The idea of one God existing in multiple hypostases, in this case, three eternally existent hypostases, was not a new idea for Christianity.
It is the unitarian monotheism of Rabbinic Judaism that is the innovation in the centuries after Christ, not the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
So says the pious Jewish scholar Benjamin D. Sommer,
“For all the trouble that Jewish and Muslim philosophers have had with this notion, the trinity emerges as a fairly typical example of the fragmentation of a single deity into seemingly distinct manifestations that do not quite undermine that deity’s coherence”
“Classic language of trinitarian theology, such as…one nature, three persons or one substance, three manifestations, applies perfectly well to examples of YHWH’s fluidity in the Hebrew Bible and to the fluidity traditions in Canaan and Mesopotamia”
“Some Jews regard Christianity’s claim to be a monotheistic religion with grave suspicion, both because of the doctrine of the trinity (how can three equal one?) and because of Christianity’s core belief that God took bodily form. . . .
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. A religion whose scripture contains the fluidity traditions [referring to God appearing in bodily form in the Tanakh], whose teachings emphasize the multiplicity of the shekhinah, and whose thinkers speak of the sephirot does not differ in its theological essentials from a religion that adores the triune God.”
That is why Daniel Boyarin - another dominant mainstream Jewish Scholar - can say,
“the idea of Jesus being essentially divine and human, the divine-human Messiah and Son of his Father in heaven—is deeply engrained in the Jewish tradition that preceded the New Testament. "
And
“The ideas of Trinity and incarnation, or certainly the germs of those ideas, were already present among Jewish believers well before Jesus came on the scene to incarnate in himself, as it were, those theological notions and take up his messianic calling.”
So, to the question, WHY in the world would Jewish people that fanatically followed a monotheistic God, who would rather die than change even their dietary laws, abandon their faith and face persecution to worship a divine man and a bizarre Trinitarian deity? We can answer - because doing so was thoroughly Jewish.
It is the unitarian monotheism of Rabbinic Judaism that is the innovation in the centuries after Christ, not the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
So says the pious Jewish scholar Benjamin D. Sommer,
“For all the trouble that Jewish and Muslim philosophers have had with this notion, the trinity emerges as a fairly typical example of the fragmentation of a single deity into seemingly distinct manifestations that do not quite undermine that deity’s coherence”
“Classic language of trinitarian theology, such as…one nature, three persons or one substance, three manifestations, applies perfectly well to examples of YHWH’s fluidity in the Hebrew Bible and to the fluidity traditions in Canaan and Mesopotamia”
“Some Jews regard Christianity’s claim to be a monotheistic religion with grave suspicion, both because of the doctrine of the trinity (how can three equal one?) and because of Christianity’s core belief that God took bodily form. . . .
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. A religion whose scripture contains the fluidity traditions [referring to God appearing in bodily form in the Tanakh], whose teachings emphasize the multiplicity of the shekhinah, and whose thinkers speak of the sephirot does not differ in its theological essentials from a religion that adores the triune God.”
That is why Daniel Boyarin - another dominant mainstream Jewish Scholar - can say,
“the idea of Jesus being essentially divine and human, the divine-human Messiah and Son of his Father in heaven—is deeply engrained in the Jewish tradition that preceded the New Testament. "
And
“The ideas of Trinity and incarnation, or certainly the germs of those ideas, were already present among Jewish believers well before Jesus came on the scene to incarnate in himself, as it were, those theological notions and take up his messianic calling.”
So, to the question, WHY in the world would Jewish people that fanatically followed a monotheistic God, who would rather die than change even their dietary laws, abandon their faith and face persecution to worship a divine man and a bizarre Trinitarian deity? We can answer - because doing so was thoroughly Jewish.
In the few centuries before Christ, the Jews had regular views of a fluid God with multiple selves, a God with bodies, even a threefold body, and a conception of not one but two powers in heaven - the invisible Yahweh and the visible Angel of Yehweh, or lesser Yahweh, who shared the throne onfheaven with the most high, the Son of Man, described in Daniel. This Angel, who had the “name” and “word” of Yahweh inside of it, was the Angel that appeared, alongside Yahweh, to Moses in the burning Bush, who led the Israelites out of Egypt. Christians eventually came to identify it with Christ.
The Jews were well aware of this second power and there’s much literature trying to identify it, some texts suggesting a deified Jacob, or Adam, Abraham, Enoch, or Melchizadeck, made an angel and seated in heaven at God’s side. Today many Jews identify this figure with the Archangel Micheal.
Most of those books didn’t make it into the Jewish Bible, nor the Christian Old Testament, but they were around, widely known and discussed, and taken seriously.
So there was much speculation, and although a minority tradition, this two powers view was not considered a heresy until the 2nd C ad.
So when Christ came along, it made sense.
We forget today’s Judaism is in many ways radically different from the Ancient Israelite religion. Although Judaism, like most religions, is always reforming and changing, there were two main developments. First, the destruction of the temple in 70 ad. This ended the ritual sacrifices demanded of the law. Secondly in the middle ages the great Jewish philosopher Maimonides and his radical idea of a pure, abstract, transcendental, strictly unitarian notion of God. It was controversial in his day, and when eventually the community allowed his work to be published, it was always done so with Jewish Rabbi’s prefacing the work with commentary.
The Jews were well aware of this second power and there’s much literature trying to identify it, some texts suggesting a deified Jacob, or Adam, Abraham, Enoch, or Melchizadeck, made an angel and seated in heaven at God’s side. Today many Jews identify this figure with the Archangel Micheal.
Most of those books didn’t make it into the Jewish Bible, nor the Christian Old Testament, but they were around, widely known and discussed, and taken seriously.
So there was much speculation, and although a minority tradition, this two powers view was not considered a heresy until the 2nd C ad.
So when Christ came along, it made sense.
We forget today’s Judaism is in many ways radically different from the Ancient Israelite religion. Although Judaism, like most religions, is always reforming and changing, there were two main developments. First, the destruction of the temple in 70 ad. This ended the ritual sacrifices demanded of the law. Secondly in the middle ages the great Jewish philosopher Maimonides and his radical idea of a pure, abstract, transcendental, strictly unitarian notion of God. It was controversial in his day, and when eventually the community allowed his work to be published, it was always done so with Jewish Rabbi’s prefacing the work with commentary.
Dr. Daniel O. McClellan :
Moses and the Burning Bush
Moses’s encounter at the burning bush begins when the messenger of YHWH appears to him מִתּוֹךְ הַסְּנֶה, “from the midst of the bush”:
שׁמות ג:ב וַיֵּרָא מַלְאַךְ יְ־הוָֹה אֵלָיו בְּלַבַּת אֵשׁ מִתּוֹךְ הַסְּנֶה וַיַּרְא וְהִנֵּה הַסְּנֶה בֹּעֵר בָּאֵשׁ וְהַסְּנֶה אֵינֶנּוּ אֻכָּל.
Exod 3:2 And the messenger of YHWH appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of the bush. And he saw—and look!—the bush burned with fire, but the bush was not consumed.
Yet when Moses stops to investigate, the narrator precisely places God in the same location as the messenger:
שׁמות ג:ד ...וַיִּקְרָא אֵלָיו אֱלֹהִים מִתּוֹךְ הַסְּנֶה וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה מֹשֶׁה וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּנִי.
Exod 3:4 …And God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!” And he said, “I’m here.”
Moses also averts his eyes to avoid looking upon God:
שׁמות ג:ו וַיֹּאמֶר אָנֹכִי אֱלֹהֵי אָבִיךָ אֱלֹהֵי אַבְרָהָם אֱלֹהֵי יִצְחָק וֵאלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב וַיַּסְתֵּר מֹשֶׁה פָּנָיו כִּי יָרֵא מֵהַבִּיט אֶל הָאֱלֹהִים.
Exod 3:6 And he said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses turned his face away, because he was afraid to look upon God.
The Akedah
After Abraham binds Isaac on the altar, the messenger of YHWH calls out to Abraham from heaven to stop him from sacrificing his son:
בראשׁית כב:יא וַיִּקְרָא אֵלָיו מַלְאַךְ יְ־הוָהמִן הַשָּׁמַיִם וַיֹּאמֶר אַבְרָהָם אַבְרָהָם וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּנִי.
Gen 22:11 Then the messenger of YHWH called to him from heaven: “Abraham! Abraham!” And he answered, “Here I am.”
When Abraham answers, however, the speaker replies in the first person as the deity:
בראשׁית כב:יב וַיֹּאמֶר אַל תִּשְׁלַח יָדְךָ אֶל הַנַּעַר וְאַל תַּעַשׂ לוֹ מְא
וּמָּה כִּי עַתָּה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי יְרֵא אֱלֹהִים אַתָּה וְלֹא חָשַׂכְתָּ אֶת בִּנְךָ אֶת יְחִידְךָ מִמֶּנִּי.
Gen 22:12 And he said, “Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from Me.”
Indeed, Abraham’s name for the site indicates that he believes he has been speaking with YHWH:
בראשׁית כב:יד וַיִּקְרָא אַבְרָהָם שֵׁם הַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא יְ־הוָה יִרְאֶה אֲשֶׁר יֵאָמֵר הַיּוֹם בְּהַר יְ־הוָה יֵרָאֶה.
Gen 22:14 And Abraham named that site YHWH-yireh, whence the present saying, “On the mount of YHWH there is vision.”
Ok, resources.
Here's a basic overview HERE.
Here’s a good website.
Binitarianism: One God, Two Beings Before the Beginning
https://www.cogwriter.com/binitarian.htm
Micheal Heiser is an easy entree point into all this, and I’d start with him.
Two Powers of the Godhead lecture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUkhWBKCuXc&t=31s
Jesus Christ and the Old Testament: Holy Trinity
Binitarianism: One God, Two Beings Before the Beginning
https://www.cogwriter.com/binitarian.htm
Micheal Heiser is an easy entree point into all this, and I’d start with him.
Two Powers of the Godhead lecture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUkhWBKCuXc&t=31s
Jesus Christ and the Old Testament: Holy Trinity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sMQa78fY3Y&t=4s
The Jewish Trinity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS22MPVFngs&t=21s
Dr. Michael Heiser on Old Testament Binitarianism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl3AMS6-BfQ&t=9s
***
Less Scholarly, but still excellent is Douglas Van Dorn’s “The Angel of the LORD: A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Study.”
Benjamin Sommer’s Bodies of God is superb.
His MP3 lectures :
https://biblicalstudiesonline.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/benjamin-d-sommer-on-gods-body/
And Here :
https://www.thinkingaboutreligion.org/s1-e9-benjamin-sommer-on-gods-bodies/
He also has youtube lectures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtSm-InTLoA
The theopolis institute has a good article on the Angel of Yahweh from a reformed perspective,
https://theopolisinstitute.com/conversations/yahweh-and-his-angel/
A bit more scholarly Daniel Boyarin, the great Rabbinical scholar, has his Two Powers in Heaven and Early Jewish Monotheism YouTube Lecture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UEeK72KvpU
**
Ok IF you wanna nerd out,
Alan Segal’s book Two Powers in Heaven is the classic text, it’s pretty academic, dry, technical and boring.
Two Gods in Heaven: Jewish Concepts of God in Antiquity
by Peter Schäfer came out recently, he’s a top Rabbinical scholar, a small book, but also dry.
Here’s a video review on it :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaTgOyoNSkw
****
Ok, if you REALLY wanna nerd out,
Daniel Boyarin, has some great papers on this :
https://www.academia.edu/36254275/Daniel_Boyarin_The_Gospel_of_the_Memra_Jewish_Binitarianism_and_the_Prologue_to_John_Harvard_Theological_Review_vol_94_no_3_July_2001_243_284
https://www.academia.edu/36254597/Daniel_Boyarin_Logos_a_Jewish_Word_John_s_Prologue_as_Midrash_in_Amy_Jill_Levine_and_Marc_Zvi_Brettler_eds_The_Jewish_Annotated_New_Testament_New_York_Oxford_University_Press_2011_546_549
Two Powers’ and Early Jewish and Christian Monotheism
James F. McGrath
https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1111&context=facsch_papers
Early Christian Binitarianism: the Father and the Holy Spirit
Michel Rene Barnes
https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/barnes.pdf
Jewish Targums and John’s Logos Theology by John Ronning
https://www.academia.edu/7921022/When_YHWH_Became_Flesh_and_Dwelt_Among_Us_John_1_14_as_Programmatic_for_Johns_Gospel
A bit more scholarly Daniel Boyarin, the great Rabbinical scholar, has his Two Powers in Heaven and Early Jewish Monotheism YouTube Lecture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UEeK72KvpU
**
Ok IF you wanna nerd out,
Alan Segal’s book Two Powers in Heaven is the classic text, it’s pretty academic, dry, technical and boring.
Two Gods in Heaven: Jewish Concepts of God in Antiquity
by Peter Schäfer came out recently, he’s a top Rabbinical scholar, a small book, but also dry.
Here’s a video review on it :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaTgOyoNSkw
****
Ok, if you REALLY wanna nerd out,
Daniel Boyarin, has some great papers on this :
https://www.academia.edu/36254275/Daniel_Boyarin_The_Gospel_of_the_Memra_Jewish_Binitarianism_and_the_Prologue_to_John_Harvard_Theological_Review_vol_94_no_3_July_2001_243_284
https://www.academia.edu/36254597/Daniel_Boyarin_Logos_a_Jewish_Word_John_s_Prologue_as_Midrash_in_Amy_Jill_Levine_and_Marc_Zvi_Brettler_eds_The_Jewish_Annotated_New_Testament_New_York_Oxford_University_Press_2011_546_549
Two Powers’ and Early Jewish and Christian Monotheism
James F. McGrath
https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1111&context=facsch_papers
Early Christian Binitarianism: the Father and the Holy Spirit
Michel Rene Barnes
https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/barnes.pdf
Jewish Targums and John’s Logos Theology by John Ronning
https://www.academia.edu/7921022/When_YHWH_Became_Flesh_and_Dwelt_Among_Us_John_1_14_as_Programmatic_for_Johns_Gospel
....Enjoy
