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Three persons... One God..
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jas3
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Simply put, a person is like a willing being.
In more detail, "person" is the English translation of the Greek "hypostasis," which as I understand it is an instantiation of a "substance," or a thing that has existence (of course, this is a limited way of talking about God, because He really is the source of existence, it's not something external to Him that He "has"). This shared substance or essence is what is indicated by the phrase, "one God."
In more detail, "person" is the English translation of the Greek "hypostasis," which as I understand it is an instantiation of a "substance," or a thing that has existence (of course, this is a limited way of talking about God, because He really is the source of existence, it's not something external to Him that He "has"). This shared substance or essence is what is indicated by the phrase, "one God."
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ViaCrucis
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"Person" here can mean something along the same lines when we use words like "someone" or "who". As opposed to "something" or "what".
As @jas3 pointed out, we often use Person as a way to translate the idea of hypostasis, a Greek term which more-or-less carries the idea of "that which exists". Hypostasis is, in the language of the Trinity, contrasted with ousia, which literally means "being" and often gets translated as "substance".
So in Trinitarian language we talk about the one Ousia (Being) and the three Hypostases ("Persons").
When we look at the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, we see that the Greeks had a word prosopon, the Latin translation of this was persona (from whence we get "person"). A prosopon/persona wasn't exactly "person" as we would think of it today; rather it carried the idea of "face" or even "mask". Actors in a play would literally wear masks to play characters, and change masks to become a different character. This is actually why early Christians didn't like to use these words, and it became a significant theological issue in early Christological debates.
However, in time Christians, by more rigorously defining their language, would speak (for example) of Jesus Christ as "one Hypostasis and Prosopon". Specifically in the debates of the 5th century about Jesus being God-and-man together in His single and undivided Person.
In this way "Person" doesn't just mean a mask, or a "face"; in the sense that when you interact with someone you present your forward-facing self to them (which may not necessarily be your real self)--we still use this kind of language today, when calling someone two-faced, or talking about "masking" etc. Rather Person means the full, total, real Self, it's the real Someone, the actual Who. We might say you are yourself. You are real, you actually exist; not just as a face, but as a real someone; and as a real someone distinct from other someones.
There are Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These are not merely ways of talking about God expressing Himself, as though God sometimes looks like "Father" but other times looks like "Son", etc. There is actually something real here, there is actually love here--the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father. Real love requires real someones. The Father is Himself, He is Father of the Son; the Son is Himself, He is the Son of the Father.
Three Someones, real, distinct, actual. But not three beings, not three self-independent somethings. You are an instance of human being, there are lots of human beings, of which you're just one.
But there is only one God, one Divine Being, there is not a plurality of divine beings, there are not many gods--there is one God, Eternal, Self-existing, without beginning or end, timeless and changeless, God.
So there are Three Someones, Three Persons. And there is one Being, one singular Something.
And here it is: the Three Persons are the One God; each is the One God, in each other the One God.
The Father is the one God
The Son is the one God.
The Holy Spirit is the one God.
The Father and the Son, are the one God.
The Son and the Spirit, are the one God.
The Father and the Spirit, are the one God.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the one God.
The Father is in the Son. The Son is in the Father.
The Father and the Son are in the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is in the Father and in the Son.
One God.
The Three, distinct and actual, are never separate--the Father is always Father because He is Father of His Son, and the Son is in Him, and He is in His Son, and the Holy Spirit is in Him, and He is in the Holy Spirit, and the Father and the Son are in the Holy Spirit, etc and etc.
One God.
The Father is not the Son. He is the Father.
The Son is not the Father. He is the Son.
The Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son, He is the Holy Spirit.
The Father is not the Holy Spirit, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, only the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit.
The Father is the Father.
The Son is the Son.
The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit.
One God.
-CryptoLutheran
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Paul4JC
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I don't know who coined the term "persons," Reginald Heber maybe in his famous hymn, "Holy, holy, holy"
If you take ice you can melt it and make water, and boil so now it is vapors. Ice is not water, water is not vapor, vapor is not ice. Yet they are one.
A voice on the phone is not where you are, yet it is the person you're talking to, so in one sense that person is in two places at once, by his voice (word) and by his spirit. In the same way...
Read John chapter 14 to see how the Holy Spirit works to help us. In this sense, he can be seen as a person. Yet he is the Spirit of Christ, which also is the Spirit of God. They are one.
Strong's Lexicon
paraklétos: Advocate, Helper, Comforter, Counselor
Original Word: παράκλητοςMeaning: (a) an advocate, intercessor, (b) a consoler, comforter, helper, (c) Paraclete.
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Clare73
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Because all of them are the same two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen.
They are simply different forms-- gas, liquid, solid--of the same substance, H2O.
However the persons of the Trinity are not different forms of God, they are the same form of God; i.e., spirit, in distinct persons, each fully God.
Keeping in mind the Trinity is three distinct persons, not three distinct effects of one person.
Yes, one God, one being, in three distinct persons, not distinct effects.
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ViaCrucis
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Using analogies for the Trinity is a double-edged sword, usually they end up getting things very wrong.
The analogy of states of matter has the unfortunate consequence of leading us toward a non-Trinitarian view of God--toward a Modalistic view; a singular Divine Being who, looks like this way or that way depending on the context. Jesus on earth, the Father in heaven, the Holy Spirit in us for example--but each Person is real and simultaneus. Jesus and the Father are not two modes of the one God, but each is properly speaking, a Divine Person. The Father has a relationship with His Son, that can only happen if both are real, and not merely modal.
Likewise many have looked to use a triangle for illustration, three sides of one shape; this analogy leads us to a very different problem--to something we might call Tripartism, three sides make up a triangle; but the three Persons don't make up God. Each Person is God.
Throw in just about any analogy and we'll find a huge problem. A father, mother, and child are three people, but they are different human beings; God is one Divine Being. A man can be a husband, a father, and doctor, but that's just Modalism again. A human being has a mind, a will, and a body, but these are just parts of an individual, Tripartism again.
Etc.
-CryptoLutheran
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What you are saying sounds more accurate... Three distinct persons... So what then is a Person... and how is God 'One'?
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I'm interested in other people's definitions too. The more the merrier.
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Honestly, there shouldn't be other definitions - his is the correct one as best as we can understand it.
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