JudaismDraft · awaiting advisor review
Doesn’t “the LORD is one” rule out the Trinity?
In short
Christians affirm the Shema as firmly as Jews do: there is one God, and only one. The doctrine of the Trinity is not three gods but a claim about who the one God is, as Father, Son and Spirit. Whether that fits what the Shema meant is the real question, and Jews and Christians answer it differently.
The Objection
The Shema, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD”, is the heart of Jewish faith. Israel’s God is utterly one, without parts or partners. Worshipping a man as God, or speaking of three persons, breaks the very unity the Shema guards. Jewish teachers such as Maimonides held God’s unity to be unlike any other kind of oneness. The Trinity was formulated centuries later and would have been foreign to Moses and the prophets.
Put as its strongest advocates would put it.
The Christian Case
- Scripture
Jesus himself quoted the Shema as the first commandment, and the New Testament never treats it as outdated. Christians are bound to it as Jews are.
- Scripture
Paul seems to rework the Shema itself: “one God, the Father… and one Lord, Jesus Christ”. He also applies Isaiah’s words about every knee bowing to the LORD alone to Jesus. Early Christians placed Jesus inside the one God’s identity rather than beside him as a second god.
- Historical evidence
Before and around Jesus’ time, some Jewish writings spoke of figures closely tied to God, such as personified Wisdom or the “one like a son of man” in Daniel. Later rabbis condemned belief in “two powers in heaven” as heresy, which suggests such ideas circulated. Scholars debate how far this background explains early devotion to Jesus.
- Philosophical argument
The doctrine says God is one in being and three in person. It is not the contradiction “one god and three gods”, because “one” and “three” answer different questions. Whether this distinction is fully coherent is argued by philosophers on both sides, but it is presented as a claim about one God, not a revision of monotheism.
- Christians differ
Christians differ on how far the Hebrew Bible itself points towards the Trinity. Some see real hints in the angel of the LORD, the Spirit and Wisdom. Others think these texts teach only God’s oneness, and that the Trinity was revealed through Jesus and the Spirit and then read back with hindsight.
Where the Evidence Is Weaker
The Hebrew Bible does not plainly teach the Trinity, and the Shema read on its own most naturally stresses God’s uniqueness, not inner plurality. The formal doctrine took centuries to articulate, through the councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381). Jewish readers who see it as a departure have a serious case, and Christians rely on the New Testament, held by faith, for their reading.
Arguments to Avoid
- Claiming the Hebrew word echad always means a compound unity overstates it; it is an ordinary word for “one”.
- Saying the plural Elohim or “let us” in Genesis 1:26 proves the Trinity ignores other reasonable explanations.
- Illustrating the Trinity as water, ice and steam, which describes one person in three modes, a view Christians rejected.
- Speaking of Jewish readers as blind or stubborn instead of as people faithfully guarding God’s oneness.
Read for Yourself
Deuteronomy 6:4–9
4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Mark 12:28–34
28And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 32And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: 33And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. 34And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.
1 Corinthians 8:4–6
4As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. 5For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) 6But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
Further Reading
- Jesus and the God of Israel · Richard Bauckham (2008)
- Two Powers in Heaven · Alan F. Segal (1977)By a Jewish scholar of early Judaism and Christianity.
- Lord Jesus Christ · Larry W. Hurtado (2003)
Drafted with Opened AI and awaiting review by Opened’s apologetics advisors. Labels show the kind of support each point has: Scripture is what the Bible says; historical evidence and philosophical arguments can be checked by anyone; “Christians differ” marks questions on which faithful Christians disagree.
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