the "What Trinity?" series
One Spirit
by haRold Smith
a citizen of the Commonwealth (Ephesians 2:19)
"How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, who
intend
to make My people
forget MY NAME?" Jeremiah 23:26-27
"...baptizing them in
the NAME
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..." Matthew 28:19
"But when help comes alongside, which I will impart to you
from the Father
the spirit of Truth (Who is YaHoVeH),
which goes out from the Father
He (YHVH) will bear witness about me." John 15:26
"The wind (spirit) blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
So it is with everyone who is born of spirit." John 3:8
It is a source of constant wonderment to see how men can extract a single verse out of scripture and build an empirical doctrine of theology around it that has no consistency of support or verification anywhere else in scripture. But, this is not a new phenomenon - as seen in the passage from Jeremiah above. The last article,
In Addition (click on highlighted words to view content),
ended with this question - "Ask yourself, if the Father's intent is for us to really come to know Him in Truth, and the scriptures were given to help us verify Truth - then why does the word "Trinity" not appear in any manuscript of scripture and why is the concept itself not to be found historically any further back than 300 years after the Resurrection (even then only emerging within the nefariousness that was the origin of the Constantinian Roman Catholic Church)?" The answer to this question can be found in the lies perpetuated by the tradition of men which carry an agenda of their own intent (that of
Replacement Theology)
that have been handed down to us for centuries. The early church fathers who were in command of the translations of scripture were all, to a man, Gentile, anti-Semitic, Platonic philosopher-theologians. They had every reason to include a formula asserting a radical and fundamental identity difference between Judaism, even Messianic Judaism, and Christianity couched in the Greek categories of "person."
For instance - are you aware that even with all the translations available,
Matthew 28:19
is the only verse in the entirety of all scripture where this phrase, "...the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" are linked together in this fashion in the same passage? The
Shem-Tov Hebrew Gospel
of Matthew 28:19-20 simply says, "Go and (teach) them to carry out all the things which I have commanded you forever" with no mention of the triune formula. Particularly with all the traditional doctrinal emphasis placed upon there being a triune god - do you not find this an odd occurance? When you couple this fact with the additional observation from the previous paragraph and with the knowledge that the Greek word used for "Holy Spirit" in this passage,
pneuma,
is not the same Greek word used for "Comforter or Helper" in
John 14:16-20
(parakletos)
- do not even more questions begin to arise? After all, are not both instances supposed to be referring to this same "third person" of the trinity?
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Spirit / Wind
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Pneuma is found 385 times in scripture and is used to generally describe "a spirit" - not "the spirit" (in spite of the Strong's insistent superimposition of the trinity doctrine upon it; i.e., the last definition in the Strong's list, "a movement of wind", is the first definition used by the Thayer's Lexicon for pneuma). Not once among all those 385 appearances is pneuma ever associated with or used as an "advocate" - which is the primary definition of parakletos (Comforter or Helper), found only five times in scripture. And the last time parakletos is used in
1John 2:1
is to describe the function of Yeshua as our advocate - not the "Holy Spirit". Isn't that interesting? Then, when you go to
Galatians 4:6
and see where it says YHVH has sent, not the Comforter (parakletos), but the "spirit (pneuma) of His Son" into our hearts - doesn't it make you curious as to just Who the heck is in there and why has there been so much confusion over this issue?
In the same regard, the Hebrew words
ruach
ha
kodesh
(reading right to left is Hebrew for the holiness of spirit - something that is
cultivated
within an individual by that individual) which appear throughout the Tanakh (OT) were only capitalized when they were translated as "Holy Spirit" into English to conform the words to a pre-formulated agenda (there is no capitalization in either Hebrew or Greek). Through the use of this capitalization. an actionable verb phrase was changed into a noun entity - something the Hebrew authors never meant to convey. "Saint" is another word that appears throughout the Tanakh to describe a member of the family of YHVH. In Hebrew, the word translated "saint" is
kadosh
and like kodesh means "holy" which in both the Hebrew and the Greek simply means "to be set apart"
(Deuteronomy 33:3).
There is but the Father and the Son - no one else.
The confusion in all of these issues lies in not understanding, not knowing this Hebrew Spirit for Who He says He is in Truth - who scripture speaks of Him as; and, instead, relying on and following the dictates of the tradition of men
(Mark 7:13).
Are you aware that the Name of this Hebrew God,
YaHoVeH
appears over 6,500 times in scripture - yet, not once does His Name ever appear in any of our "modern" translations? It has been replaced in these translations by the names Jehovah, Adonai or LORD - none of which has any equivalency to what appears in the original Hebrew those scriptures were written in
(ref Deuteronomy 6:4 - "LORD").
Wherever you see the capitalization of Lord or God in the English translations, that is where the Name of YaHoVeH appeared in the original manuscripts. It can not be said enough: every letter of every book in the Book (including all those of the Messianic Writings) were written by Hebrews, from a Hebrew perspective, fashioned out of a Hebrew culture primarily to a Hebrew audience who understood the nuances of the Hebrew language. When we consider 2/3 of this Hebrew Book to not be relevant because everything has been replaced, we find ourselves at a serious disadvantage when it comes to comprehending these Hebrew concepts contained in those Hebrew words
(see Who's Word Is It? for more).
There is a consistent theme found in scripture from cover to cover of the Book. Every premise contained in all the other scriptures are built around and upon this one, distinct, single Truth that every Hebrew knew when these books were written and knows now - even Yeshua, born a Hebrew, confirmed it. That theme is
the Shema
- "there is but One Spirit and His Name is One"
(Deuteronomy 6:4-5,
Mark 12:28-30).
Yeshua said in
John 4:24
that "God IS Spirit" - so, everytime the word "God" is read in scripture, we should be thinking "Spirit". To know the Source of Life Who is an eternal Spirit and the Messiah, the One Whom He Sent as the image of that Spirit displayed among us, IS eternal Life
(John 17:3).
When someone calls your name, they are calling you, not some other person inside of you - it is your identity.
In Hebrew, names, like words, mean things. In Hebrew culture, it is not uncommon for an adult to be given another name based on his/her behavior. So we are not necessarily pointing to the name given at birth, but as in the case of Jacob being
renamed Israel
(which means
"El prevails"
or "contender" because he contended with YaHoVeh and prevailed), a name given to someone according to their observable behavior. They are not simply abstract references, as is illustrated in
1Samuel 25:25
where Nabal is described "...as his name is, so is he." Names in Hebrew have intrinsic meanings. This speaks to the name as describing the character of the bearer of that name. The Hebrew language began as pictures - images of what was essential to the object described. When Adam named the animals, he didn't just pull their names out of thin air. The names he chose revealed what he saw, behavior displayed before him, that made that particular animal what it was. The same is true of Hebrew names for humans. Nabal is not just any name. It is a name that describes who Nabal is. He is foolish as his name says. So, the composite
Paleo-Hebrew pictograph
that the individual Hebrew picture/letters N-B-L comprise mean, "one pulled along by activity in the house." In other words, Nabal's world is focused entirely on what is happening within the confines of his being, his house. His world is centered only on his own concerns and that, from a Hebraic perspective, is the essence of a fool.
Now, notice that the Hebrew noun,
nabal,
is really a description of actions. It doesn't just refer to a person who happens to be called by this word. It reveals the actions of that person. His name can not be disconnected from how he lives. To name something is to designate its true essence. Consequently, a name like Balaam
Numbers 22
is not just the name of a prophet who is to speak a curse against Israel. It is his identity. In the case of Balaam, his name means
not of the people.
Names mean things and this concept of naming is found throughout the Tanakh (OT), becoming very important in how we view these Hebrew words - as seen in the next article, ...One Name.
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a discussion of One Spirit
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"Whoever keeps his commandments abides in YHVH and YHVH in him.
And by this we know that He abides in us, by His Spirit He has given us." 1John 3:24
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The Trinity Series
Part One, the Godhead
Part Two, Agreement
Part Three, In Addition
Part Four, One Spirit...
Part Five, ...One Name
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???Questions???
Please feel free to email me at harold@hethathasanear.com.
While not claiming to have all
the answers, it would be an honor to partake with you of what Spirit is uncovering.
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