Trinitarianism and Early Judaism

[newenglandsun]

Are there any good works on the subject of Trinitarianism and pre-first century Judaism? I was wondering about the subject since a lot of anti-Trinitarians frequently use the argument that the Trinity is not Jewish to “disprove” the Trinity.

Thanks!

 

[patrick457]

Are there any good works on the subject of Trinitarianism and pre-first century Judaism? I was wondering about the subject since a lot of anti-Trinitarians frequently use the argument that the Trinity is not Jewish to “disprove” the Trinity.

Thanks!

AFAIK you’re not going to find much on exactly that subject (or more likely I haven’t been looking hard enough), although Alan Segal’s Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports About Christianity and Gnosticism, page 151-158 from Rebecca’s Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World by the same author, and Daniel Boyarin’s “Two Powers in Heaven; or, The Making of a Heresy” (p. 331-370 of The Idea of Biblical Interpretation: Essays in Honor of James L. Kugel) might touch on a few points close to what you are asking about. Oh, and Early Christian and Jewish Monotheism may be of some help. Unfortunately all of the above links are from Google Books, which skips some pages.

 

[newenglandsun]

AFAIK you’re not going to find much on exactly that subject (or more likely I haven’t been looking hard enough), although Alan Segal’s Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports About Christianity and Gnosticism, page 151-158 from Rebecca’s Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World by the same author, and Daniel Boyarin’s “Two Powers in Heaven; or, The Making of a Heresy” (p. 331-370 of The Idea of Biblical Interpretation: Essays in Honor of James L. Kugel) might touch on a few points close to what you are asking about. Oh, and Early Christian and Jewish Monotheism may be of some help. Unfortunately all of the above links are from Google Books, which skips some pages.

Thanks! Any book that demonstrates that the early Jews speculated on the idea of God possibly being more than one person should definitely be helpful!

 

[rcjones]

Judaism has the belief that God has a triune nature. The rabbis since have imposed pagan ideas upon the basic idea.

“In the Zohar (the classic text of Kabbalah) and other Jewish sources, we find that there are three (manifestations of Godliness) which are essentially One: God, Israel and the Torah.” --Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh

Rather than acknowledge that God is triune, they make themselves equal to God.

Before it was perverted, the basic idea comes from the gematria of the word for father אב which has the numerical value of 3. The word for son is בנ and the word for rock is אבנ (the father and the son). The stone that was split is a symbol of the Father and Son being split at the cross when Jesus cried “Why have you foresaken me?” It is a similar picture/prophecy as the water which was parted, and the veil which was torn.

God said that he was their stone (Ge 49.24). The law was written upon the stone (Ex 31.18) so they were the tablets of the father-son.