The Trinity in the Books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy

Dear friend who believes in the “Deity of Christ”,

I was once like you. I took it on authority, and thought that the Bible presented Jesus as a God-man. I knew Jesus was a human, but I thought there were a handful of biblical verses that also showed that Jesus is God, a Second Person of a Godhead that took on flesh.

I now see that those handful of verses that I thought showed the deity of Jesus, don’t. To interpret those handful of Scriptures as evidence that Jesus is God does injustice to the Scriptures, and brings only confusion and contradiction. There are better ways to understand those handful of Scriptures.

In a previous post I suggested Trinitarian translations and notes from the Book of Genesis. Below are selected translations and notes for Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. More translations from the prophets and the New Testament, Lord willing, are forthcoming.

My translations and explanations are made tongue-in-cheek, although many of the comments are explanations I’ve heard from friends.

If Jesus is God, or if God is a Trinity, we should expect the Scriptures to read something like I’ve translated below.  I recommend comparing the translations below with real translations.

I do this to hopefully help people see the inconsistencies, contradictions and sometimes absurdities of the Trinitarian and deity of Christ interpretations.

God’s word is sharper than a two-edged sword. Blessings in Messiah Jesus, the firstborn from the dead.

Exodus 3:14 The Second Person of the Trinity** said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM, the Pre-incarnate 2^nd Person of the Trinity, the Eternal God the Son." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.’”

**Literally, Elohim, plural. But in this case, this must only be the Second Person of the Trinity speaking because the 2^nd Person, God the Son, later told us that He was the one who appeared to Moses in the burning bush when he said, “Before Abraham was born, I AM”. See below John 8:58.

John 8:58 Jesus said to them, “Before Abraham was born, I was the Eternal Second Person of the Trinity**who appeared to Moses in the burning bush.”***

**See above Exodus 3:14. We know that it was the Second Person of the Trinity that appeared to Moses in the burning bush, because Jesus said so. It would have been clearer if Jesus had said something like “I am a co-eternal person of the Trinity before anything was created”, and not just “before Abraham was I AM”. But still this is a clear claim to pre-existence as eternal God. There is no other way to understand Jesus’ statement. 

***True, Jesus didn’t say anything about the burning bush appearance to Moses here in John 8:58, but he said “I AM”, which in translated languages like English is an obvious reference to the burning bush incident. So we are justified in clarifying what Jesus meant in our translation.

Some might object and say that Jesus was only claiming to be one person of the whole Trinity that appeared to Moses in the burning bush. But that is impossible. Jesus said “I AM”. The Second Person of the Trinity would never claim to be the Trinity. Jesus never claimed to be God the Father, or God the Spirit. Those two are separate persons. He only claimed to be the Eternal God the Son. So, when he said “I AM” he was claiming to be only one person of the Godhead that appeared to Moses. Plus, God the Father and God the Spirit are never seen (Exo. 33:20), so this could only be the Second Person in the fire of the burning bush.

Exodus 20:1-3 And the Trinity** spoke all these words, saying, "I am Yahweh your Trinity**, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. "You shall have no other gods before me.***

**Here Elohim must mean the Trinity. Since we already know that because Elohim is plural, Elohim means the Trinity (see Gen. 1:1). Well, at least in many cases Elohim means the Trinity (e.g., not in Genesis 1:26, Exo. 3:14, etc.). We must be honest and admit that every time the word Elohim (God) or LORD (Yahweh) occurs in the Old Testament, we have to decide if one, two or three persons is intended. We could just ignore the problem and always refer to Elohim (God) and Yahweh as one essence, entity or being, not one person, and use the singular “He”.

“Elohim/God” and “Yahweh” must refer to the Trinity in this verse because why wouldn’t all three persons have been involved in bringing Israel out of Egypt? We've already seen that Jesus, God the Son, told us that He appeared to Moses in the burning bush and told Moses He would bring His people out of Egypt. 

God the Father called Israel his firstborn son, so He must be involved (Exo. 4:22). We don't think God the Son would call Israel his firstborn son. It is a bit strange that God the Father would call Israel His firstborn son, since God the Father already had a Son, the Eternally Begotten God the Son. But let’s not get confused with the absurdities of our theology.

And, what would God the Spirit be doing if he wasn't helping bring Israel out of Egypt? So, Elohim Yahweh here in Exodus 20 giving the 10 commandments must be the Trinity.

***It would be wrong for one person of the Trinity to say proud-fully, “You shall have no other gods before me”, leaving out the other members of the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Spirit have eternally been co-equal and co-eternal, and with each other. One person of the Trinity would never try to exclude another person of the Trinity.  Only the Trinity entire, or, only the Trinity essence could say “You shall have no other gods before me (singular)”.

We will let these translations of Exodus suffice as examples of which person or persons of the Trinity is intended when Elohim and Yahweh are mentioned. Otherwise it might get a little confusing determining which member or members of the Trinity is intended with all the singular pronouns and verbs in what appears to be 96 occurrences of Elohim and 340 occurrences of Yahweh in the Book of Exodus.

Leviticus 1:1-2 The LORD (Yahweh, The Trinity)**called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD (Yahweh, The Trinity)**, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD (Yahweh, The Trinity).**

**Here the LORD (Yahweh) must be the Trinity, since one person of the Trinity would not call for worshipful sacrifices and exclude the other two members of the Trinity. This translation of Leviticus 1:1-2 serves as a good example of how we can determine which person or persons of the Trinity is intended when Elohim and Yahweh are mentioned in Leviticus. The multi-personed LORD (Yahweh/Yehovah יהוה) is mentioned some 209 times and Elohim some 40 times in Leviticus.

See in our note on Genesis 18:22 (previous blog post) concerning why Trinity Yahweh or Moses only gave clues that He, Trinity Yahweh was really three-in-one. The Israelites wouldn’t have been able to understand Yahweh’s three-in-one nature if it had just been spelled out so any first-grader could understand. God or Moses preferred to only give clues so insightful Gentiles could later discover this eternal truth.

Deuteronomy 4:35 (cf. 4:39)  To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD (Yahweh)** is three persons in one God (Elohim); there is no other*** besides the Trinity**** 

**Interpreting the LORD (Yahweh) as the Trinity may seem to be a contradiction with our interpretation of LORD (Yahweh) being only the Second Person of the Trinity in places like Genesis 18:13 and Exodus 3:14. But this problem dissolves when we understand, unconfusedly, that God’s personal name, Yahweh, can refer to any member of the Trinity, or to all the members of the Trinity, as we deem fit. Neither does this understanding contradict with the Bible’s clear declaration that Yahweh is one (see Deut. 6:4 below).

Our translation, “three persons in one” does not occur in the original text, but Yahweh/Moses must have meant this.

***Therefore, this must include all three members.
****Literally, “…no other besides him” but this must be a reference to the singular-entity Trinity. This can’t be referring to only one member of the Trinity, because the other two can’t be left out.

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD (Yahweh) our God is three persons in one essence.

Another option: Hear, O Israel: The LORD (Yahweh) our God is one in complex unity.

Moses and the Israelites didn’t understand the whole picture presented in this verse. They were too primitive and would not have understood that Yahweh is tri-personal (well, sometimes). Later revelation shows that Yahweh is three persons, and that “one” here emphasizes Yahweh’s essence, not His person, since He is three persons. As one popular apologist likes to put it: “Don’t confuse the “whos” with the “what”. God (Yahweh) is three “whos” but only one “what”.

It is unfortunate that no biblical prophet or apostle ever bothered to explain the difference between the whos and what of Trinity Yahweh your God.

Mark 12:29 Jesus answered, "The greatest commandment is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord your** God, the Lord is three persons in one essence."

Another option: Jesus answered, "The greatest commandment is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord your** God, the Lord is one in complex unity.”

**Literally “our God”, but Jesus, God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, could not have said that the Trinity is “our God”. Jesus can’t be his own God.

Perhaps this is only the human Jesus speaking, and not God the Son speaking. The human Jesus could say he has a God. Unfortunately, the Bible never differentiates between the human Jesus and the God Jesus, so we can only guess.

 Another possibility is that Jesus did say “Yahweh our God” and that here the LORD (Yahweh) means only the Father. But that would conflict with our interpretation of Deuteronomy 6:4 above. If Yahweh is only one person all the time, then our Trinitarian conception is false, and that can’t be.

Although Jesus did not take this opportunity to explain that God was really Three Persons, he must have meant that since he would have known how to correctly interpret Deuteronomy 6:4. Maybe Jesus thought that the Jews should have known by then that Yahweh God is Three Persons and that neither he nor any of his apostles afterwards should have to explain it.

“…you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God” (Jeremiah 23:36).