When and Where was the "Trinity" Dogmatized?

[Guardian]

I need to know which council and what date the concept of the “Trinity” was pronounced as Dogma. Thanks.

 

[awalt]

Hints of Trinitarian beliefs can be seen in the teachings of extra-biblical writers as early as the end of the first century. However, the clearest early expression of the concept came with Tertullian, a Latin theologian who wrote in the early third century. Tertullian coined the words “Trinity” and “person” and explained that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were “one in essence - not one in Person.”
About a century later, in 325, the Council of Nicea set out to officially define the relationship of the Son to the Father, in response to the controversial teachings of Arius. Led by bishop Athanasius, the council established the doctrine of the Trinity as orthodoxy and condemned Arius’ teaching that Christ was the first creation of God. The creed adopted by the council described Christ as “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father.”

 

[Church_Militant]

awalt told ya right.

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

I need to know which council and what date the concept of the “Trinity” was pronounced as Dogma. Thanks.

You mean the term “Trinity” was defined in a dogmatic statement of the Church. That was at Nicea.

Non-Catholics very frequently make the mistake of assuming that the formal definition of a dogma marks its introduction or “invention”. That isn’t what happens. Rather questions are gradually tightened up. For instance the Assumption was defined inthe fifties, but had been believed long before then. There is still dispute about whether the Virgin Mary experienced physical death or fell asleep, but a Catholic may no longer believe that her body suffered corruption.

 

[Guardian]

Hints of Trinitarian beliefs can be seen in the teachings of extra-biblical writers as early as the end of the first century. However, the clearest early expression of the concept came with Tertullian, a Latin theologian who wrote in the early third century. Tertullian coined the words “Trinity” and “person” and explained that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were “one in essence - not one in Person.”
About a century later, in 325, the Council of Nicea set out to officially define the relationship of the Son to the Father, in response to the controversial teachings of Arius. Led by bishop Athanasius, the council established the doctrine of the Trinity as orthodoxy and condemned Arius’ teaching that Christ was the first creation of God. The creed adopted by the council described Christ as “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father.”

I thought that Theophilus (168-183 AD) came up with the concept of the Trinity in Greek??

I don’t know where I heard that.

 

[FCEGM]

I thought that Theophilus (168-183 AD) came up with the concept of the Trinity in Greek??

I don’t know where I heard that.

You’re correct:

In Scripture there is as yet no single term by which the Three Divine Persons are denoted together. The word trias (of which the Latin trinitas is a translation) is first found in Theophilus of Antioch about A.D. 180. He speaks of "the Trinity of God [the Father], His Word and His Wisdom (“Ad. Autol.”, II, 15). The term may, of course, have been in use before his time. Afterwards it appears in its Latin form of trinitas in Tertullian (“De pud.” c. xxi). In the next century the word is in general use. It is found in many passages of Origen (“In Ps. xvii”, 15). The first creed in which it appears is that of Origen’s pupil, Gregory Thaumaturgus.

newadvent.org/cathen/15047a.htm

 

[rwoehmke]

One would have to read back into it, but the trinity shows up in the first chapter of Genesis. There is God, God’s Word, and the Mighty Wind, the Holy Spirit, blowing over the waters of the abyss.

 

[skeptictank]

rwoehmke is correct. The concept of god being of a multi-dimensionality, yet singular in nature, is hinted at in the hebrew grammar.

The word Elohym, which is a plural noun, as apposed to “El”, the singular, is used to describe him, yet a singular verb describes his actions.

The same is true of the word “Lord” which he is called.

The hebrew word “Adonai” as opposed to “Adon” describes him, while a singular verb describes his actions.

It also show up on occasion, in the english, when he declares speakes of himself as “We”.

“Let us make man in ‘our’ image”.

Gen 1:1 ¶ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

To see the hebrew click here-
http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/c.pl?book=Gen&chapter=1&verse=1&version=KJV#1

you’ll find that there are two letters untranslated. These two letters happen to be the Alef and the Tov, which just happen to be the first and last letters of the hebrew alphebet. A similar construction is used in revelation where god calls himself the “Alpha and the Omega” the “first and the last”. Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 may literally be translated-

In the beggining God [the alef and the tov] created the heavens and the earth.

What is even more interesting is that a similar construction is used in Zechariah Chapter 12 verse 10, where god declares of his son,-

“and they shall look upon me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child-etc…”

THis may be literally translated,

“And they shall look upon me [the Alef and the Tov] whom they pierced”

This is of course only a portion of the doctrine of the Trinity, being the divinity of christ.

God Bless,

Skeptictank

 

[skeptictank]

In Scripture there is as yet no single term by which the Three Divine Persons are denoted together.

I’d just like to dispute this with my tongue firmly in my cheek.

Exd 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

Exd 3:15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this [is] my name for ever, and this [is] my memorial unto all generations.

Yahweh is his name. The father, the son, and the holy spirit.

Skeptictank

 

[Mannyfit75]

I’d just like to dispute this with my tongue firmly in my cheek.

Yahweh is his name. The father, the son, and the holy spirit.

Skeptictank

I have a better verse to describe the Trinity

Mark Chapter 1 verse 9-11.

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove, and a voice came from the heavens, "Thou art my beloved Son, with thee I am well pleased."

The dove is the Holy Spirit, the Voice is God, the Father. Jesus of course is the Second Person of the Trinity.

On a historical note, The word “Trinity” comes from “Trinitas”, a Latin abstract noun that means “three-ness”, “the property of occurring three at once” or “three are one”. The Greek term used for the Christian Trinity, “Τριάς” means “a set of three” or “the number three”,[2] and has given the English word triad.

The first recorded use of the word in Christian theology was in about 180 AD by Theophilus of Antioch who used it of “God, his Word, and his Wisdom”.[3] In about 200 AD Tertullian used it of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (As discussed below, the persons of the Trinity can be named in different ways.)