is one." But, because of Jesus, we are forced to re-examine our first impression understanding of this statement. Here are the pieces:

(1) Jesus speaks to the Father in the second person. Jesus refers to the Father and the Holy Spirit in the third person. Jesus refers to His will being distinct from His Father's "not my will but yours be done."

(2) The Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all referred to as God. Each is described as deserving of worship by us something only God Himself is worthy of.

(3) The Scriptures clearly teach that "the LORD is one" and that there are "none besides Him."

From these pieces the idea of God's nature being more complex than we would have imagined emerges. The question then needs to be addressed as to exactly what "one" means in Deuteronomy 6:4. Consider what Jesus said about His relationship to the Father. Jesus said that He and the Father were one (see John 17:22). Jesus wants us to be one as He is one with the Father. Further, when God created man and woman He desired that they be united as "one flesh" (Gen 2:24). This could not simply be a reference to the bearing of children, which are in a sense, a one flesh result of their union. It must refer to the marriage itself, for certainly they were "one flesh" before they bore any children. This concept of "one" then does not then refer to a uniform or homogeneous state of being; men and women are very different (despite what some feminists would have you believe) and the members of the body of Christ are also very different. Individuals who are united in marriage do not lose their individual traits, such as their own thoughts, emotions, etc. And a married couple does not have the same blood type after they were married if their blood types were different before they were married. If the members of the body of Christ were to become a "uniform and homogeneous" being then we each would lose our identity as "self" and what would emerge would be something akin to an eastern religious "cosmic consciousness." The "oneness" must refer not to a homogeneous singularity. The oneness of the marriage and the body of Christ are reflective of the nature of God Himself.

What exactly does "oneness" then mean? The Hebrew word used for God as one "echad." Echad can mean one as in "one goat," "one day," "one stone," etc. However, it can also refer to a plural unity such as in a composite whole. For example, in Num 13:23 echad refers to a cluster of grapes. And in Gen 11:6 those who built the tower of Babel are referred to as "one people." When we refer to a person we know that the "one" person consists of several distinct components (emotions, thoughts, hands, heart, liver, etc.). Yet we all understand all of these parts constitute "one person." Echad was the word to describe the "one flesh" of marriage (Gen 2:24). Since God is referred to as "echad" in the same way as man and woman are referred to as "echad" this heavily implies that the oneness of marriage reflects the oneness of God. We also see echad used very intensely in Ezekiel 37:15-28 in the prophecy of the "two sticks" of Israel and Judah becoming one. In that prophecy we have a representative picture and the actuality. Examine the passage carefully and you will see that the intent of the two sticks is to be a picture that Ezekiel first shows to the captive Jews in Babylon. The idea is that they would remember this message as they go about their daily activities and would pick up sticks (for building cooking fires, for example) and be reminded of this promise of God and have hope. In Ezek 37:17 the sticks don't fuse together into a single stick. It appears that this was representative of the reality of what happens in God's hand in Ezek 37:19. Even then, Judah and Israel contain distinct tribes (after all, one must know who the Levites are for priests and who the tribe of Judah is from which the Messiah will come). So the oneness of the two sticks in Ezekiel's hand obviously is a representative oneness and echad in Ezek 37:17 could be easily translated as "united." But, nevertheless, the oneness of Israel and Judah still consists of many individuals from twelve distinct tribes. The individuals do not become a homogeneous consciousness or a physical singularity of any sort. We are dealing on a spiritual level of oneness, which is reflective of God's nature. The "oneness: we observe in marriage and the other examples are shadows of the reality of the oneness within God.

Now the true nature of God's oneness we can only describe by how it appears to us from what Jesus said and did. The best words we have to describe the members of the trinity seem to be as "persons."

What doth it profit thee to enter into deep discussions concerning the Holy Trinity, if thou lack humility, and be thus displeasing to the Trinity? For verily it is not deep words that make a man holy and upright; it is a good life which maketh a man dear to God. I had rather feel contrition than be skillful in the definition thereof. If thou knewest the whole Bible, and the sayings of all the philosophers, what should this profit thee without the love and grace of God? --Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ

Notes on the Trinity

by Helen Fryman Setterfield (bhs4light@sbcglobal.net)

The concept of the Trinity is present from the opening verse of the Bible, actually. The word "God" in Genesis 1:1 is "elohim." This is not a simple plural of the word 'god.' The plural of that word, which means 'two,' is "eloh." "Elohim" means "three or more."

In Deuteronomy 6:4, we have the resounding,

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

"God" is, there again, "Elohim." What is also interesting is that the last word of that, the word "one" is the word "echad." "Echad" means unity in plurality. It is the same word used regarding marriage in Genesis. 2:24, when a man is to leave his mother and father and become one with his wife. The word which is NOT used there to mean "one" is "yachid." "Yachid" means a unique singularity.

Now go to Isaiah 9 -- the famous Christmas verse:

"For unto us a child is born
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace."

Now go to Isaiah 44:6 --

"This is what the LORD says -- Israel's King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty:
I am the first and I am the last;
Apart from me there is no God."

Please cross reference this with Jesus' words to John in Revelation 1:17-18 --

"Do not be afraid.
I am the First and the Last.
I am the Living One.
I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever."

Check the Gospel of John, opening sentences, opening chapter:

"In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. [Remember Genesis 1:1 -- "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.:] .... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Please note also that the absolutely correct translation of the Greek is "...and God was the Word," - I urge you to look it up.

And remember Jesus words' at the end of Matthew: "...baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...." and, again, Jesus' words defining eternal life in John 17:3 clearly equate Him with the Father.

And so, although we may not understand the Trinity with our human minds very well, the doctrine of the Trinity is present in the Bible from the first. Jesus is God Himself in the flesh, and it was because this was His very claim that the Pharisees were so outraged and attempted several times to stone Him.

THE TRINITY

(GENERAL)

God is a trinity of persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the same person as the Son; the Son is not the same person as the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is not the same person as Father. They are separate persons; yet, they are all the one God. They are in absolute perfect harmony consisting of one substance. They are co-eternal, co-equal, and co-powerful. If any one of the three were removed, there would be no God. A further point of clarification is that God is not one person, the Father, with Jesus as a creation and the Holy Spirit as a force (Jehovah's Witnesses). Neither is He one person who took three consecutive forms, i.e., the Father who became the Son who then became the Holy Spirit (United Pentecostal). Nor is the Trinity an office held by three separate Gods (Mormonism). The chart below should help you to see how the doctrine of the Trinity is derived from Scripture. The list is not exhaustive, only illustrative. "I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God" (Isaiah 45:5).

by Richard Young

The concept of the "trinity" is that God consists of three persons who are one in being and nature. The concept of the "trinity" is not something that one just reads a verse or two and says "so there it is!" The word itself is not a translation of any word or phrase found in the Bible. The concept is derived and "falls out" of the evidence. Without Jesus' revelation when He was on earth I would say that the idea of the trinity would be difficult to determine from the Hebrew Scriptures, for after all, Deuteronomy 6:4 states "the LORD [YHWH] is one." But, because of Jesus, we are forced to re-examine our first impression understanding of this statement. Here are the pieces:

1) Jesus speaks to the Father in the second person. Jesus refers to the Father and the Holy Spirit in the third person. Jesus refers to His will being distinct from His Father's "not my will but yours be done."

2) The Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all referred to as God. Each is described as deserving of worship by us something only God Himself is worthy of.

3) The Scriptures clearly teach that "the LORD is one" and that there are "none besides Him." [Scriptures will be provided later in this article that demonstrate these items].

From these pieces the idea of God's nature being more complex than we would have imagined emerges. The question then needs to be addressed as to exactly what "one" means in Deuteronomy 6:4. Consider what Jesus said about His relationship to the Father. Jesus said that He and the Father were one (see John 17:22). Jesus wants us to be one as He is one with the Father. Further, when God created man and woman He desired that they be united as "one flesh" (Gen 2:24). This could not simply be a reference to the bearing of children, which are in a sense, a one flesh result of their union. It must refer to the marriage itself, for certainly they were "one flesh" before they bore any children. This concept of "one" then does not then refer to a uniform or homogeneous state of being; men and women are very different (despite what some feminists would have you believe) and the members of the body of Christ are also very different. Individuals who are united in marriage do not lose their individual traits, such as their own thoughts, emotions, etc. And a married couple does not have the same blood type after they were married if their blood types were different before they were married. If the members of the body of Christ were to become a "uniform and homogeneous" being then we each would lose our identity as "self" and what would emerge would be something akin to an eastern religious "cosmic consciousness." The "oneness" must refer not to a homogeneous singularity. The oneness of the marriage and the body of Christ are reflective of the nature of God Himself.

What exactly does "oneness" then mean? The Hebrew word used for God as one is "echad." Echad can mean one as in "one goat," "one day," "one stone," etc. However, it can also refer to a plural unity such as in a composite whole. For example, in Num 13:23 echad refers to a cluster of grapes. And in Gen 11:6 those who built the tower of Babel are referred to as "one people." When we refer to a person we know that the "one" person consists of several distinct components (emotions, thoughts, hands, heart, liver, etc.). Yet we all understand all of these parts constitute "one person." Echad was the word to describe the "one flesh" of marriage (Gen 2:24). Since God is referred to as "echad" in the same way as man and woman are referred to as "echad" this heavily implies that the oneness of marriage reflects the oneness of God. We also see echad used very intensely in Ezekiel 37:15-28 in the prophecy of the "two sticks" of Israel and Judah becoming one. In that prophecy we have a representative picture and the actuality. Examine the passage carefully and you will see that the intent of the two sticks is to be a picture that Ezekiel first shows to the captive Jews in Babylon. The idea is that they would remember this message as they go about their daily activities and would pick up sticks (for building cooking fires, for example) and be reminded of this promise of God and have hope. In Ezek 37:17 the sticks don't fuse together into a single stick. It appears that this was representative of the reality of what happens in God's hand in Ezek 37:19. Even then, Judah and Israel contain distinct tribes (after all, one must know who the Levites are for priests and who the tribe of Judah is from which the Messiah will come). So the oneness of the two sticks in Ezekiel's hand obviously is a representative oneness and echad in Ezek 37:17 could be easily translated as "united." But, nevertheless, the oneness of Israel and Judah still consists of many individuals from twelve distinct tribes. The individuals do not become a homogeneous consciousness or a physical singularity of any sort. We are dealing on a spiritual level of oneness, which is reflective of God's nature. The "oneness: we observe in marriage and the other examples are shadows of the reality of the oneness within God.

Now the true nature of God's oneness we can only describe by how it appears to us from what Jesus said and did. The best words we have to describe the members of the trinity seem to be as "persons."

Let's look at some Scriptures pertaining to the trinity.

At the baptism of Jesus we see the following:

"Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased." (Luke 3:21-22). We see three mentioned:

1) Jesus

2) Holy Spirit

3) Father (implied by "my beloved Son")

We see these three mentioned together at other times:

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all." (2 Cor 13:14).

"There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." (Eph 4:4-6).

Jesus later tells his disciples to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" (Matt 28:19).

The point of this is that we are speaking of three distinct persons. Now let's press on to examine each of these persons.

The Father:

I don't think I need to go into any detail here. It is pretty clear that the references to "the Father" are to God (see, for example, John 20:17). So let me go on.

The Son:

The Scriptures tell us that only God is permitted to receive worship (see Matt 4:10; Luke 4:8; Ex 20:2-5)

Yet Jesus receives worship:

"Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, 'Do you believe in the Son of Man?' He answered, 'Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?' Jesus said to him, 'You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.' And he said, 'Lord, I believe.' And he worshiped Him." (John 9:35-38).

"When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, 'You are certainly God's Son!'" (Matt 14:32-33).

"And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, 'And let all the angels of God worship Him.'" (Heb 1:6).

We see that the angels of God refuse worship:

"Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, 'Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.'" (Rev 19:10). See also Rev 22:8-9.

Jesus is declared to be God:

"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil 2:5-11).

An interesting note here is the Paul stating that "bestowed on Him the name which is above every name." YHWH is referred to as "the Name" (Hebrew, "hashem"). To say that Jesus is above every name can only mean one thing to a Jew like Paul. Only one name is above every name and that is hashem (YHWH). Thus, Paul has unmistakably referred to Jesus as YHWH.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.... And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1-3,14). Note how John 1:1 parallels Genesis 1:1. The parallel is intentional to show that Jesus is the Creator God of Gen 1:1.

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities -- all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." (Col 1:15-17).

"For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form" (Col 2:9).

"looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus" (Titus 2:13).

Jesus is given the same titles and attributes as YHWH. Below are several parallels. For each attribute there are two sets of references. The first reference set is to Jesus and the second is to YHWH in the Hebrew Scriptures: (from The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell)

Creator: John 1:3 (Jesus); Isa 40:28 (YHWH)

Savior: John 4:42 (Jesus); Isa 45:22; 43:11 (YHWH)

Raise the dead: John 5:21 (Jesus); I Sam 2:6 (YHWH)

Judge: John 5:27; Matt 25:31-46 (Jesus); Joel 3:12 (YHWH)

Light: John 8:12 (Jesus); Isa 60:19-20 (YHWH)

"I AM": John 8:58; 18:5,6 (Jesus); Ex 3:14 (YHWH)

Shepherd: John 10:11 (Jesus); Ps 23:1 (YHWH)

Glory of God: John 17:1,5 (Jesus); Isa 42:8; 48:11 (YHWH)

First and last: Rev 1:17; 2:8 (Jesus); Isa 41:4; 44:6 (YHWH)

Redeemer: Rev 5:9 (Jesus); Hosea 13:14 (YHWH)

Bridegroom: Rev 21:2; Matt 25:1ff (Jesus); Isa 62:5; Hosea 2:16 (YHWH)

Rock: I Cor 10:4 (Jesus); Ps 18:2 (YHWH)

Forgiver of sins: Mark 2:7,10; Jer 31:34 (YHWH)

Worshiped by angels: Heb 1:6 (Jesus); Ps 148:2 (YHWH)

Addressed in prayer: Acts 7:59 (Jesus); throughout Hebrew Scriptures (YHWH)

Creator of angels: Col 1:16 (Jesus); Ps 148:5 (YHWH)

Confessed as Lord: Phil 2:11 (Jesus); Isa 45:23 (YHWH)

Because of who Jesus is (i.e., YHWH) then we are to give Him the proper respect and worship He deserves.

Spirit:

The Holy Spirit is a person, distinct from Jesus and the Father:

"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you." (John 14:16-17).

The Spirit teaches, testifies, convicts, lives, and is grieved:

"for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say." (Luke 12:12).

"When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me" (John 15:26)

"But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment" (John 16:7-8).

"You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you." (Rom 8:9a) See also I Cor 3:16.

"Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." (Eph 4:30).

The Holy Spirit is God:

"And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him." (Luke 12:10).

"But Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.'" (Acts 5:3-4).

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (2 Cor 3:17).

The Nature of God as "One"

The Apostle John wrote in one his letters that "God is love." This statement sounds simple but is packed with implications. First, since God is love from all eternity (without any creation) and by Himself then it must be understood with respect to God Himself. But love only has a meaning when it involves a relationship between persons. This implies that the One God - if He is love in and of Himself - must exist as a relationship. Let's explore this concept of God being "One" a little bit further.

The relationships God has established between people (e.g., marriage partners, parent/child, king/subject, etc) are pictures of the relationship within God and between God and man. Each image presents a different facet of that relationship. Each is necessary to grasp the reality.

Consider what Jesus said about His relationship to the Father. Jesus said that He and the Father were one (see John 17:22). Jesus calls us to be one with Him, as He is one with the Father. Further, when God created man and woman He desired that they be united as "one flesh" (Gen. 2:24). This could not simply be a reference to the bearing of children, which are in a sense, a one flesh result of their union. It must refer to the marriage itself, for certainly they were "one flesh" before they bore any children. This concept of "one" then does not then refer to a uniform or homogeneous state of being; men and women are very different (despite what some feminists would have you believe). The "members of the body of Christ" are also very different. Individuals who are united in marriage do not lose their individual traits, such as their own thoughts, emotions, etc. And a married couple does not have the same blood type after they were married if their blood types were different before they were married. If the members of the body of Christ were to become a "uniform and homogeneous" being then we each would lose our identity as "self" and what would emerge would be something akin to an eastern religious "cosmic consciousness." The "oneness" must refer not to a homogeneous singularity. The oneness of the marriage and the body of Christ are reflective of the nature of God Himself.

What exactly does "oneness" then mean? The Hebrew word used for God as one is echad. Echad can mean one as in "one goat," "one day," "one stone," etc. However, it can also refer to a plural unity such as in a composite whole. For example, in Numbers 13:23 echad refers to a cluster of grapes. And in Gen 11:6 those who built the tower of Babel are referred to as "one people." When we refer to a person we know that the "one" person consists of several distinct components (emotions, thoughts, hands, heart, liver, etc.). Yet we all understand all of these parts constitute "one person." Echad is the word to describe the "one flesh" nature of marriage (Gen. 2:24). Since God is referred to as echad in the same way as man and woman are referred to as echad this heavily implies that the oneness of marriage reflects the oneness of God. The individuals do not become a homogeneous consciousness or a physical singularity of any sort. We are dealing on a spiritual level of oneness, which is reflective of God's nature. The "oneness" we observe in marriage and the other examples are shadows of the reality of the oneness within God.

Now the true nature of God's oneness we can only describe by how it appears to us from what Jesus said and did. The best words we have to describe the members of the trinity seem to be as "persons."

Additional Resources on the Trinity

Trinity Help from C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

Who Is God?

By Ray C. Stedman

God consists of three persons: Father, Son and Spirit. We cannot experience him in any other way. But though we usually list him as Father, Son and Spirit, the actual experience of God is different. We first meet the Son, by means of the Spirit, and then the Father.

The Father is the source. The Father is unseen, unknown, except as he continually embodies himself (makes himself visible) in the Son. The Son is who we see and hear and know. He is ceaselessly embodying the Father, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. He is perpetually revealing the Father, hitherto invisible.

The Father is logically first, but not chronologically. For the Son exists as long as the Father exists, and is coexistent with the Father. The Father acts through and in the Son. He makes himself visible only in the Son. It is in the Son that the Father becomes a part of human life, and so is born and lives and dies in human life.

The Spirit, in turn, comes from the Son . He does not embody the Son. On the contrary, God, in issuing from the Son into the Spirit becomes invisible again. The Spirit proceeds silently, endlessly, invisibly from the Son.

But the Son is not the source of the Spirit which proceeds from him. The Father is the source of both the Son and the Spirit. Back of the Son is the Father out of which the Son comes. The Spirit issues and proceeds from the Father, through the Son.

The Son therefore comes out from the invisible Father and perpetually and ever-newly embodies the Father in visible, audible, livable form, and returns again into invisible God in the Spirit.

The Spirit acts invisibly. He continually influences us with regard to the Son. He casts light upon the Son. That is his great function. He helps us to live in the Son which we know, and with reference to the Father whom we expect to see. (Ray C. Stedman, http://raystedman.org/gems.html)

Daniel Wallace's analysis of John 1:1c.

William Mounce summarizes some of Wallace's analysis in his book Basics of Biblical Greek. Wallace goes into more detail in his book, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Zondervan, 1995):

In English the subject and predicate nominative are distinguished by word order (the subject comes first). Not so in Greek. Since word order in Greek is quite flexible and is used for emphasis rather than for strict grammatical function, other means are used to determine subject from predicate nominative. For example, if one of two nouns has the definite article, it is the subject.

Generally speaking, when a word is thrown to the front of a clause it is done for emphasis. When a predicate nominative is thrown in front of the verb by virtue of word order it takes on emphasis. A good illustration of this is John 1:1c. The English versions typically have, "and the Word was God." But in Greek, the word order has been reversed. It reads, kai (2532) theos (2316) en (2258) ho (3588) logos (3056) "and God was the Word"

We know that "the Word" is the subject because it has the definite article [ho, 3588], and we translate it accordingly: "and the Word was God." Two questions, both of theological import, should come to mind: (1) why was theos [2316] thrown forward? And (2) why does it lack the article? In brief, its emphatic position stresses its essence or quality: "What God was, the Word was" is how one translation brings out this force. Its lack of a definite article keeps us from identifying the person of the Word (Jesus Christ) with the person of "God" (the Father). That is to say, the word order tells us that Jesus Christ has all of the divine attributes that the Father has; lack of the article tells us that Jesus Christ is not the Father. John's wording here is beautifully compact! It is, in fact, one of the most elegantly terse theological statements one could ever find. As Martin Luther said, the lack of an article is against Sabellianism; the word order is against Arianism.

To state this another way, look at how the different Greek constructions would be rendered:

kai ho logos en ho theos "and the Word was the God" (i.e., the Father; Sabellianism)

kai ho logos en theos "and the Word was a god" (i.e., Arianism)

kai theos en ho logos "and the Word was God" (Orthodoxy)

Jesus Christ is God and has all the attributes that the Father has. But he is not the first person of the Trinity. All this is concisely affirmed in kai theos en ho logos.