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JUDAISM AND THE TRINITY

‘In the beginning, with wisdom, the son of the LORD  finished the heavens and the earth.’

This text does not come from a Christian interpretation of the Old Testament, but from Bereshit 1.1 in one of the Palestinian Targums – Targum Neofiti. The targums are a collection of Jewish Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible, which were written between the first century B.C. and the second century A.D. They often included some interpretation of the Hebrew Bible reflecting Jewish thought of the time. The interesting thing about the opening verse of Targum Neofiti is that the verb ‘to create’ in Hebrew uses three letters: ברא. In Aramaic, the noun ‘son’ uses the same three letters: ברא. So, we have here an insight into what the Jewish rendering of the first verse of the Bible was before any serious anti-Christian polemic was taking place: a rendering that included the agency of the ‘Son of the LORD.’^[1]

‘To believe that G‑d has any partners or intermediaries to His creation is to transgress the prohibition of idolatry.’

This view is commonly associated with modern Orthodox Judaism. It is widely held in Judaism today that God is one, and there is no other. This is attested to in many places throughout the Hebrew Bible including Deuteronomy 6:4, or the Shema, which states, ‘Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one,’ and in Isaiah 45:5, ‘I am the LORD and there is no other.’ These are often proofs used in support of a strict view of monotheism: the belief that there is only one God. While Christians affirm monotheism, Orthodox Judaism rejects the Christian concept of the Trinity.

            So, the question is centred around which version of ‘monotheism’ one sees best represented in the Hebrew Bible. On the one hand, there is a version of monotheism that allows for a certain amount of fluidity within the nature of God. That is, that God can manifest in different forms, and be present in multiple places, without affecting his oneness. Some notable examples include the three visitors to Abraham in Genesis 18, the presence of the LORD in the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-4:17), and the angel of the LORD in Gideon’s calling (Judges 6:11-27). In these instances, it seems that the LORD temporarily overlaps with a heavenly messenger, or that they are even small scale manifestations of God Himself.

There are also examples from second-temple literature. 1 Enoch describes a spiritual being who carries out divine judgement on God’s behalf:

‘And there I saw One who had a head of days, and His head was white like wool, and with Him was another being whose countenance had the appearance of a man, and his face was full of graciousness, like one of the holy angels’ (1 Enoch 46:1).

This Son of Man figure goes on to enact God’s judgement against sinners and brings down the thrones of kingdoms (vv.4-5). For the author of 1 Enoch, the Son of Man acts with divine agency, and the author presumably had no issue with maintaining the oneness of the LORD.

Other examples show that pre-Christian Jewish thought allowed for a certain level of reverence for other spiritual beings, without crediting them with the status of Divinity reserved for God (e.g. 11QMelch; Tobit 5). Larry Hurtado explains: ‘Jewish belief in the uniqueness of God was able to accommodate surprising kinds of reverence for and interest in other heavenly figures such as chief angels and exalted patriarchs as well as personified attributes or powers of God.’^[2] So, it seems that both in the Hebrew Bible, and in extra-biblical literature of second temple Judaism, there is an acknowledgement that God can take on various forms, and also that other spiritual beings exist.

While one might assume this goes against the monotheistic teaching of modern Judaism, a closer reading reveals that there is no need for a conflict. Taking these evidences into account, Jewish theologian Benjamin D. Sommer states:

‘No Jew sensitive to Judaism’s own classical sources, however, can fault the theological model Christianity employs when it avows belief in a God who has an earthly body as well as a Holy Spirit and a heavenly manifestation, for that model, we have seen, is a perfectly Jewish one.’^[3]

To be sure, Sommer contends that there are many other aspects that Judaism has in conflict with Christianity that cannot be resolved. However, on the matter of how God can be three, a close reading of the Hebrew Bible shows that here there is no discrepancy.

            On the other hand, a strict view of monotheism rejects the above noted fluidity. This view rejects any form of divine embodiment, and was held – perhaps most influentially – by the 12th century Jewish philosopher, Maimonidies:

‘… we believe that this Unity that we mentioned is not a body and not the power of a body and that actions of a body do not relate to Him, not in His essence and not in His doings’ (Rambam on Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1).^[4]

This strict monotheism is sometimes extended to the belief that no other spiritual beings exist.

Interestingly, some Christian views of spiritual beings in the Old Testament align closely with the strict monotheism espoused by Maimonides. A similar level of rejection of genuine spiritual activity in the Hebrew Bible is maintained by various Christian theologians that, ‘talk of other gods is ultimately [only] rhetorical,’ and that supposed reality of other spiritual beings is just lies of Satan.^[5] While this view has commendable motivations to take passages like Deuteronomy 5:7 seriously, they don’t account for events in the Hebrew that describe genuine spiritual activity apart from God. For example, the medium that Saul consults is apparently successful in summoning the prophet Samuel’s spirit (1 Sam 28). Another instance is seen when the king of Moab sacrificed his son, which successfully brings wrath on Israel  (2 Kings 3:27). We also see that Gabriel is delayed in coming to visit Daniel because of combat with the ‘Prince of Persia’ (Dan 10:13). All of this is to say that the presence of other spiritual beings separate from God is acknowledged in the Hebrew Bible, in addition to the fluidity model of God.

The Targum Neofiti translation of Genesis 1:1 mentioned at the beginning of this article carries echoes for Christians of the presence of the Son of God at creation. This is presumed in the New Testament in verses like, ‘All things were made through him’ (John 1:3) and, ‘In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world’ (Heb 1:2). A cursory reading of the New Testament might claim that the concept of multiple persons within God’s nature is a Christian invention. However, as we have seen, both examples from the Hebrew Bible and second temple writings shows the picture is more complex. While these pre-Christian writings do not present a fully-fledged doctrine of the Trinity, there are signposts to the possibility. An embryonic presentation of God’s triune nature can be found in the Old Testament that is borne out in full in the New.

– Daniel Zeunert, International Mission to Jewish People

^[1] Michael B. Sheppard, The Messiah of the Targums: Messianic Exegesis of the Hebrew Bible (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2023) 1-2. The Targums are at points more verbose that the Masoretic text. It is acknowledged that Targum Onqelos is the most literal translation from the Hebrew while Targum Psuedo-Jonathan elaborates most greatly. Targum Neofiti is considered to be between these two extremes, but more so to the word-for-word style of Onqelos. Avigdor Shinan, ‘Targumim’ in Textual History of the Bible: The Hebrew Bible. Vol 1B. Edited by Armin Lange. (Leiden: Brill, 2016).

^[2] Larry Hurtado, One Lord, One God: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism (New York: T&T Clark, 1988) 8.

^[3] B. Sommer, Bodies of God, 135-136

^[4]https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Sanhedrin.10.1?lang=bi&p2=Rambam_on_Mishnah_Sanhedrin.10.1.18&lang2=bi&w2=all&lang3=en

^[5] Tim Chester, Delighting in the Trinity: Just Why are the Father, Son and Spirit Such Good News? (Oxford: Monarch, 2005) 24, 34.