The Trinity in the Old Testament

While Trinitarian concepts are more explicitly laid out in the New Testament, they are implicitly
revealed in the Old Testament. Clear intimations of Trinitarian concepts in the Hebrew Bible
include:

1) The use of plural forms.

a) Pronouns, where God speaking, uses "us" and "our":
i) Genesis 3:22, “Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of
Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the
tree of life, and eat, and live forever”
ii) Genesis 11:7, ” Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they
may not understand one another’s speech.”
iii) Isaiah 6:8, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “ Whom shall I send, And
who will go for Us?””
iv) Genesis 1:26-27, “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our
likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air,
and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on
the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created
him; male and female He created them.”
(1) The most important reference is Genesis 1:26-27; it is here where the plurality is
used in connection with the very nature of God.
(2) This last reference is the most important (and compelling) one because here God
uses plural forms in the context of his own "image and likeness."
b) The plural form for "Lord" used frequently in the Old Testament:'adonai ("Lord,"
literally, "my Masters"). The vowel in the last syllable of 'adonai was apparently
lengthened by rabbis in the post-New Testament period. This is thought to have been
done to sharpen the distinction between earthly lords and the Lord God.
c) The Old Testament had a singular term for God, Eloah, which they occasionally used, but
the vast majority of the time the plural form of God, Elohim, is used throughout the Old
Testament. Had there been only be two persons within God, the Hebrews could have
used a dual form Elohiayim, which was typically (although not always) used of things
that occured in pairs.
2) Usage of "one" in a composite sense.
a) Even though the Old Testament teaches that God is "one," (Deuteronomy 6:4) this does
not conflict in any way with Trinitarian beliefs. On the contrary, it actually helps to
affirm them. One of the most compelling examples in the Old Testament of the
composite sense of "one" is found in Genesis 2:24. Two people (created in the "image"
of God) become "one flesh" in the marriage union (and thus a sense of the "image" in a
composite sense). The use of the Hebrew word for "one" (eXad) in other passages
similarly demonstrates that this word means "one entity" rather than a strictly single,
solitary thing.

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3) Theophanies, where Christ appears in the form of the "Angel (or Messenger) of the Lord."
a) The Old Testament presents striking examples of a Being who, although He appears in
the form of a man, acts and speaks like God and is referred to as God. Mysteriously, He
is both identified as God and distinguished from God. We find this in passages such as
Genesis 16:7-13; 18-19; 22:11-18; Exodus 3:2-6; 23:20-23; Judges 6:11-14, 20-22; 13:21-
23). Note also how Zechariah 12:8 equates God and the Angel of the Lord. These
Theophanies were prepartory for the incarnation in that they anticipated the coming of
a Heavenly Visitor who would one day be both truly God and man.
4) The "Son" passages:
a) The Old Testament describes a Being who is uniquely a human-divine Son. In the light of
the New Testament we see that Jesus in His Being is the fulfillment of the Son of Man,
the Son of God, and the Son-King (of which Solomon was a foreshadowing).
i) Proverbs 30:4
ii) Isaiah 9:6 He is a son and child, but also the "mighty God."
iii) Psalm 2:7-12 (although the translation of "son" in verse 12 can be disputed) This
Psalm describes a Son-King who receives the nations as His inheritance.
iv) Daniel 7:13-14 This passage forms the background behind Christ's use of the
Messianic title "Son of Man." Note that the contexts of Psalm 2 and Daniel 7 have
identical strands of thought: the inheriting of all the kingdoms of the earth. The
word "Son of Man" does not here mean "a mortal man"--one from among the "sons
of men." The point here is not that the Person is perfectly human. The significance of
the title "Son of Man' in this passage is fourfold:
(1) His exalted personality as the One who comes from heaven and opposes the
beastly human powers, which come from earth (Daniel 7:3)
(2) His advent in conjunction with the reappearance of the theophanic glory cloud
(7:13),
(3) His free access to the 'One who is an ancient of days' (God the Father, 7:13), and
(4) His universal and everlasting reign (7:14). (J. B. Payne, Theology of the Older
Testament, p. 265.)
5) The use of pronouns suggesting more than one Person within God.
a) The LORD talking, uses both "Me" and "Him" referring to the same Being (Christ) in
Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of
Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they
pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him
as one grieves for a firstborn”
b) The Angel of the Lord speaking, uses both "from Me" and "fearer of God" in referring to
the same entity (Genesis 22:12, “And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do
anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your
son, your only son, from Me”).

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6) Passages that identify two Beings as God or LORD (YHWH).

a) Genesis 18 & 19 (YHWH in heaven versus YHWH on earth)
i) Genesis 18: 1, “Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as
he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.”; 18:13, “And the LORD said to
Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’”
ii) Genesis 19:23-25, The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. 24 Then
the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of
the heavens. 25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the
cities, and what grew on the ground.
b) Psalm 45:6-7 (God referring to Another as "God") ; “Your throne, O God, is forever and
ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You love righteousness
and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of
gladness more than Your companions.”
c) Zechariah 3:1-2 (YHWH calling upon YHWH: "Then he showed me Joshua the high priest
standing before the Angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose
him. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD who has
chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”"
7) The Holy Spirit is linked with God and given attributes of personality.
a) Isaiah 63:8-10, “For He said, “Surely they are My people, Children who will not lie.” So
He became their Savior. 9 In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the Angel of His
Presence saved them; In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; And He bore
them and carried them All the days of old. 10 But they rebelled and grieved His Holy
Spirit; So He turned Himself against them as an enemy, And He fought against them.”
b) All three Persons of the Trinity can be seen in Isaiah 63:8-10, but most importantly we
see here the personality of the Holy Spirit. He is "vexed, grieved" by disobedience. This
verb in Hebrew is always used in conjunction with persons (or God and gods); never of
inanimate things.

Comment: I used this Internet Resource: The Trinity in the Old Testament