MELITO AND THE WISDOM OF PSEUDO-SOLOMON

by Anthony Rogers

“St. Melito, Bishop of Sardis (c. 170), first drew up a list of the canonical books of the Old Testament….Melito's Canon consists exclusively of the protocanonicals minus Esther.”[1] – The Catholic Encyclopedia

Introduction

In his translation of Melito’s On Pascha, which includes additional fragments ascribed to Melito, Alistair Stewart provides the following translation of Eusebius’ introduction to and quote from Melito’s Extracts regarding the canon of Scripture:

“In the Extracts which he wrote the same author in his pref­ace begins by listing the recognized books of the old covenant. These we must also give here. He writes as follows:

‘Melito, to his brother Onesimus greetings.

Since you have often asked, in view of your great zeal for the word, that I should make for you extracts from the law and the prophets concerning the savior and the whole of our faith, and have further desired to learn the truth about the ancient books, especially with regard to their number and the manner in which they are arranged, I have been keen to do such a thing, knowing your devo­tion to the faith and love of learning concerning the word and especially given that, as you strive for eternal salva­tion, you examine these matters more than any others which pertain to God. And so, going to the east, where these matters were spoken and performed, I learned there the books of the old covenant with accuracy. Now I send you my treatise.

These are their names. There are five books of Moses: Genesis Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy. Joshua the son of Nave, Judges, Ruth, four books of Kingdoms, two books of Omissions, the Psalms of David, the Proverbs and the Wisdom of Solomon, Eccle­siastes, the Song of Songs, Job, and among the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. There are twelve prophets in one book, and Daniel, Ezekiel and Esdras. From these I have made my extracts, which are divided into six books.’”[2]

It was not uncommon in the past to refer, as Melito does above, to 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings as the “four books of Kingdoms,” or to 1-2 Chronicles as “Omissions”. These are the names given to these books in the LXX. Some have claimed that Melito’s list does not include Lamentations or Nehemiah,[3] but most recognize that Lamentations was included with Jeremiah and that the combination Ezra-Nehemiah is what Melito and others in the ancient church referred to as Esdras.[4] It is true that the list as it has been passed down to us doesn’t include Esther,[5] though perhaps it was glossed over by Melito’s source, or was inadvertently left out by Melito, or was mistakenly dropped by Eusebius who preserved this list.[6]

While none of the foregoing occasions any real surprises, and doesn’t pose any real problems, what is curious about Melito’s list is that he says he was seeking to provide not only the precise books but also the correct order, and yet in several respects the order is atypical. For example, Leviticus is mentioned between Numbers and Deuteronomy, which is otherwise uniformly placed after Exodus and before Numbers, and Ezekiel is placed between Daniel and Esdras, a placement not found in any other list. Nevertheless, for all its peculiarities with respect to order, the books that Melito listed are all part of the traditional Jewish canon, i.e. the Law and the Prophets, and the Protestant canon, i.e. Old Testament, with the possible exception of “Wisdom”. It is the proper identification of the latter with which this article is concerned.

Disambiguating Wisdom

Since the word “wisdom” is mentioned here in connection with Solomon, the word cannot refer to the Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirach, and this leaves only two known possibilities: (1) it could be a reference to what some early Christians erroneously identified as a work belonging to Solomon, namely, the Wisdom of Solomon;[7] or (2) it could be an alternative way of referring to the book of Proverbs, for Eusebius tells us that Hegessipus and Irenaeus “and the whole company of the ancients called the Proverbs of Solomon the all-virtuous Wisdom”.[8] Since Melito’s list in all other respects comports with the contents of the Jewish canon, the latter would be the most natural conclusion if we had nothing more to go on. But there is more, and that more points in the same direction.

The Evidence

As may be seen, the above translation from Alistair Stewart, published by an Eastern Orthodox seminary, evidently takes “the Proverbs and the Wisdom of Solomon” to be two books,[9] in which case, as stated, the latter would be the only book that Melito accepted that is not found in the Jewish and Protestant canons of the Old Testament. On the other hand, Stuart Hall, on whose Greek text Stewart was dependent,[10] renders it: “of Solomon, Proverbs (also called Wisdom)”.[11]Frederick Cruse renders it: “Proverbs of Solomon, which is also called Wisdom.”[12] Roberts and Donaldson similarly take the phrase to mean “the Proverbs of Solomon, also called the Book of Wisdom”.[13] G. A. Williamson has: “Solomon’s Proverbs (Wisdom)”.[14] Moses Stuart translates it: “the Proverbs of Solomon (also called Wisdom).”[15] We don’t have explanations from Hall, Cruse, Williamson, or Roberts-Donaldson for their translation choices, but we do have the explanation of Moses Stuart, who said:

“The Romish church will find…in this almost primitive father, but a very slender support, (indeed none at all, but the contrary), for their deutero-canon. If it be said, (as it has been), that the clause in Melito Σαλομωνοσ Παροιμιαι η και σοφια means the Proverbs of Solomon, and also Wisdom, (i.e. the Wisdom of Solomon, one of the Apocryphal books), the reply to this suggestion is easy. ‘Nearly all the ancients’, remarks Valesius on this passage, ‘called the Proverbs of Solomon Wisdom, and sometimes Σοφιαν πανειρετον.’ Accordingly Dionysius of Alexandria, calls the book of Proverbs η σοφη βιβλοσ; Cap. 28, Catena in Jobum. The author of the Jerusalem Itinerary, speaking of a certain chamber in Jerusalem, says that, “Solomon sat there, and there he wrote Sapientiam,’ i.e. the book of Proverbs. Melito means then merely to say, that the work of Solomon called παιροιμιαι, had also the name of σοφια. The pronoun η also imports this. We cannot alter the accentuation and make it an article; for to a title of a book the article in such a case does not belong.”[16]

In addition to making the same point from others that was made from Eusebius above, namely that many of the ancients referred to Proverbs as “Wisdom”, Stuart says that the Greek eta (η) is to be understood as a relative pronoun rather than as an indicator of the article. While some manuscripts accent the eta as if it were an article (ἡ), others do not, and it is evident that the Greek version before Stuart was read as the relative pronoun. This is also how the phrase was understood much earlier by Rufinus, who translated the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius into Latin around A.D. 402. Rufinus’ Latin rendering has: Salomonis Proverbia quae et Sapientia, i.e. “Solomon’s Probverbs, which is also Wisdom”.[17] In concert with this, Gallagher and Meade point out: “the titles in Melito's list are all anarthrous, suggesting that the Greek eta in the phrase ἡ καὶ Σοφία (as printed by Schwartz) might not be an article but could be either a relative pronoun (ἥ; as in Rufinus's translation, and attested in some Greek manuscripts, according to Schwartz's apparatus) or a conjunction (ἤ; 'or').”[18]

Conclusion

The evidence best supports the conclusion that Melito’s reference to “Wisdom” is just a further reference to the book of Proverbs. The inclusion of Wisdom, therefore, in this earliest of all Canon lists from a Christian, is not an exception to the otherwise complete exclusion of the Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal books that Rome later formally adopted as canonical. Rome’s so-called Deuterocanon was not accepted by Melito of Sardis or many others in the ancient church. When Christians today reject the Apocrypha, they are not perpetuating a late innovation first promulgated by the Protestant Reformers but are continuing to hold fast to the faith as it has been confessed and taught since ancient times, a faith to which the Reformers were calling people to return.

End Notes

[1] George Reid, “Canon of the Old Testament”, in The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908). Retrieved August 31, 2023 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03267a.htm. Italics original. When Reid says that Melito’s list contains only the protocanonicals, he is acknowledging that Melito’s list is the same as that of Jews and Protestants and does not include what Rome refers to as Deutero-Canonical, i.e the Apocrypha. This admission from a Roman Catholic scholar may be surprising, but he is hardly the only one to candidly admit this. Jesuit scholar Daniel J. Harrington wrote of Melito: “He discovered that the Jews of Palestine observed a twenty-two book canon, and so his list of canonical books includes no apocrypha”, q.v. “The Old Testament Apocrypha in the Early Church and Today”, in Lee Martin McDonald and James A. Sanders, editors, The Canon Debate: On the Origins and Formation of the Bible (Hendrickson Publishers, 2002), p. 207. What is frankly conceded by Catholic scholars is even granted by some of Rome’s apologists. For example, Trent Horn said: “Melito’s list of the Old Testament books lacks the deuterocanonicals, but this is not surprising given that many second-century Jews rejected the deuterocanonical books”, in The Case for Catholicism: Answers to Classic and Contemporary Protestant Objections (San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 2017), p. 29. Unlike the aforementioned scholars, however, who refer to it as “Melito’s Canon” (Reid) and “his list” (Harrington), Horn attempts to mitigate the force of what Melito wrote by claiming that he merely intended to ascertain the right list of books according to the Jews for the sake of apologetic engagement with Jews. Melito was not, per Horn, seeking to enumerate what books Christians ought to regard as forming the scope and limits of the Old Testament and what pertains to the faith. But for Melito the books received by the Jews and the Old Testament that ought to be received by Christians are one and the same. This may be seen, first, from Eusebius, who introduced the quote by saying that Melito was “listing the recognized books of the old covenant,” and, second, from Melito himself, who said that he is providing to Onesimus “the truth about the ancient books”, which he called “the Law and the Prophets” and “the old covenant”, and that these books are those from which he will make extracts available “concerning the savior and the whole of our faith”. [2] On Pascha—With the Fragments of Melito and Other Material Related to the Quartodecimans, translated, introduced, and annotated by Alistair Stewart-Sykes (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2016). It is unclear whether it was an oversight or if it reflects any change in perspective, but the earlier 2001 edition says: “the proverbs and the wisdom of Solomon”, thus not capitalizing the terms in question, which could suggest that these were at that time viewed as descriptions rather than as titles. [3] Gary Michuta, Why Catholic Bibles are Bigger ( ), p. [4] F. F. Bruce: “It is likely that Melito included Lamentations with Jeremiah, and Nehemiah with Ezra…In that case, his list includes all the books of the Hebrew canon…with the exception of Esther”, The Books and the Parchments, revised edition (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1963), p. 100; R. Laird Harris: “Lamentations was, of course, part of Jeremiah and Nehemiah of Ezra”, ibid., p. 188. [5] There is no evidence that anyone ever combined Esther with another book, so its omission cannot be resolved in the same way as Lamentations and Nehemiah. [6] Eusebius may have made a similar mistake in connection with Origen. In quoting Origen in his Ecclesiastical History (6:25), Eusebius has him providing a list of 22 canonical books of the OT, but in his enumeration from Origen there is no mention of the Book of the Twelve, which leaves Origen with a list of 21 books. Most think the omission of the Twelve from Origen’s list is a mistake, for no list similarly lacks the Twelve, Origen elsewhere in his writings acknowledges the canonicity of the Twelve, and Origen explicitly says there are 22 books of the Hebrew Bible. The mistake could be due to Eusebius, or it could be a mistake on the part of Origen or a copyist. [7] Jerome rejected the Wisdom of Solomon, along with other Apocryphal books, partially because: “they are not really written by those to whom they are ascribed,” q.v. Letter 107. Since the book falsely presents itself as a work of Solomon when it is not, it should be classified among what are now called the Pseudepigrapha, an observation that Metzger made when he registered the complaint that the term Pseudepigrapha is “applied arbitrarily to only certain Apocryphal books and not to others which are equally deserving of the name”, An Introduction to the Apocrypha (New York: Oxford University Press, 1957), p. 6. Even though the Book of Wisdom was widely believed in antiquity to be a work of Solomon’s, for which reason some accepted it, its canonicity was nevertheless rejected by a preponderance of fathers. Among those that rejected it are Origen, Julius Africanus, Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem, Hilary of Poitiers, Epiphanius of Salamis, Jerome, Rufinus of Aquileia, Gregory of Nazianzus, Amphilochius of Iconium, Gregory the Great, Anastasius of Antioch, Leontius of Byzantium, John of Damascus, Nicephorous, Isidore of Seville, the Venerable Bede, Alcuin, and many others. [8] Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 4.22. This point has been made by F.F. Bruce and many others, Canon, p. 71. [9] The translation of Roy J. Defarrari, published by The Catholic University of America Press, also translates it as a statement about two different books: “The Proverbs of Solomon and his Wisdom”, Eusebius Pamphili—Ecclesiastical History, Books 1-5 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Press, 1953), p. 266. [10] In the introduction to his translation, Stewart says: “The text employed is that of Hall, who also provides an ex­cellent translation; my debt to Hall’s work will be manifest on every page and those requiring an apparatus and accuracy at every point should turn to Hall, rather than to the present work”, Stewart, ibid., p. ix. [11] Melito of Sardis—On Pascha and Fragments, Texts and Translations edited by Stuart George Hall (Oxford University Press, 1979), p. 67n15. [12] The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus, Bishop of Cesarea, in Palestine—Translated from the Original with an Introduction by Christian Frederick Cruse (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1955), 4.26, p. 164. [13] Roberts-Donaldson, Fragments of Melito of Sardis. Italics original. [14] Eusebius—The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine, translated by G. A. Williamson, revised and edited with a new introduction by Andrew Louth (UK: Penguin Books, 1989), p. 135. [15] Moses Stuart, Critical History and Defense of the Old Testament Canon (New York: Mark H. Newman, 1845), p. 257. [16] Stuart, ibid., p. 259. [17] Rufinus’ Latin translation can be viewed here on p. 389: https://archive.org/details/p1eusebiuswerke02euse/page/386/mode/2up [18] Edmon L. Gallagher and John D. Meade, The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2019), p. 81. An example of someone that held the latter understanding is Catholic scholar Juan Carlos Ossandon Widow: “Melito actually says: Σολομωνοσ Παροιμιαι ἤ και Σοφία(‘Solomon’s Proverbs or also Wisdom’), which probably means that he confounds the two works and takes them as one”, in his article “On the Formation of the Biblical Canon, An Extended Review of L.M. Mcdonald’s Book,” in Annales Theologici 24 (2010), p. 450. Another who holds this view is Timothy H. Lim, who said: “The Greek literally reads ‘the Proverbs of Solomon or also Wisdom’ and is more naturally understood as a description or alternative title of Proverbs…”, The Formation of the Jewish Canon (London: Yale University Press, 2013), p. 219n6.

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE TRINITY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

by Anthony Rogers

Introduction

As pointed out in A Brief Account of the Trinity in the Old Testament, when the great prophet Isaiah looked back to Israel’s redemption from Egypt—the foundational event by which God savingly revealed Himself to them as the Father, the Angel of His presence, and the Holy Spirit—he was also looking to God in prayer to bring about a greater salvation in the future (Isaiah 63:7-64:12). Isaiah’s prayer, together with hundreds of promises and prophecies, are what the Old Testament faithful were longing to see answered and fulfilled, and this is what took place in the first century. As the New Testament says, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians 4:4-6). Throughout the New Testament the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all identified as deity exactly as has been shown to be the case in the Old Testament.

The Father

New Testament authors such as Peter, John, Jude, Paul and others all referred to “God the Father.” Peter spoke of believers being “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1 Peter 1:2) and said that Jesus “received honor and glory from God the Father” when He called Jesus His beloved Son on the mount of transfiguration (2 Peter 1:17). Jude spoke of “those who are the called, beloved in God the Father” (Jude 1:1), and John spoke of God the Father when greeting believers: “Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father, and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love” (2 John 1:3). Just as Peter, John, and Jude all made reference to “God the Father,” so the apostle Paul often referred to “God the Father” or “God our Father” in the opening salutations of his epistles (Galatians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4). Besides the full title “God the Father,” other references to God as Father also abound in the New Testament. In James 1:17, Jesus’ half-brother James wrote: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” In James 1:27, James said: “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” In all of this the disciples were simply following Jesus. For example, Mark recorded Jesus saying, “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you.” In Matthew, Jesus directed His followers to “glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16), and He said, “One is your Father, He who is in heaven” (Matthew 23:9). In Luke 10, it is written that Jesus “rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, ‘I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this was well-pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Luke 10:21-22).

The Son

The apostolic writings also identify the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as a divine person. All four Gospels identify Jesus as the coming of the Lord, Yahweh, predicted by Isaiah the prophet (Matthew 3:1-11; Mark 1:1-3; Luke 3:1-6; John 1:19-23; cf. Isaiah 40:3). In Matthew 1 the angel Gabriel instructed Mary to name her child Jesus, or Y’shua in Hebrew, which means Yahweh saves, and Gabriel gave the following reason for this name being given to Him: “for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Precisely because Jesus is Yahweh who saves, Matthew also pointed out that Jesus’ conception in Mary’s womb fulfilled Isaiah’s promise of the coming of Immanuel, which means, as Matthew considered it necessary to draw attention to, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23; cf. Isaiah 7:14). In Mark Jesus repeatedly claimed to be Lord. He claimed for example to be “the Lord of the Sabbath,” a divine institution (Mark 2:28), and He claimed to be the one of whom David spoke when he said, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand until I put your enemies beneath your feet.’” (Mark 12:35-37; cf. Psalm 110:1). Numerous times in Mark Jesus also claimed to be the “I Am” of the Old Testament (e.g. Deuteronomy 32:39), such as when Jesus was walking on the water past the disciples and said to them, “Take courage, I Am, do not be afraid” (Mark 6:50), or when, in response to the High Priest’s question, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”, Jesus said: “I Am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:61:-62), a response that led the High Priest to charge Jesus with blasphemy (Mark 14:63). Luke also identified Jesus as Lord. In Luke 1, in reference to John the Baptist who was being raised up to prepare the way for Jesus, John’s father said: “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways; to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins…” (Luke 1:76-77). Later in Luke, Jesus rebuked people for rightly recognizing Him as Lord but failing to obey Him: “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). Since Matthew, Mark, and Luke identify Jesus as the Lord, the great I Am, and God with us, it is hardly a surprise that John also frequently identified Jesus as Lord (John 4:1, 6:23, 6:68, etc.), the I Am (e.g. John 8:24, 8:28, 8:58), and God (John 1:1, 1:18, 20:28; cf. 5:17-18), as well as the one who is, and who was, and who is to come (Revelation 1:8), the first and the last (Revelation 1:17, 22:13), the beginning and the end (Revelation 22:13), and the alpha and the omega (Revelation 1:8, 22:13).

The same thing is also seen in the New Testament epistles. Jude referred to Jesus as “our only Master and Lord” (Jude 1:4), even as James referred to Jesus as “the glorious Lord” (James 2:1). The apostle Peter instructed believers to “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts” (1 Peter 3:15) and he spoke of “the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:11). According to Peter, those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are “those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ…” (2 Peter 1:1). In the same vein, the apostle Paul identified Jesus as Lord and God. He called Jesus “the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8) and said in Him “all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9). Elsewhere Paul said that although Christ is from Israel according to the flesh, nevertheless He is “God over all, forever praised” (Romans 9:5), and believers who are waiting for the return of Christ are “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

The Holy Spirit

According to the New Testament the Holy Spirit also is a divine person. Peter identified the Holy Spirit as God when he said to Ananias, who lied to the Holy Spirit, “You have not lied to men, but to God” (q.v. Acts 5:1-6). In the same context Peter speaks of Saphira agreeing with her husband to put the Holy Spirit to the test (5:9), something that presupposes the Spirit’s personhood and deity (Deuteronomy 6:16; cf. Matthew 4:7; Luke 4:12). Throughout the book of Acts the Holy Spirit is presented as active, bestowing power on the apostles (1:8), enabling the early believers to perform miracles as Jesus did (10:38, 13:4-12), speak in other languages (2:4, 10:44-48, 19:6), prophecy (2:17-18, 4:8, 31), and speak forth the truth (4:8, 31, 6:10), and the Spirit Himself is said to speak (8:29, 10:19, 11:12, 13:2, 21:11), bear witness or testify (5:32, 20:23), and to send out and direct (11:12, 13:4, 19-20, 19:21, 20:22-23) as well as forbid and disallow the apostles from speaking the Word in certain places (16:7-8). Even as the Spirit foretold things in the past (1:16, 28:25), so He also did through New Covenant prophets (11:28). Paul identified the Holy Spirit as deity when he said, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (1 Corinthians 3:17), and when he said that the Spirit plumbs the depths of the divine being and knows all the Father’s thoughts just as a man’s spirit knows his own thoughts (1 Corinthians 2). Paul also said “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you” (1 Corinthians 6:19; cf. 1 Corinthians 3:16), which is the fulfillment of God’s promise that believers would be “the temple of the living God; just as God said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people’” (2 Corinthians 6:16; cf. Exodus 29:45; Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 31:1; Ezekiel 37:27). Precisely because the Spirit is Lord and God, the New Testament writings refer to Him as “the eternal Spirit” (Hebrews 9:14) and the source of eternal life. In John 3:5, Jesus said that those who want to enter the kingdom of God must be born of the Spirit, and in John 6:63, Jesus said: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” The same eternal Spirit who is the source of eternal life and who indwells believers and makes them temples of the living God is also the source of Holy Scripture. Paul said, “all Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16), and the God-breathed truths that the apostles spoke and wrote were “not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:15).

Conclusion

As seen in Part One, in the Exodus God revealed Himself in and through His saving activity when He delivered Israel from bondage by sending forth the Angel of His Presence to redeem them and by causing His Holy Spirit to dwell in their midst (Isaiah 63:7-19). In accordance with Isaiah’s prayer in that chapter for God to do a yet greater work of salvation in the future, as well as all the promises and prophecies that are of a piece with it, the New Testament writings reveal the same God, and they do so in the course of showing how God answered that prayer and fulfilled those promises. In the fullness of time God sent forth His Son to redeem His people by His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, and the Father and the Son in turn sent forth the Holy Spirit to indwell believers and make them temples of the living God. It is for this reason that Jesus commanded His church to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE TRINITY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

by Anthony Rogers

Introduction

The foundational event for Old-Covenant Israel was the Exodus. Through the Exodus God brought about a temporal deliverance for His people and made Himself known to them (Exodus 6:7, 7:5, 17, 8:10, 22, 9:14, 10:2, 14:4, 18, 16:6, 12, 18:11, etc.). According to the prophet Isaiah, this saving and God-revealing event was accomplished by the threefold activity of “the Father,” “the Angel of His presence,” and “the Holy Spirit” (Isaiah 63:7-19), each of whom are identified as God in the writings of Moses and the rest of the prophetic Scriptures.

The Father

In Deuteronomy 32:6, Moses said of the LORD: “Is not He your Father who has redeemed you? He has made you and established you”. In the same chapter it says that that God through the Exodus gave birth to Israel (32:18), and it refers to the people of Israel as His “sons and daughters” (32:19-20). Deuteronomy 14:1 says, “You are the sons of the LORD your God.” Because God is a Father to His people and they are sons to Him, Moses reminded Israel that God carried them in the wilderness “just as a man carries his son” (Deuteronomy 1:31), and when Israel was chastised for disobedience, Moses said: “the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son” (Deuteronomy 8:5).

The other prophets also spoke in one accord with Moses and identified God as Father. The prophet Isaiah said, “You, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is Your name” (Isaiah 63:16), and “O LORD, You are our Father, we are the clay, and you our potter, and all of us are the work of Your hand” (Isaiah 64:8). God through Isaiah also spoke of His people as “My sons” and “My daughters” (Isaiah 43:6). Through the prophet Jeremiah the Lord said: “You shall call Me ‘My Father,’ and not turn away from following Me’” (Jeremiah 3:19), a statement made because Israel did call God “My Father” but behaved like wayward sons (Jeremiah 3:4). This teaching of God as Father was so firmly established that the prophet Malachi could rhetorically ask, “Do we not all have one Father? Has not one God created us?” (Malachi 2:10), and Israelites would bear names that pointed to God as Father, such as Abijah (“Jehovah is my Father”), Joab (“Jehovah is Father”), Abihu (“He is my Father”), and Abimael (“God is my Father”).

The Angel of the Lord

The same thing is seen in the case of the Angel of the LORD. This title in the writings of Moses and the prophets does not refer to a created angel but to a divine person. In Exodus 3, when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush to deliver Israel and Moses asked God for His name, the Lord replied, “I Am Who I Am” (Exodus 3:14). According to the context, the one who appeared and spoke from the bush was the Angel of the LORD (Exodus 3:2). Later, when Israel departed from Egypt, the Lord went before them in a pillar of fire by night and a cloudy pillar of glory by day (Exodus 13:21). According to Exodus 14:19, the Lord who went before them in a pillar of fire and cloud was the Angel of the Lord. Earlier in the book of Genesis, Moses recorded that Hagar referred to the Angel of the Lord as “the God who sees me” (Genesis 16:13). In Genesis 31, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Jacob (Genesis 31:11), and He said to Jacob, “I am the God of Bethel” (Genesis 31:13). In identifying Himself as the God of Bethel He was referring back to the occasion when the Lord appeared to Jacob in human form at Luz, which led Jacob to change the name of the place to Bethel, which means the house of God (Genesis 28:19). In Genesis 48:15-16, Jacob prayed to the Angel of the Lord and referred to Him as “the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,” and as “the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,” and as “the Angel who redeemed me from all evil.”

It was this figure who was with the Patriarchs and who later visited Moses at the burning bush and delivered Israel from Egypt. It was also this figure that was with Israel in the wilderness and brought them into the promised land as later prophetic witnesses further confirm. In Judges 2, for instance, it is written that the Angel of the LORD appeared to the people in the promised land and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers….” The Angel of the Lord was still with them in the times of David, who said that “the Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them” (Psalm 34:7). An example of the Angel of the Lord rescuing Israel was mentioned by the prophet Isaiah who said that the Angel of the Lord struck down in a single stroke 185,000 men of the Assyrian army (Isaiah 37:36). In an effort to call the people of his day back to the God of their fathers, the prophet Hosea reminded them that their ancestor Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Lord and sought His favor. And then, Hosea said that Jacob found the Angel of the Lord, and refers to Him as God: “He found Him at Bethel, and there He spoke with us, even the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD is His memorial name” (Hosea 12:4-5). The prophet Zechariah said that he saw the Angel of the Lord sitting on a heavenly throne and dispensing forgiveness (Zechariah 3).

The Holy Spirit

Finally, Moses and the prophets also identify the Holy Spirit as a divine person. When God brought the people out of Egypt, it is written that the Spirit came to rest upon Moses and enabled Him to speak the words of God and lead and judge the people (Numbers 11:16-17), thereby indicating that the Spirit is the source of revelation and wisdom. In order to help Moses in this great task, the Spirit also came to rest upon seventy others (Numbers 11:24-29). It was this same Spirit that Moses mentioned in Genesis 1:2, speaking of Him brooding over the surface of the world upon its creation, thereby indicating His omnipresence, omnipotence, and world-sustaining activity. In Genesis 6 Moses identifies the Spirit as the one who strives with mankind on account of their rebellion.

In 2 Samuel 23:2-3, King David pointedly stated not only that the Spirit is the source of His prophetic utterances, but also identified the Spirit as the God of Israel: “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me…” In these words, David shows that the Spirit spoke, thus indicating that He is a person, and He calls Him the God of Israel, thereby indicating that He is divine. Because the Spirit is a divine person David in the Psalms could speak of Him as the one by whom the Lord creates and renews: “You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the ground” (Psalm 104:30). For the same reason David could also speak of the Spirit as omnipresent: “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there” (Psalm 139:7-8). This same idea of the Spirit as creator, sustainer, and ever-present Lord is seen in the book of Job. According to Job 33:4: “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” And speaking of the Spirit as sustainer and the ever-present source of life, the next chapter says: “If He should gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish together and man would return to dust.”

Conclusion

While the Old Testament is clear that there is only one God (Deuteronomy 4:35, 39, 6:4; Isaiah 43:10), it is also clear that this God revealed Himself at the Exodus to Israel and throughout her history as tri-personal, namely as the Father, the Angel of His Presence, and the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 63:7-19).