Trinity

The following article is about the term Trinity as used in Christianity. For other uses please see: Trinity - other uses of the term

Christianity

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The Christian Trinity consists of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, as established by the Nicene Creed. It is the three parts that make up the one God, all co-equal, and all forming one God. Although it is never made explicit in the Bible, the concept of the Trinity is embraced by the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and nearly all Protestant denominations.

Denials

The Arians of the 4th century denied the Trinity. They were condemned as heretics and they died out, but Arian ideas appeared in Europe after 1500. Isaac Newton was secretly an Arian. By the mid-18th century Unitarianism had emerged in England, and it spread to the U.S. by 1800. It dominated schools like Harvard College by 1820.

In the 20th century Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in the Trinity, and see it as contradicting the commandment to have no god but the one God. Jehovah Witnesses disparage the Trinity by depicting it as a three-headed creature and claim the doctrine as a corrupt addition by Satan to Christianity.

Islam has taught that the Trinity is Father, Son, and Mother (the Virgin Mary); however, this is not Biblical, but is taught in the Koran.

Johannine Comma

The clearest Biblical basis of the Trinity is a passage at I John 5:7-8 (KJV) (the so-called "Johannine Comma"):

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

The italicized words are the Johannine Comma; the text does not appear in the great majority of early Christian texts -- most (but not all) scholars agree the passage was probably added centuries later by persons unknown. The passage is quoted by none of the Greek Fathers, who, had they known it, would most certainly have employed it against heretics who denied the Trinity.

However, some argue that the Johannine Comma is indeed properly part of Scripture. It is included in the King James English version; it is excluded in Martin Luther's German translation.

Most modern Bibles, such as the NIV, omit the Johannine Comma (I John 5:7-8 (NIV)). Most Bible experts from all persuasions believe that the Comma should not be there and that the Trinity is apparent from other passages anyway.

See also

• Arianism

References

The Godhead
God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit