For Christians who share the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the Bible is the highest and final argument justifying the truth of this dogma. But the Holy Scriptures do not clearly and clearly speak anywhere about the essence of the Trinity, and the early Christians did not know anything about it.
Christianity historically began to form within the framework of the Jewish religion, which venerated only One, its national God - God Yahweh. True, in the oldest Christian scriptures, some of which under the name of the New Testament became an integral part of the Christian Bible, the founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ, is called the Son of God (Matthew, 3:17; 4: 3; 11:27; 14:33; Mark, 1: 11; 5: 7; 14:61; Luke 1:35; 4: 3.9;). But in the Bible, the sons of God are those who believe in the biblical God, who faithfully serve him.
According to the Bible, the Sons of God were in love with the daughters of men, which was very displeasing to the Lord God and He, God, brought a flood to the earth (Genesis, chapter 6); Angels are apparently called sons of God in the book of Job (25: 6). In the Psalms, all Jewish believers are called sons of the Most High (Psalm 81: 6; 88: 7). In his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ himself calls the peacemakers sons of God (Matthew 5: 9). So the biblical name of Jesus Christ the Son of God does not give reason to consider him God the Son. The Son of God and God the Son are, as they say in my native Odessa, two big differences. If you believe the gospel stories, then Jesus Christ was executed not because he called himself the son of God, but because he dared to call himself God, that is, to call himself God the Son, “making himself equal to God” (John 5:18; 22:70). True, Jesus Christaccording to the Gospel stories, he never openly called himself God the Son; in such a self-name of him, again according to the stories of the Gospels, the Jews were unjustly accused (Matthew, 26: 59-60; 27:12; Luke, 23:14).
The early Christians did not believe in the Trinity
In the first writings of Christians who entered (the Apocalypse, the first three Gospels) and did not enter the canon of the New Testament, neither God the Son, much less the Holy Trinity still does not smell. Christians had no idea of the Holy Trinity until the middle of the 2nd century. If at that time some Christian preacher had started talking about the Holy Trinity to them, they would have considered him an utter heretic.
Through the cracks of early Christianity, imperceptibly, little by little, gradually the smells of the coming dogma of the Holy Trinity first began to seep only from the middle of the 2nd century, for the first time clearly - in the Gospel of John. In it, indeed, Jesus Christ ascends to the level of the Word of God, the Logos, to the level of the Divine, one might say - God the Son. But it began in Christianity in the second half of the 2nd century, more than 150 years after Christmas, the coming of Jesus Christ to our sinful world. The real, historical Jesus Christ, his apostles, the immediate followers of the apostles did not do this.
True, believers from non-Jews who came to Christianity immediately took Jesus Christ for God and, as Pliny the Younger testified at the beginning of the 2nd century, "they prayed to Jesus Christ as God." But this was by no means Jewish Christians. Even in the 3rd century, Jewish Christians had their own idea of Jesus Christ, did not elevate him to the rank of God. Such Christians were called Jews at that time.
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Sources of belief in the Holy Trinity
When Christianity was expelled from Judaism, pagan - not biblical and non-Jewish - beliefs in savior gods (Adonis, Mithra, Osiris and others) began to flow into its midst, and, together with pagan savior gods, beliefs in the existence of the Three leading gods of the heavenly pantheon (the so-called Trimurti: Trinity in Vedism: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva; Trinity of the Babylonian religion: Anu, Enlil and Ea; the ancient Egyptian trinity: Osiris (God the Father), Isis (Mother Goddess) and Horus (God the Son) and so on).
The philosophical and theological doctrine of Gnosticism, which dominated public opinion at the beginning of our era, had a significant influence on the formation of the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Gnosticism bizarrely combined the philosophy of Pythagoreanism and Platonism with Old Testament and original Christian beliefs. One of the first and most prominent figures in the mainstream of Gnosticism was the Jewish Rabbi Philo
Alexandrian (25 BC, 50 AD).
Philo tried to combine the philosophy of Plato with biblical beliefs, more precisely with the text of the Jewish Bible itself. The works of Philo of Alexandria came in handy for Christianity. Communicating with the work of Philo, Christianity at the same time honored, according to Jewish custom, the holiness of the Bible, on the one hand, and on the other hand, it became familiar with pagan culture and philosophy. It is no coincidence that a number of researchers (Bruno Bauer, David Strauss, Friedrich Engels) consider Philo of Alexandria "the father of the Christian doctrine."
Gnosticism of the 1st-2nd century AD, together with Christianity, broke away from Judaism and began to "develop" on its own basis. At this stage, the Gnostics Valentin and Basilides turned out to be great masters of their craft, who introduced into their teachings the concept of the emanation of the deity, of the hierarchy of essences flowing from the nature of God. The Latin-speaking Christian apologist of the 3rd century Tertullian (160 - after 220) testifies that it was the Gnostics who first invented the heretical doctrine of the Trinity of deity. “Philosophy,” he writes, “gave birth to all heresies. "Zones" and other strange inventions came from her. From her the Gnostic Valentine produced his humanoid Trinity, for he was a Platonist. From her, from philosophy, came the kind and careless Marcion God, since Marcion himself was a stoic "(Tertullian." On the writings of heretics ", 7-8).
Making fun of the humanoid Trinity of the Gnostics, prolific and rapidly developing his religious and philosophical system, Tertullian himself eventually created his doctrine of the Trinity. He wrote that everything begins with the fact that forever there is one God, in which the Logos is potentially contained, as inner thinking, and the Spirit, as a property of goodness. Having wished to create the world, God personalizes (endows with the property of existence and personality) the Logos, and then, wishing to save the fallen and erring humanity, personifies the Spirit, which comes from God through the Logos. The formed Holy Trinity is in a certain hierarchical subordination. Their root is in the original God, in God the Father. God
- root, Son - plant, Spirit
- a fruit, he wrote (Against Praxeus, 4-6).
And although Tertullian, by the force of the historical evolution of Christianity, found himself on the sidelines of its currents and was later condemned as a heretic-Montanist, his doctrine of the Trinity became the starting point for the formation of the church doctrine of God. Archpriest John Mayendorff, the most prominent connoisseur of Christian patristics in the 20th century, writes: "Tertullian's great merit is that he first used an expression that later became firmly embedded in Orthodox Trinity theology."
Creed without Trinity
In the 4th century, having become the dominant state religion, Christianity already recognized Jesus Christ to a certain, not fully, God, but did not yet believe in the Holy Trinity, did not have and did not recognize the dogma of the Holy Trinity. At the first Ecumenical Council in 325, Christianity developed and approved a summary of its doctrine and called it the Symbol of Faith. It was written in it that Christians believe "In one God - the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of everything visible and invisible."
The Symbol of Faith is held in great esteem by Christians. 95% of modern Christians consider him to be an example of the essence of the Christian faith. Those Christian churches, denominations, schisms, sects that do not recognize the Symbol of Faith (It is called Nikeo-Tsaregrad, since it was adopted at the first two councils, which took place in the city of Nicaea and Tsargorod, that is, in Constantinople.) Are not recognized as Christian. So, according to the text of the Nicene-Constantinople Symbol of Faith, God the Father is the One God, the Creator of heaven and earth, of everything visible and invisible. Note, in the Creed only God the Father is called God. Below in the Creed it says: I believe "And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, born of the Father …" Look closely. Here, in the same Creed, Jesus Christ is recognized as the Son of God, but is not called God,but is called only the Lord, or rather - the master.
The Nicene-Constantinople Creed was written in Greek. The word "Theoc" (Theos, Theos) - God is applied to the essence of God the Father in him, and in relation to Jesus Christ only the word "Kirie" (Kyrios, Kyrie - Lord, Lord). In the Creed, Jesus Christ is not recognized as God. When the ecclesiastical leaders of the Christian Church wrote this Symbol of Faith, they were strict monotheists, in their religion there was only one and only God - GOD THE FATHER.
Having become the state religion, emerging from the dark and damp underground into the light of day, the Christian church, having looked around, began to fit into the culture of the Greco-Roman world.
Compared to the richness of the culture of the Greco-Roman world, Christianity looked less like a poor relative than a homeless, starving bum. So the bum began to "privatize" the wealth of the developed Greco-Roman "socialism". And there, as well as here, there was something to "grab".
The doctrine of the Trinity - the birth of Neoplatonism
Christianity, which became the state religion and therefore took on the functions of a nationwide ideology, had to stock up on the abandoned pagan wealth for the future, first of all, the wealth of the worldview plan, so that it was possible to explain “everything and to what extent” to the citizens of the country. This worldview wealth at that time was concentrated in Neoplatonism, which once, as mentioned above, stood at the origins of the worldview of the original and early Christianity, one might say - at the origins of Christianity itself. By the 4th-5th centuries, the philosophy of Neoplatonism reached the peak of its flowering, and Gnosticism has irrevocably sunk into eternity, leaving only its birthmarks on Christianity. Neoplatonism in the work of such great representatives as Iamblichus, Proclus, Plotinus, Porfiry, reflected the whole world,from the One Absolute God to matter and the underworld, in the form of a chain of interconnected and generating each other Triads. So, for example, the Neoplatonist Proclus (410-485) saw three points in the process of emanation (outflow) of all things from the One Absolute God:
1. The work is proper to the work in the producer. This initial moment, according to Proppus, is in a state of merged, undivided unity ("Mopu", moni).
2. The exit of the produced from the producer ("Prodos", pro-dos).
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3. The return of the produced to the producing ("Epistrophy", epistrophy). This is, so to speak, a general methodology for comprehending all that exists.
Having expounded this principle, Proclus proceeds to a more detailed disclosure of existing entities at each moment of development. Above all, he puts the Divine primordial being, which transcends all existence.
The first emanation of the divine principle is the gennads (born), which contribute to the transition from the One (from the One) to the multiplicity. The first to emerge from the gennads is the emanated essence, standing at the level of the deity and directly connected with the One, - the World Mind ("Nous", nus, the World Intellect), which emanates from itself the Trinity, Consubstantial and inseparable: 1. Genesis (in the Christian Trinity - God Father); 2. Life (in Christianity, the Holy Spirit, as a giver of life) and 3. Logos, thinking (in the Gospel of John - the Son of God, Jesus Christ). And further, within the framework, in the system, with the methodology of triadic thinking, Proclus sets out all the elements of the world comprehended by him.
The final sections of his philosophizing, Proclus devotes to the problem of the mystical fusion of man with deity, the process of returning a fallen man to God. This return path (the path of man to God) also includes three points: the path of Eros, the path of Truth and the path of Faith … And so on in the same spirit.
It should be borne in mind that all the leading (Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa and others) creators of the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity studied philosophy in the Athenian school of neo-Platonists, which was active until 529. In this school, the creators of Christian theology learned, as they said, Hellenic wisdom, on the basis of this neo-Platonic Hellenic wisdom, they composed the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
As a result, at the second, in Constantinople, the Ecumenical Christian Council (381), under the chairmanship of Gregory the Theologian and Gregory of Nyssa, several sentences about the Holy Spirit were added to the Nicene Creed. In this postscript of the Council of Constantinople it was written: I also believe “in the Holy Spirit, the Lord Life-giving, coming from God the Father …” Thus, belief in the Lord Jesus Christ was added to the belief in the Lord of the Holy Spirit. Both of them - both God the Son and God the Holy Spirit - in the Nicene-Constantinople Creed were proclaimed not as Gods, but only as Lords almost equal to God the Father; well, something like full-fledged representatives of God in certain areas, on certain issues.
But the Nicene-Constantinople creed has not yet approved the dogma of the Holy Trinity in Christianity - faith in it in its modern understanding. Then, in the 4th century, the official Christian church, calling itself the one, holy, universal and apostolic church, proclaimed faith in the One God the Father and faith in the Lord Son of God Jesus Christ and the Lord Holy Spirit.
To this we add here that at none of the church councils the dogma of the Holy Trinity in its modern ecclesiastical understanding and theological interpretation was approved, since it is clearly - both in form and content - in flagrant contradiction with the canonical decisions of the First and Second Ecumenical Cathedrals. The decisions of the First and Second Ecumenical Councils do not know the Gods of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, equal to God the Father; they do not know the equal to God the Father and the Holy Spirit, who, de, "proceeds from God the Father."
Let us emphasize again, since in this case it is very, very important: the Nicene-Constantinople Creed knows the One God the Father, his only begotten Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Pan Jesus Christ is written in the Ukrainian text of the Creed), and also knows the Lord (Pan) of the Holy Spirit that comes from God the Father.
The modern dogma of the Holy Trinity
The dogma of the Holy Trinity was created outside the text of the Bible and outside the canons of the Ecumenical Councils. The dogma of the Holy Trinity was first formulated anonymously in Christianity only in the 6th century. This dogma was first stated in a document that went down in church history under the name "QUICUM-QUE" (Kuikumkwe).
The title of the document is taken from the first word of its first sentence, where it was written: "QUICUMQUE vult salvus esse, ante omnia opus est, ut teneat catholicam fidem" (Whoever wants to be saved must first of all adhere to the Catholic faith). And further it is said that one must believe that God is one in essence and threefold in persons; that there is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, but not three Gods, but One God; that a Christian is obliged to equally honor and pray separately to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, but not as three Gods, but God alone.
This document was first published in an appendix to the writings of the famous theologian and preacher Caesar of Arles, who died in 542. In scientific and conscientious theological circles, it is assumed that "Kuikumkwe" was written by Saint Vincent of Lyrin, who died in the early 6th century. Most researchers date the appearance of the document to the years 500-510. To give credibility to the document, Catholic theologians attributed its creation to Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (Saint Athanasius the Great, 293-373) and gave it the name “Symbol of Athanasius the Great”.
Of course, Saint Athanasius, who had died a century and a half before the writing of Kuikumkwe, knew nothing about his symbol by sleep or spirit. In the textbook for modern Orthodox theological seminaries by Archpriest John Meyendorff, "Introduction to Patristic Theology," the treatise "Kuikumkwe" is not at all mentioned and is not indicated among the works of St. Athanasius the Great. To all this, it must be added that St. Athanasius wrote his works only in Greek, and "Kuikumkwe" has come down to us in Latin. In the Greek-speaking Orthodox Church, this symbol was not known until the 12th century, until the division in 1054 of the Christian Church into Catholicism and Orthodoxy. But over time, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the content of "Kuikumkwe" was translated into Greek and taken as a model for the presentation of the general Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Now the overwhelming majority of Christian churches and sects accept the dogma of the Holy Trinity in the presentation of the "Symbol of Athanasius the Great."
Redistribution of the Bible
But the tragedy of the Christian church doctrine of the Holy Trinity lies in the fact that this dogma is comprehensively substantiated from the point of view of Neoplatonism, but not a single word is confirmed by the text of the Holy Scriptures. To eliminate this annoying defect, the churchmen in their own hand write in the Bible the phrase: “For three testify in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one”. This phrase was first inserted into the epistles of the apostle Paul, then into the epistle of the apostle Peter, and, finally, a more suitable place was found for it in the first epistle of the apostle John, where it is still found. It is now written there: “This is Jesus Christ, who came by water and blood (and spirit); not with water only, but with water and blood. And the spirit bears witness (of Him), because the Spirit is truth. (For three I testify in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.) For three I testify in heaven: spirit, water and blood; and these three are in one (1 John 5: 6-8). Words in parentheses are absent in all ancient - up to the 7th century - New Testament texts.
After the invention of printing, the first scientific publication of the books of the New Testament in two languages - Greek and Latin - was carried out by Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469-1536). In the first two editions of the text, Erasmus did not publish words about the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, since he did not find these words in the numerous copies of the New Testament that he had for 4-6 centuries. And only in the third edition, under pressure from the Catholic Church, he was forced to insert the words that were so necessary for the dogma of the Holy Trinity. This third edition of the Bible by Erasmus of Rotterdam was then carefully edited by the Catholic Church and approved as canonical under the title Textus Reptus, which became the basis for the translation of the New Testament into all languages of the world. The Orthodox Church also accepted this insert.
This is how matters stand with the origin and confirmation of the dogma of the Holy Trinity in the Christian Church.
Beliefs of modern Christians
Of course, modern Christianity, which has adopted the dogma of the Holy Trinity, is forced to substantiate it not by reference to the Neoplatonists, but to the Holy Scriptures. But sacred scripture, unlike the creativity of the neoplatonists, does not provide any basis for the recognition of this dogma. That is why there are still significant differences between Christian churches and sects in the interpretation and understanding of this dogma.
So, detailing the relationship between the persons of the Holy Trinity, the Orthodox Church believes that the Holy Spirit "comes from God the Father", and the Catholic Church - that the Holy Spirit "comes from God the Father and from God the Son." Both churches find in the Bible confirmation only of their view of the Holy Spirit. The Orthodox Church refers to the expression of Jesus Christ, who calls the Holy Spirit the Comforter, the spirit of truth and says that he, the Holy Spirit, “proceeds from the Father” (John 15:26), and elsewhere - “But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom My Father will send in my name”(John 14:26). And the Catholic Church in its justification refers to the fact that Jesus Christ, in this case - God the Son, says that it is he, God the Son, who will send them the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; John 15:26; Luke 4: 1.18). This is the Catholic "and from the Son" (filio-que,filioque) still serves as the most important dogmatic divergence between Orthodoxy and Catholicism.
Although the doctrine of the Holy Trinity obliges Christians to believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is equal to God the Father, but the Gospel Jesus Christ himself says that “My Father is greater than Me” (John 14:28); "My Father is greater than all" (John 10:15).
As for God the Holy Spirit, theologians prefer to talk about him least of all. Most Protestant preachers say that the image of the Holy Spirit has not yet been revealed to us, while others say that the Holy Spirit is only such a supernatural power that comes from God. There is no clear indication in the Bible that the Holy Spirit is a person.
A number of Christian churches and sects now do not recognize the dogma of the Holy Trinity. These include the Church of the Unitarians, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and some others. The dominant Christian churches, denominations and sects suggest that those who do not recognize the Nicene-Constantinople creed and the dogma of the Holy Trinity should not be considered Christians. Jehovah's Witnesses criticize the dogma of the Holy Trinity especially sharply, reasonedly and theologically.
NIKEO-TSAREGRAD SYMBOL OF FAITH
I BELIEVE:
01. In one God the Father-Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth2, of everything visible and invisible.
02. And into one Lord of our Jesus Christ - the Son of God; The only begotten, who was born of the Father before all ages; Light from Light, true God from true God3; born, not created; through Him everything came into being.
03. For the sake of us, people, and for the sake of our salvation, he descended from heaven, conceived of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became a man.
04. Crucified for us under Pontic Pilate; suffered and was buried.
05. And on the third day, according to the (Holy) Scriptures, resurrected.
06. He ascended into heaven and sits on the right side of the Father.
07. He will come again to judge the living and the dead, and his reign will have no end.
08. Yves of the Holy Spirit - the Life-giving Lord, who proceeds from the Father4; whom we worship and whom we glorify along with the Father and the Son; who spoke through the prophets.
09. Into one, holy, ecumenical5 and apostolic church.
10. I confess one baptism in which our sins are forgiven.
11. Waiting for the resurrection of the dead
12. And the life of the century to come.
Amen. 6
Notes:
1 The Nicene-Constantinople Creed was first written in solid text. Only later, in the 6-7th century, its text was divided into 12 parts according to the number of the apostles.
2 The expression "heaven and earth" in the text of the 1st and 2nd Ecumenical Councils was placed in the second term of the Creed. At the 4th Ecumenical Council (451), they expressed
the life of "heaven and earth" has been moved to the 1st term.
3 The expression "True God from true God" was inserted into the Nicene-Constantinople Creed in 451 at the 4th, Chalcedonian, Ecumenical Council.
4 In the 7th century, the Catholic Church here, after the word "Father", inserted the expression "and from the Son" (filioque).
5 The word "Ecumenical" in Greek sounds like "catholic", "catholic". And since after the division of the churches in 1054 the western part of the Christian Church called itself the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church replaced this expression of the Symbol of Faith in its text with “Cathedral”.
6 Translation from Greek is ours. - E. D.
Prof. Duluman E. K. Doctor of Philosophy, Candidate of Theology
* Eon (eternity) - in the philosophy of Gnosticism: spiritual entities that fill the space between God and the world. Eons are the product of the emanation of the deity, as they move away from which they lose their power. The number of eons can go up to 360. Sometimes they can have gender differences and form pairs.