Hiyas,
I've been reading through some of the threads here, and realizied that I did not know very much about 'why' we have a trinity, or even 'what' the trinity really was.
My own definition of 'trinity' was basically a term that denoted God in three persons: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.
And there my understanding came to an end. I had asked a few elders and priests how this worked, and was told to think of water, which could be in the form of ice, liquid water, or steam.
This made sense to me. All three were really the same thing, just in different forms.
And until recently, I didn't put any more thought into it.
With all the threads popping up here, I turned to the bible. There, I found that the word 'trinity' was not in the bible (at least not in any version of the bible that I could find a searchable version of).
So where did this word come from? And when did it start?
I found this:
trinity
c.1225, "the Father, Son and Holy Spirit," constituting one God in prevailing Christian doctrine, from O.Fr. trinite (11c.), from L. trinitatem (nom. trinitas) "Trinity, triad" (Tertullian), from trinus "threefold, triple," from pl. of trini "three at a time, threefold," related to tres (neut. tria) "three." The L. word was widely borrowed in European languages with the rise of Christianity (e.g. Ir. trionnoid, Welsh trindod, Ger. trinität).
Circa 1225?, and it comes from an 11th century word? Try as I may, I could not find any older references to this word.
Quick note: I'm very new to trying to research things, so please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this!
Now, the idea of the trinity had to certainly be older that this! And as evidenced by the Nicene Creed, the idea of God in three persons stemmed back to at least the year 325.
But one question remained . . . "why?"
Why do we have this term?
Here's where I need help.
My best guess is that the termed was applied to God to avoid allegations of polytheism. Ironically, it seems to have only worked so-so in this capacity, as I have personally heard from several people outside of Christianity that the trinity is proof of belief in at least 3 Gods. (I explain the water analogy to them and usually correct this misconception).
But, back to the point. The bible continually refers to God, and uses different names for Him. The bible also speaks of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The trouble was, to a common person, these three different entities could seem to be very different, and certainly all were worthy of praise.
How did this look to followers of the 10 commandments, as well as folks from other religions? It may have looked as though anyone who praised Jesus' name was violating the famous "You shall no other gods before Me" rule.
So how would Christianity fix this? They claimed that all three forms of God were, in fact the same God.
This would have made things a lot easier.
But since Jesus was refered to as the 'Son of God', and people would have a difficult time understanding that the Son was the same as the Father, the trinity popped into existence to solve this problem, and keep Christianity monotheistic.
So, what we have here is a non-biblical term, fashioned by man to help explain that God has three forms, all separate, but all the same.
Is it a good thing that we have this word, and the belief that it encompasses?
Sure.
It makes it easier to understand the 3 forms of God.
And God knows we need help understanding things some times (especially me!)
But is the idea of the trinity God's idea?
I really don't think that it is. It is certainly nowhere in any bible that I've ever seen.
Is it a bad thing to use this word, or the ideas that it supports?
I don't think so.
I'd like to learn more about this before I chime in on any of the other threads, just to make sure that I am looking at this the right way.
Corrections and different viewpoints are welcome here.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and for any help you can offer me.
I've been reading through some of the threads here, and realizied that I did not know very much about 'why' we have a trinity, or even 'what' the trinity really was.
My own definition of 'trinity' was basically a term that denoted God in three persons: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.
And there my understanding came to an end. I had asked a few elders and priests how this worked, and was told to think of water, which could be in the form of ice, liquid water, or steam.
This made sense to me. All three were really the same thing, just in different forms.
And until recently, I didn't put any more thought into it.
With all the threads popping up here, I turned to the bible. There, I found that the word 'trinity' was not in the bible (at least not in any version of the bible that I could find a searchable version of).
So where did this word come from? And when did it start?
I found this:
trinity
c.1225, "the Father, Son and Holy Spirit," constituting one God in prevailing Christian doctrine, from O.Fr. trinite (11c.), from L. trinitatem (nom. trinitas) "Trinity, triad" (Tertullian), from trinus "threefold, triple," from pl. of trini "three at a time, threefold," related to tres (neut. tria) "three." The L. word was widely borrowed in European languages with the rise of Christianity (e.g. Ir. trionnoid, Welsh trindod, Ger. trinität). Circa 1225?, and it comes from an 11th century word? Try as I may, I could not find any older references to this word.
Quick note: I'm very new to trying to research things, so please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this!
Now, the idea of the trinity had to certainly be older that this! And as evidenced by the Nicene Creed, the idea of God in three persons stemmed back to at least the year 325.
But one question remained . . . "why?"
Why do we have this term?
Here's where I need help.
My best guess is that the termed was applied to God to avoid allegations of polytheism. Ironically, it seems to have only worked so-so in this capacity, as I have personally heard from several people outside of Christianity that the trinity is proof of belief in at least 3 Gods. (I explain the water analogy to them and usually correct this misconception).
But, back to the point. The bible continually refers to God, and uses different names for Him. The bible also speaks of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The trouble was, to a common person, these three different entities could seem to be very different, and certainly all were worthy of praise.
How did this look to followers of the 10 commandments, as well as folks from other religions? It may have looked as though anyone who praised Jesus' name was violating the famous "You shall no other gods before Me" rule.
So how would Christianity fix this? They claimed that all three forms of God were, in fact the same God.
This would have made things a lot easier.
But since Jesus was refered to as the 'Son of God', and people would have a difficult time understanding that the Son was the same as the Father, the trinity popped into existence to solve this problem, and keep Christianity monotheistic.
So, what we have here is a non-biblical term, fashioned by man to help explain that God has three forms, all separate, but all the same.
Is it a good thing that we have this word, and the belief that it encompasses?
Sure.
It makes it easier to understand the 3 forms of God.
And God knows we need help understanding things some times (especially me!)
But is the idea of the trinity God's idea?
I really don't think that it is. It is certainly nowhere in any bible that I've ever seen.
Is it a bad thing to use this word, or the ideas that it supports?
I don't think so.
I'd like to learn more about this before I chime in on any of the other threads, just to make sure that I am looking at this the right way.
Corrections and different viewpoints are welcome here.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and for any help you can offer me.
