John 1 and Finding the Trinity in the Hebrew Bible (OT)

Image from freebibleimages.com

Now and then I see a title on various writing outlets suggesting that Christianity has created a whole new deity, but the fact is, Christianity spread as fast as it did because the shadow of the Triune God was already deeply embedded in the Tanak (the entire Hebrew Bible/Old Testament). Those predictive passages give astonishing affirmation to the claims of Jesus and His apostles. Read on, and I’ll make the case for it.

There are many passages in the HB that speak to the coming of Messiah. In this post, I’ll pull out some of the well-known, bedrock predictions often quoted in the New Testament. If you are already a Christian who is conversant with these passages, it wouldn’t hurt to review them again.

It fascinates me that John addresses all of the important Messianic titles in his first chapter. I’ll use the New King James Version cut and pasted from biblegateway.com.

The Spirit of God, Genesis 1:1, 2; Job 38:1-7; and John 1:1-3. Let’s begin with Genesis.

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without form, and void; and darkness ^[was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

The phrase Ruach Elohim is used at least 12 times in the Bible. It is basically the same as the Christian Holy Spirit. Why mention God’s Spirit if not a separate entity? How else would Elohim be there? In fact, the term Elohim is a plural form. God wasn’t alone at creation if you take the Bible literally. There was a great cloud of spiritual beings there. Consider Job 38:1-7:

¹ Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:

² “Who is this who darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
³ Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me.

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
⁵ Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
⁶ To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
⁷ When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

John places the preincarnate Logos, the Word, the energy that caused God’s speaking to become order and form, at the beginning of existence, adding Christ’s presence in the creation process in the same way that a quilt maker brings all pieces together to make a grand design. John 1:1-3

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Light of the world,  Isaiah 9:1-2, 6-7; Malachi 4:2; and John 1:4-9

Isaiah 9 is one of the most astonishing prophecies in all of history, but unfortunately, many Christians and Jews are unaware of it. We hear of it during the Christmas season, but I wonder if it flows over heads along with the other seasonal carols. The first verses are difficult to understand if you don’t know the OT/HB history of Judah and Northern Israel. You can read more about that here. Israel split into two kingdoms, north and south. Yahweh raised up prophets to cry out against the sins of the north, warning them that if they didn’t change their ways, He would remove His protection and allow them to go into captivity. Assyria invaded in 721 BCE, removing tens of thousands of northern citizens and replacing them with foreign captives. Thus, the north was transformed into a Gentile majority region with Samaria as their capital. The prophet is saying that those who sat in darkness (the Gentile Samaritans) will respond to a Great Light that God will send in time. The Great Light will be described further along in the chapter.

Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her [Northern Israel] who is distressed,
As when at first He lightly esteemed
The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
And afterward more heavily oppressed her,
By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,
In Galilee of the Gentiles [Samaria].
² The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined.

Who or What is the Light? The answer is in the following verses. Think about what is being portrayed here. A Son, born, a human male, given not just to the ancient covenant Jewish nation, but to the Gentiles in the North, which extrapolated can include everyone everywhere who would respond to the Light. Listen to the names of this Son:

⁶ For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

In the last chapter of the Hebrew Bible, the prophet Malachi 4:1, 2 refers to the Light as the Sun of Righteousness:

¹ For behold, the day is coming,
Burning like an oven,
And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.
And the day which is coming shall burn them up,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“That will leave them neither root nor branch.
² But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings;
And you shall go out
And grow fat like stall-fed calves.

I recently read an online article in “Bible History Daily,” a weekday blog published by the journal Biblical Archaeology Review, describing a goblet found in 1970 in the West Bank of Israel. Scholars believe it was crafted in Mesopotamia and may be the oldest depiction of cosmic origins, older than the Enuma Elish. It describes a sun being birthed and rising over the new creation. I found it interesting that this first/early depiction of light makes a great bookend to Malachi’s prophecy about the rising of the Sun of Righteousness. Could there be a connection?

"According to the authors, the depiction on the goblet is a cosmogony, a story describing the origins of the cosmos. The first scene (on the left in the above reproduction) depicts the primordial chaos from which the cosmos arose. This scene includes a deity, in the form of a chimera [an entity that is half human and half animal], fusing together the gods with the plant and animal world. Across from the chimera rises a large snake, a well-known representation of chaos (Genesis 3). Below the chimera is a newborn sun, not yet fully formed. The next scene depicts two deities, no longer fused as a chimera, holding the boat of heaven between them. Upon the boat rests the sun, which here has a face that identifies it as both the physical sun and also the sun god. Below the boat lies the snake, banished from the overworld by the power of the sun god."

Elijah must come first. Malachi 4:5, 6; Isaiah 40:3; John 1:6, 7; 19-23

This Light is not a Force or a general cultural change. It is connected with the coming of Elijah, or one bearing his mantle (Mal. 4:5, 6).

⁵ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
⁶  And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

Who are the fathers? I believe that the Holy Spirit was referring to the Jews. The children are the Christians. Jews and Christians need to learn to get along and respect one another. John the Baptist did not necessarily realize that he was the fulfillment of that prophecy, but we have the Master’s word that he was (Matt. 17:12, 13). John was aware that he was the Voice in Isaiah 40:3:

³ The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God.

The apostle John had no doubt who the other John was in the great scheme of redemption:

⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. ⁸ He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. ⁹ That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

So, not only did the Light come to shine on all mankind, but the one prophesied to prepare the way did as well…hundreds of years later. But they came, and came together.

The Jews of the first century were waiting for a Savior, but they didn’t know which one. Moses prophesied that a lawgiver like him would come and woe to those who don’t recognize and obey that One. Moses neglected to mention that the Lawgiver and Guide through the wildernesses of life would come around 1500 years later. So, they asked John the Baptist where he fit in the Scriptures.

¹⁹ Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”

²⁰ He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

²¹ And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

And he answered, “No.”

²² Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”

²³ He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Make straight the way of the Lord,”’

as the prophet Isaiah said.”

So the Baptist may have missed Elijah’s mantle, but he knew where he stood in reference to the book of Isaiah. There are a few more references in John 1 to powerful prophecies in the Hebrew Bible.

The Lamb of God, Isa. 53:7-9; John 1:29, 36

In vv. 29 and 36, the Baptist refers to Jesus, son of Joseph, as the Lamb of God and the Son of God. Where did he get those crazy ideas? The Son of God (v. 34) could well come from Isa. 9, the Son that was predicted (of God, Israel, or both?). The Lamb of God comes from the Law of Moses requiring a Paschal Lamb to be sacrificed once a year for the cleansing of sinfulness and ritual impurity. But it also comes from Isa. 53:7-9:

⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
⁸ He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
⁹ And they made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

Pair the above passage with Psalm 22, an accurate portrayal of a first century crucifixion, and you have the description of Messiah’s death and the theology behind it…again, hundreds of years before the fulfillment! There’s one more powerful title in John’s gospel, tying Jesus to another spectacular prophetic vision.

Son of Man, Daniel 7:9-14 and John 1:49-51

Toward the end of chapter 1, John the author describes how Jesus called His first disciples:

⁴⁹ Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

⁵⁰ Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹ And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Son of Man? When Nathaniel just called Him the Son of God? But Jesus was deliberately pointing to the prophecy in Dan 7”9-14 where a human male once again receives honor and recognition as if he were a god himself. A powerful, negative entity challenges His glory in the same way that the serpent challenged Adam and Eve:

⁹ “I watched till thrones were put in place,
And the Ancient of Days was seated;
His garment was white as snow,
And the hair of His head was like pure wool.
His throne was a fiery flame,
Its wheels a burning fire;
¹⁰ A fiery stream issued
And came forth from before Him.
A thousand thousands ministered to Him;
Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.
The court was seated,
And the books were opened.

¹¹ “I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. ¹² As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

¹³ “I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
¹⁴ Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed.

The NT (Luke 24:13-25) describes a scene in which two followers of Jesus were walking to a town called Emmaus. They were followers of Jesus, but were confused and disappointed by His crucifixion. Jesus met them but restrained their eyes so they didn’t recognize Him. He pointed to all the passages above and more, saying, ²⁵ “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶ Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 

It wasn’t until they arrived and shared a meal with the stranger that they understood all that had just happened:

³¹ Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.

³² And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” ³³ So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, ³⁴ saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” ³⁵ And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.

If you’ve read this far as a doubter or seeker, please know that you too can speak with the Master Rabbi on your life’s journey just by talking to Him like you would to a fellow traveler. And understand that the church, the universal body of Christ, for all it’s faults and warts, which are numerous, still retains that sacrament of the breaking of the bread. Sometimes just hanging out where Jesus and the Triune God are lifted up and celebrated, even though there is so much we don’t understand, will be rewarded with a harvest of revelation.

Check out my website where you can read for free my memoir The Legacy: A Memoir of Personal Guidance and Korean War Sabotage.

This post can also be seen at https://theologylighthouse.substack.com, https://open.substack.com/pub/theologylighthouse/p/john-1-and-finding-the-trinity-in?r=tooum&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true