While there is much more to be understood about “spirit,” we will move on to explore “person.” All persons are beings, but not all beings are persons. For example, you are one being and one person. But a dog is one being and zero persons. If there can be beings composed of zero persons, and beings composed of one person, why can’t there be a being composed of three persons?
It was Christ Our Lord who revealed that there is companionship within the one divine Nature—not a number of Gods, but three Persons within the one God. As we read the Gospels, we find Our Lord saying something new about God—there are hints and foreshadowing of it in the Old Testament, but certainly no decisive statement. For example, in Deuteronomy 6:4, one finds the Shema, the Jewish expression of monotheism: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD."
It is of note that there are two words in Hebrew for “one.” Yachid means only one while echod means a compound unity or a united one—as in Genesis: "evening and morning… one day" or "husband and wife… one flesh." It is this second word, echod – meaning a unity of beings – that is the word used to speak of God. So here we see the Old Testament hinting at what Jesus would later reveal as Trinity.
In Christ, Ken.
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