I learned something interesting yesterday while having a discussion with Reni Oommen. He informed me that the word used for "one" in Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear O Israel: The LORD (Yahweh) our God, the LORD (Yahweh) is One!” is the Hebrew word “echad” derived from the root “ached” meaning to unify into one. So it carries within itself a meaning of a plurality unified into one.
While in most passages it means the ordinal one i.e. one ox etc. in three passages it just cannot mean one and so is translated in the Bible as “few”. These passages are Genesis 27:44 and 29:20 and Daniel 11:20. It is also translated as “some” meaning more than one in II Samuel 17:9 “Some of them be overthrown” and also as “together” in Ezra 2:64 and 3:9 and Nehemiah 7:66 meaning combing many into one.
Hence there is really no contradiction between the doctrine of Trinity and Deuteronomy 6:4, rather it Deuteronomy 6:4 reinforces the concept of God as a Trinity.
No comments:
Post a Comment