Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah · 1. God in Christianity
Is the Trinity in the Bible? The texts that are not there
In short
- 1.**1 John 5:7-8** (the Comma Johanneum) — the one explicit Trinitarian verse — is absent from every Greek manuscript before the 14th century and is dropped from modern critical editions.
- 2.**Matthew 28:19** names three, but naming three is not defining one substance in three persons — the verse says nothing about co-equality or co-eternity.
- 3.The word 'Trinity' appears nowhere in the Bible, and no biblical writer sets out the doctrine.
- 4.Jesus never says 'I am God, worship me' in any of the four Gospels.
The claim being examined
Christians point to a set of proof-texts — 1 John 5:7, Matthew 28:19, John 1:1 — as biblical warrant for the Trinity.
The Islamic position
Islam maintains that the clearest 'Trinitarian' verse in the Bible is a later insertion, and the rest are read into the text rather than out of it.
Analysis
A doctrine held to be the central mystery of the faith should be statable from the text of scripture. The Comma Johanneum is the textbook case: it entered the Latin tradition, was carried into Erasmus' third edition under pressure, and from there into the King James Version — and it has now been removed from serious modern translations because the manuscript evidence against it is overwhelming. Once it is set aside, the remaining passages require the doctrine as a prior assumption in order to yield it as a conclusion.
From the Qur'an
Qur'an 5:73
لَّقَدْ كَفَرَ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ ثَالِثُ ثَلَاثَةٍ ۘ وَمَا مِنْ إِلَٰهٍ إِلَّا إِلَٰهٌ وَاحِدٌ
They have certainly disbelieved who say that God is the third of three, when there is no god except one God.
From the Bible
1 John 5:7-8 (KJV)
ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὁ πατήρ, ὁ λόγος, καὶ τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one — absent from all early Greek manuscripts.
Read it in their BibleMatthew 28:19
εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος
Baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Read it in their BibleSources
Abu Zakariya, Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah · Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament · Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus · Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah — ch. 1, pp. 23-29
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