Trinity is a false doctrine not found in Old Testament, or the New Testament - Tovia Singer

Overview & Key Concepts

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What is New Testament?

The New Testament is the second part of the Christian biblical canon. The first part being the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew Bible. The New ... more

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What is Old Testament?

The Old Testament (OT) is the first part of Christian Bibles. This is based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh), a collection of ancient ... more

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Who is Tovia Singer?

Tovia Singer (born 1960) is a Jewish rabbi. Singer is the founder and director of Outreach Judaism, Indonesia.

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What is Trinity?

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (Latin: trinus "threefold") holds that God is one God, but three coeternal consubstantial persons or ... more

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Frequently Asked Questions

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1.How were the Triadic or 'Trinity-like' Pagan Gods presented?

Ancient triadic deities in the Roman Empire were depicted in art and monuments as a single, unified figure featuring three distinct faces or heads to illustrate their triune nature.

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2.Does the Christian Trinity come from pagan Triadic dieties?

Yes, the core teachings of modern Trinitarian Christian churches do not come from Jesus, but were pagan three-in-one concepts that existed long before his arrival and were later adopted by Christians to make their doctrine highly appealing to idol-worshipping masses.

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3.Why is the Trinity so difficult to understand?

The Trinity is a complex theological doctrine because it describes God as existing as three distinct Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who are co-equal and co-eternal, yet remain one single, unified divine Being. It requires balancing the concepts of strict monotheism with the distinct actions and relationships of the three divine Persons as revealed across the New Testament text.

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4.How did the Christian Trinity come about?

The New Testament gospels show Jesus selecting twelve apostles to lead his immediate followers, but he did not lay down a detailed blueprint for a complex institutional priesthood or administrative hierarchy. The elaborate structures, clerical offices, and distinct liturgical traditions seen in modern churches developed gradually over centuries as the movement adapted to Roman institutional frameworks.

The concept of a dual human and divine nature in the person of Jesus is known as the Hypostatic Union, an essential component of modern Trinitarianism.

Yet it was not until the Council of Chalcedon that we see the emergence of an official doctrine of the Trinity in a form that is recognisable with what Christian Trinitarians believe in today. This took place in the fifth century, over 400 years after Jesus!

The evangelical theologian and Professor Wayne A. Grudem sums this up as follows: 'A precise understanding of how full deity and full humanity' argues Grudem, 'could be combined together in one person was formulated only gradually in the church and did not reach the final form until the Chalcedonian Definition in 451 AD.

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5.Does the Bible support the Trinity (3-in-1) God concept?

Mainstream biblical scholars and historians state that the doctrine of the Trinity is never explicitly laid out as a formal dogma anywhere in the text of the Old or New Testaments. While the New Testament contains early triadic formulas (such as the baptismal command in Matthew 28:19 and apostolic blessings in 2 Corinthians 13:14), the actual systemic theology of a three-in-one God was developed later by early church fathers over centuries. Christian theologians argue that the doctrine is implicitly woven throughout the scriptures, while critics and Islamic scholars point to the lack of clear, direct scriptural definitions to argue it was a later modification of strict biblical monotheism.

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6.Does the Old Testament teach the Christian Trinity?

Mainstream biblical scholars and historians agree that the Old Testament does not explicitly teach the doctrine of the Trinity, nor did ancient Jewish communities possess a concept of a triune Godhead. There is no historical evidence in pre-Christian Jewish literature including the Hebrew text, the Dead Sea Scrolls, or ancient commentaries of a belief in a plurality of divine Persons. While Christian theologians retrospectively interpret certain plural expressions (such as 'Let us make man' in Genesis 1:26) as hints of the Trinity, ancient Judaism strictly maintained a unitarian monotheistic understanding of God.

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7.What is the Christian Trinity?

Orthodox Christian theologians define the doctrine of the Trinity as the belief that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, existing eternally as three distinct Persons within one single, undivided divine Being. These three Persons are considered entirely co-equal in power and co-eternal in time, with the Son being understood as 'eternally begotten' of the Father and existing simultaneously as 100% God and 100% man. The platform notes that many modern Christians mistakenly believe they are practicing Trinitarianism simply by acknowledging the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, without understanding the complex historical and philosophical mechanics required by the formal church dogma.

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8.What do Christian 'Trinity' scholars say about the Old Testament?

Many theologians, including this analysis of Trinity dogma, note that the Old Testament does not explicitly contain the Trinity, which they believe was only fully revealed later.

The distinguished Trinitarian scholar Bertrand de Margerie in his book The Christian Trinity in History writes:

'Contemporary exegetes [Bible teachers] affirm unanimously that the Old Testament did not bring to the Jewish people a clear and distinct Revelation of the existence of a plurality of persons in God. In this they agree with the clear and frequent affirmation of Fathers such as Irenaeus, Hilary, and Gregory of Nazianzus: that the doctrine of the Trinity is revealed only in the New Testament.'

So any person who lived before Jesus' ministry did not have to believe in the Trinity to be saved because the Trinity is not mentioned in the Old Testament.

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9.What do Christian scholars say about the Trinity?

Mainstream scholars acknowledge that the Trinity is not explicitly defined in the New Testament but was formulated later by combining various verses and theological concepts.

Scholars freely admit that the Trinity is never presented as a complete doctrine in the New Testament, but rather is built from scattered Bible verses.

In the New Testament there is no explicit statement of the doctrine
Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (p. 1112)

It is not a Biblical doctrine in the sense that any formulation of it can be found in the Bible
New Bible Dictionary (p.1221)

The New Testament does not present a systematic presentation of the Trinity. The scattered segments from various writers that appear throughout the New Testament reflect a seemingly accepted understanding that exists without a full-length discussion.
Holman Bible Dictionary (p.1372)

Theologians admit the New Testament does not define the Trinity. Furthermore, there is no clear teaching that salvation depends on the belief in the Trinity.

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10.What is the King James Version (KJV) of the New Testament?

The King James Version (KJV) of the New Testament was completed in 1611 by 8 members of the Church of England.

There were (and still are) no original texts to translate. The oldest manuscripts we have were written down hundreds of years after the last Apostle died. There are over 8000 of these old manuscripts, with no two alike.

The King James translators chose to use none of the texts. Instead, they edited previous translations to create the New Testament their king and parliament would approve.

So today, 21st century Christians believe the 'Word of God' is a book edited in the 17th century from 16th century translations of 8000 contradictory copies of 4th century scrolls that claim to copies of lost letters written in the 1st century by unknown authors.

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11.Is the New Testament historically authentic?

Textual critics note that the original autographs of the New Testament books no longer exist, leaving thousands of handwritten Greek manuscripts that contain thousands of minor variants, mostly consisting of spelling or word order differences. Despite these historical copy changes, scholars emphasize that modern textual reconstruction methods allow historians to confidently identify the original 1st-century text, ensuring no essential historical narrative or Christian doctrine is left in doubt.

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12.What is the oldest manuscript of the Bible New Testament?

It is of enormous importance in establishing the biblical text. There are three earliest manuscripts of the Bible New Testament:

1. Codex Alexandrinus is one of the earliest and most important manuscripts of the entire Bible in Greek

2. Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most important books in the world and is kept in the British Library. Handwritten well over 1600 years ago, the manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament.

3. Codex Vaticanus in Rome

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13.What language is the earliest New Testament in?

The earliest New Testament manuscripts are in Koine Greek. But there are Aramaic phrases in the Gospels. Therefore, Scholars believe an Aramaic layer lies beneath the written Greek of the New Testament, one which may never have been written down.

If true, the Greek text is itself a translation, and English text would be a translation of a translation, which raises textual inerrancy and corruption issue.

Since every translation is a personal judgement of which word to best use, made at the translators discretion.

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14.What is the God of the Old Testament like?

The God of the Old Testament is a jealous, bloodthirsty, vicious God that mercilessly commanded horrific attrocities like, for example:

Killing every human on the planet except the handful that went with Noah.

Moses commanding his people to shed each others blood as atonement for creating and worshiping the golden calf

The genocide of the people in the promised land when the Hebrews finally ended their 40-year stay in the dessert. Under the command of God, they wiped out whole cities, killing every man, woman and child.

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15.Is the Old Testament historically authentic?

Mainstream biblical scholarship clarifies that the Old Testament is an anthology of ancient texts compiled, edited, and transmission-copied by diverse authors over more than a millennium. While archaeological discoveries like the Dead Sea Scrolls confirm that the texts have been preserved with high fidelity for over 2,000 years, comparative textual analysis reveals localized spelling updates, minor scribal variations, and stylistic expansions common to ancient Near Eastern manuscript traditions.

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16.Did Jesus abolish the Old Testament Law?

In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus explicitly states in Matthew 5:17 that he did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them. Mainstream Christian theology interprets this 'fulfillment' as Jesus perfectly satisfying the legal and sacrificial requirements of the Mosaic covenant, thereby inaugurating a New Covenant where specific ritual laws are no longer binding on believers. Secular historians and Islamic scholars emphasize that during his life, Jesus operated firmly within first-century Judaism, actively practicing and teaching obedience to the commandments of the Torah.

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17.What did James say of the Old Testament Law?

In the New Testament Epistle of James, the author strongly emphasizes that faith without accompanying righteous deeds is dead and notes that stumbling at just one point makes a person guilty of breaking the entire Law (James 2:10). Early church records and historical scholarship depict James the Just (the brother of Jesus) as a deeply traditional, law-observant leader of the Jerusalem Church. He maintained that Jewish believers should strictly adhere to traditional Mosaic customs, which later created a significant theological tension with Apostle Paul's ministry to the Gentiles.

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18.What is the punishment for apostasy in The Bible (Old Testament)?

In the legal codes of the Old Testament, most notably Deuteronomy 13:6-11, the prescribed statutory punishment for an Israelite who entices others to worship foreign gods is death by public stoning. While historical narratives like Exodus 32 document severe executions for national apostasy (such as the incident with the Golden Calf), biblical scholars note that this capital penalty was legally designed to protect the monotheistic identity of ancient Israel.

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19.What was the foundation of the Old Testament?

The foundational belief of the Old Testament is strict monotheism, epitomized by the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4): 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.' This faith was maintained in opposition to surrounding polytheistic practices.

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20.Does the Old Testament teach the Christian Trinity?

Mainstream biblical scholars and historians agree that the Old Testament does not explicitly teach the doctrine of the Trinity, nor did ancient Jewish communities possess a concept of a triune Godhead. There is no historical evidence in pre-Christian Jewish literature including the Hebrew text, the Dead Sea Scrolls, or ancient commentaries of a belief in a plurality of divine Persons. While Christian theologians retrospectively interpret certain plural expressions (such as 'Let us make man' in Genesis 1:26) as hints of the Trinity, ancient Judaism strictly maintained a unitarian monotheistic understanding of God.

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21.What do Christian 'Trinity' scholars say about the Old Testament?

Many theologians, including this analysis of Trinity dogma, note that the Old Testament does not explicitly contain the Trinity, which they believe was only fully revealed later.

The distinguished Trinitarian scholar Bertrand de Margerie in his book The Christian Trinity in History writes:

'Contemporary exegetes [Bible teachers] affirm unanimously that the Old Testament did not bring to the Jewish people a clear and distinct Revelation of the existence of a plurality of persons in God. In this they agree with the clear and frequent affirmation of Fathers such as Irenaeus, Hilary, and Gregory of Nazianzus: that the doctrine of the Trinity is revealed only in the New Testament.'

So any person who lived before Jesus' ministry did not have to believe in the Trinity to be saved because the Trinity is not mentioned in the Old Testament.

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22.Many Christians believe that Jesus abolished the Old Testament dietary laws

Many Christians believe that Jesus abolished the Old Testament dietary laws. The dietary interpretation of Jesus' words (i.e. swine pig consumption) does not exist in the Textus Receptus Bible, the authoritative Greek New Testament text that was accepted by the Christian Church until about 100 years ago.

This parenthetic interpretation of Jesus words was obviously a comment that some Bible scribe wrote in the margin of the text. Later scribes accidentally or deliberately incorporated the marginal comment into the text itself, so the statement appears only in corrupted texts.

But the statement does not appear in the Textus Receptus, so the KJV says nothing about Jesus 'declaring all foods clean.'

God had clearly prohibited pig, swine and pork in the Old Testament. This verse was over whether or not 'unwashed hands' caused clean food to become unclean.

'Thus he declared all foods clean' is completely missing from the Textus Receptus, the authoritative Greek New Testament line used for centuries. It claims this widespread dietary interpretation was likely a later scribal note added to the margins of the text, which was subsequently mistaken for Jesus' actual words in corrupted versions.

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23.How did Early Christians view the Old Testament?

Early Christians considered the Old Testament 'God-breathed' and authoritative, but believed its ultimate meaning was only revealed through its connection to Jesus Christ, who fulfilled Israel's prophetic history.

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