The Godhead through the Bible

The Idea of God taking a human form and the idea of a sovereign vice-regent God is not new and didn’t start with Christianity.

According to the rabbinical scholar Alan Segal a Two Powers’ teaching can be traced back to the Second Temple period (ca. 200 B.C.E). Daniel 7:9, Exodus 23:20-23 and Exodus 15:3 among other passages are the base of this teaching. The Orthodox Israelites of that time believed YHWH was sovereign and vice-regent portraying a binitarian YHWH, one invisible, who is a spirit while the other is visible, often in a human form. He found also, that under the Second Temple time, the Jewish writers and scholars theorized on the identity of the second YHWH which happen to be according to my knowledge the Messianic figure. This idea was prohibited in the Second century AD because some Jews and gentiles connected Jesus with the second YHWH, therefore they decided to stop teaching the Two Powers idea and label it as heresy.

The concept of the Godhead also known as the Trinity was formed in order to give a Theological understanding of those texts in the Scriptures where we find the All-Mighty God interacting with humanity under three different roles and persons. To understand the Godhead it is necessary to learn the terms that help us study and confirm that the Messiah and the Holy Spirit are in fact God in essence, but like I said before with two different roles.

The Trinity is formed by an Ontological term and an Economical term.

The Ontological Trinity

It is called also the essential Trinity and explains the being or nature of each person of the Godhead. This term tries to explain one part of the Trinity which according to the whole Bible defines the three persons of the Trinity as equal in power, glory, wisdom, holiness, eternity, immutability, perfection, love among other qualities… this means, three different persons but still One God… an Unique God (Deuteronomy 6:4).

The Economic Trinity

The term comes from the Greek word “Wordoikonomia” which means in a literal way “household management” and describes the roles or jobs of each person of the Godhead, in other words their relationship among them and what they do. Therefore, although the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are Ontologically equal, they are not Economically the same. So, this part explains the roles and how the subordination of the Son and the Holy Spirit to the Father is voluntary.

Both the Ontological Term (What God is) and the Economic Term (What God does) in conjunction defines what we call The Trinity. So, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit share one nature, in essence the three Persons are one God but they have different roles.

One example of this difference in their role can be found in the plan of Salvation.

According to the Old Testament Salvation is coming only from Hashem (Genesis 49:18, Exodus 15:2, Psalm 27:1,Isaiah 61:10, Hosea 13:4)

Genesis 49:18 (LEB)
18 I wait for your salvation, O YHWH.

Exodus 15:2 (LEB)
2 Yah is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him—the God of my father—and I will exalt him.

Psalm 27:1 (LEB)
1 YHWH is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
YHWH is the refuge of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

Isaiah 61:10 (LEB)

10 I will rejoice greatly in YHWH;
my being shall shout in exultation in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation,
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns himself with a head wrap like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewelry.

Hosea 13:4 (LEB)
4 I am YHWH your God
since the land of Egypt;
you know no god except me,
and no one saves besides me.

These verses showed us that no one can claim to be our savior only God Himself. But also, we can find in the Old Testament God speaking about a Second Person:

God says that His right hand will save His people. (Isaiah 41:10)

Isaiah 41:10 (LEB)
10 You must not fear, for I am with you;
you must not be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, indeed I will help you,
indeed I will take hold of you with the right hand of my salvation.

God also said that his Messiah will be called Adonai Tsizdeku.

Jeremiah 23:6 (LEB)
6 In his days Judah will be saved,
and Israel will dwell ⌊in safety⌋,
and this is his name by which he will be called:
‘Yahweh is our righteousness.’

A question that Jews ask to justify the reason why they don’t believe in Jesus as the Messiah is: If Jesus was the Messiah then why we don’t have peace yet?. The Messiah according to their vague idea has to be only an anointed king which will come to save them from an earthly perspective and will establish his kingdom bringing peace and eradicating evil. The problem with that view (Pharisaic view) is that they believe they don’t need a savior because they are the anointed one, the suffering servant whom carried the sins of the world, they believe in self-righteousness to be saved… When in fact, they also need spiritual salvation.

In the Prophets we see how God promised that He will bring salvation to everyone and this will be eternal and just (Isaiah 45:17, Isaiah 51:5, Isaiah 56:1)

Isaiah 45:17 (LEB)
17 Israel is saved by YHWH with everlasting salvation;
you shall not be ashamed,
and you shall not be humiliated ⌊to all eternity⌋.

Isaiah 51:5 (LEB)
5 My righteousness is near; my salvation has gone out,
and my arms will judge the peoples.
The coastlands wait for me,
and for my arm they wait.

Isaiah 56:1 (LEB)

1 Thus says YHWH:

Observe justice
and do righteousness,
for my salvation is close to coming,
and my justice to being revealed.

So, God will save people who seek righteousness, but righteousness that is coming from God and not from men. And this is when non-believer’s Jews failed, because they rejected the Messiah who came for them firstly with a message of repentance but they didn’t want to repent. And today we still see how those Jews not accepting Jesus as the Messiah and Savior have a heart of stone.

Let’s continue with salvation, the New Testament tells us that salvation is based on the Power and love of the Father, Jesus also said that no one can seize those who believe in him from the Father’s hand (John 3:16, John 10:29)

John 3:16 (LEB)

16 For in this way God loved the world, so that he gave his one and only Son, in order that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.

John 10:29 (LEB)
29 My Father, who has given them* to me, is greater than all, and no one can seize them* from the Father’s hand.

We can say that we are safe in God’s hand, He promised to us salvation which is available through the right hand of God, and this was fulfilled by the Son’s death and resurrection (1 John 2:2, Ephesians 2:4-10, Acts 4:12)

1 John 2:2 (LEB)
2 and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Ephesians 2:4–10 (LEB)
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 5 and we being dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved), 6 and raised us together and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that he might show in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 it is not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we may walk in them.

Previously we saw that the Old Testament says: No one else saves except God. That is why God became flesh to save us through the Sacrifice of the Son in the cross.

Acts 4:12 (LEB)
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among people by which we must be saved.”

So far, we have seen the Father and the Son in the work of salvation, now we will see the role of the Holy Spirit.

In the plan of salvation it is evident the love of the Father giving his Son to humanity, it is evident either the love and obedience of the Son giving his life as ransom for many. And this is our hope, that when we come to believe in Jesus and proclaim him as our Lord and Savior, we can be sure that salvation is sealed through the work of the Holy Spirit regenerating our lives… The Holy Spirit is which will dwell in us and will teach us righteousness, if we allow him to do so (Ephesians 4:30, Titus 3:5)

Ephesians 4:30 (LEB)
30 and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Titus 3:5 (LEB)
5 he saved us, not by deeds of righteousness that we have done, but because of his mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit,

Now that we have seen the role of each member of the Trinity in the work of Salvation, we will go the another text where we can find the three members of the Godhead coming in a bodily form, this is found in Genesis 18 and Genesis 19.

Genesis 18:1–3 (LEB)

18 And YHWH appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre. And he was sitting in the doorway of the tent at the heat of the day. 2 And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, three men were standing near him. And he saw them and ran from the doorway of the tent to meet them. And he bowed down to the ground. 3 And he said, “My lord, if I have found favor in your eyes do not pass by your servant.

Abraham prepared food for YHWH described here as the three men. (Here we can see that God took human form, God was eating, drinking and having a conversation with Abraham about two topics (Isaac and the destruction of Sodom).

As a first point we have God promising a son to Abraham from Sarah’s womb (Genesis 18:8–15)
Then, God who took human form in three persons with different roles will destroy Sodom (One of the three (God the Father) stood with Abraham while the others went down to Sodom (Genesis 18:16–23)
After Abraham was seeking a way to intercede for a few righteous in Sodom (Lot), YHWH left him and Abraham returned to his tend, then the two others described as messengers (angels) arrived to Sodom and stayed with Lot (Genesis 18:33–19:3)
The two angels had the power to strike the people with blindness (Genesis 19:4–11). We see in other parts of the Bible that God is the one striking people with blindness in specific times (2 Kings 6:18, Acts 9:1–5, Acts 13:9–12)
YHWH who came in a bodily form to destroy the City of Sodom, made rain down from YHWH brimstone (Genesis 19:24) – This is evidence of YHWH’s omnipresence, He took a human form and at the same time he was in heaven. God in earth (The Son) made rain down brimstone from God from heaven (The Father), therefore, God on earth is still YHWH in essence… He is still One, because He is everywhere thanks to his attribute of omnipresence.

Bellow we will study more examples from the New Testament in the same way as we are using the Old Testament to prove the existence of the Godhead.

Sources in the Gospel where we can see the Godhead

Soteriological findings: dealing with the nature and means of salvation.

Mark 1:10–11 (LEB)
10 And immediately as he* was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens being split apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

The Baptism of Jesus is one of many verses in the New Testament where we can see the Godhead in action, here we have Jesus being baptized, in the same picture the Holy Spirit descending as a dove anointing Jesus for his Messianic Ministry and God the Father saying “You are my beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased”.

How important is this event?

The Baptism of Jesus is very important because it is an act of obedience from Jesus to the Father and the fulfilment of prophecy, for example we can calculate this date with one of the events of the 70 weeks of Daniel.

Can we find more evidence of the Holy Trinity?

Matthew 28:16–20 (LEB)
16 So the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated for them. 17 And when they* saw him, they worshiped him,* but some doubted. 18 And Jesus approached and* spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore, go* and* make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age.”

This is what we call “The Great Commission” which is a commandment from Jesus to continue preaching, discipling and teaching according to what he said and to baptize believers in the name of the Godhead… The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

John 17:1–5 (LEB)
17 Jesus said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven he said, “Father, the hour has come! Glorify your Son, in order that your Son may glorify you—2 just as you have given him authority over all flesh, in order that he would give eternal life to them—everyone whom you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have glorified you on earth by* completing the work that you have given me ⌊to do⌋. 5 And now, Father, you glorify me ⌊at your side⌋ with the glory that I had ⌊at your side⌋ before the world existed.

Jesus defines that he revealed to the world the Father, he did this while being filled of the Holy Spirit. He said “you are the only true God” speaking under his human condition (remember that God is the God of all flesh and God became flesh in the person of Jesus) and besides that he came to the world under the figure of a servant (The suffering servant that we find in Isaiah 53). Jesus said also that he shared the same glory with the Father and that he existed before the world was created, so this implies his deity because he shared the same glory with the Father and he existed eternally before creation, because the heavens and the heavenly beings were created after the foundation of the earth.

Therefore, the Messiah is the redeemer, he is one of the persons of the Godhead. Actually, he also used the words “I am the first and I am the last” in the book of Revelation, alluding to what we can read in the book of Isaiah where clearly says that only YHWH is the redeemer and He is the first and the last.

Isaiah 44:6 (LEB)
6 Thus says YHWH, the king of Israel,
and its redeemer, YHWH of hosts:
“I am the first, and I am the last,
and there is no god besides me.

Here in this text we find two persons of the Godhead, God the Father is “YHWH, the king of Israel” and God the Son is “its redeemer, YHWH of hosts”. This means that YHWH of hosts is the Messianic figure and the one whom John spoke about in the Book of Revelation.

Revelation 1:17 (LEB)
17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead person, and he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid! I am the first and the last,

Revelation 2:8 (LEB)
8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
“This is what the first and the last says, who was dead and came to life:

Revelation 21:6 (LEB)

6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the one who is thirsty I will give water from the spring of the water of life freely.

Revelation 22:13 (LEB)
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Isaiah and Revelation explains and makes clear that Jesus is the Messiah and that the Christ is God himself incarnated.

Do we have more evidence of the Godhead?

Here we have more information from other sources:

Sources in the first 300 years AD

Liturgical Triadic fórmulas

2 Corinthians 13:13 (LEB)
13 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

This is the final greeting and benediction of Paul to the Corinthians: “The grace of the Lord (Kyrios: a Greek word used to refer to God) Jesus Christ (God the Son / God the Messiah) and the love of God (God the Father) and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit”. Paul is referring to each member of the Godhead in his benediction to close his letter to the people in Corinth.

Ephesians 4:3–6 (LEB)
3 being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; 4 one body and one Spirit (just as also you were called with one hope of your calling), 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.

Paul talks about the unity of the Spirit of God in us, this means being one body (the body of Christ), One Spirit (the Holy Spirit working and dwelling in us), one Lord (Kyrie Jesus Christ), one God and Father.

The previous ones were examples of triadic formulas where we can find the Godhead, now we will go to the explicit attributions of the Deity to members of the Trinity.

Explicit Attributions

The Holy Spirit as one of the persons of the Godhead:

Acts 5:3–4 (LEB)
3 But Peter said, “Ananias, for what reason has Satan filled your heart, that you lied to the Holy Spirit and kept back for yourself some of the proceeds of the piece of land? 4 When it* remained to you, did it not remain yours? And when it* was sold, was it at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to people, but to God!”

Peter says that the Holy Spirit is God: “You lied to the Holy Spirit… You have not lied to people, but to God”.

Deity of Jesus:

Colossians 2:9 (LEB)
9 because in him all the fullness of deity dwells bodily,

Paul says that in Jesus the fulness of deity dwells bodily, this is why the deity of Jesus was part of the creeds of the early church in the first century AD.

Philippians 2:5-11 (LEB)
5 Think this in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal with God something to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself
by* taking the form of a slave,
by* becoming in the likeness of people.
And being found in appearance like a man,
8 he humbled himself
by* becoming obedient to the point of death,
that is, death on a cross.
9 Therefore also God exalted him
and graciously granted him the name above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow,
of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Paul and the rest of the apostles’ teachings show us that they knew the deity of each member in the triadic formula, and this is why we know that the early Church’s creeds (which can be traced to a few days after the resurrection) define Jesus as God the Son in a literal way. The Greek word “Morphe” which is translated in Phillipians as “form” had a deeper meaning which is “essence” – Therefore, what they understood in the first hundred years about the Messiah was this: “Jesus Christ, who existing in the essence of God”…

Another text that confirms Jesus as one of the persons of the Godhead is the introduction of the Gospel of John.

John 1:1 (LEB)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John defines Jesus as the Logos and the Logos is God, this matches perfectly the Old Testament texts when the Word of God came to interact with humans like Abraham and Jeremiah, just to name a couple of them.

According to Psalm 86:8 and Psalm 89:6, there is no one who can resemble or be like God among the gods, or among the sons of God either (which for example we can name Michael the Archangel).

Psalm 86:8 (LEB)
8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
and there are no works like yours.

Psalm 89:6 (LEB)
6 For who in the sky is equal to YHWH?
Who is like YHWH among the sons of God,

Therefore, just these verses can prove wrong Jehovah’s witnesses belief, when they say that Jesus is Michael the Archangel and that he is a “god”, a created creature. That idea clearly is a contradiction to what is written in the two Psalms that we just read and not only contradicts the Old Testament but also the New Testament. Paul wrote about the deity of Christ in his letter to the Hebrews

Hebrews 1:3–4 (LEB)
3 who is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, sustaining all things by the word of power. When he* had made purification for sins through him, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become by so much better than the angels, by as much as he has inherited a more excellent name than theirs.

According to Paul, Jesus is the representation of the essence of God and that explains that he is greater than any other angelic being (including Michael), therefore, in order to sustain all things by the word of power he has to be uncreated, eternal, omnipresent, omniscient… Because he is the exact representation of the Father.

The first epistle of John is even more explicit about the deity of Jesus.

1 John 5:20 (LEB)
20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, in order that we may know the one who is true, and we are in the one who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life.

One more time we can conclude that the Son of God (Jesus Christ) is described as the one and true God in essence. He is the second person of the Godhead, which means he is co-eternal with the Father and His Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 13:8 (LEB)

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and ⌊forever⌋.

Another manuscripts define Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and to the ages in a literal way, which makes him co-eternal and immutable.

Bellow I include more sources that can be used to prove how the Godhead is found in the first three hundred years of history of the Church of Jesus the Christ.

The Old Roman Creed

An early version of what later became the Apostles’ Creed, called the “Old Roman Creed,” was in use as early as the second century (Kelly, Creeds, 101). The earliest written form of this creed is found in a letter that Marcellus of Ancyra wrote in Greek to Julius, the bishop of Rome, about ad 341. About 50 years later, Tyrannius Rufinus wrote a commentary on this creed in Latin (Commentarius in symbolum apostolorum). In it, he recounted the viewpoint that the apostles wrote the creed together after Pentecost, before leaving Jerusalem to preach (Symb. 2). The title “Apostles’ Creed” is also mentioned about 390 by Ambrose, where he refers to “the creed of the Apostles which the Church of Rome keeps and guards in its entirety” (Ep . 42, trans. in Saint Ambrose: Letters). The text of the Old Roman Creed is as follows, with the last phrase (included by Marcellus but omitted by Rufinus) in brackets (Kelly, Creeds, 102):

I believe in God the Father almighty;

and in Christ Jesus His only Son, our Lord,

Who was born from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,

Who under Pontius Pilate was crucified and buried,

on the third day rose again from the dead,

ascended into heaven,

sits at the right hand of the Father,

whence he will come to judge the living and the dead;

and in the Holy Spirit,

the holy Church,

the remission of sins,

the resurrection of the flesh,

[life everlasting].¹

¹ Elliot Ritzema and John D. Barry, “Apostles’ Creed,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

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Church Fathers and Apologists

Ignatius of Antioch (before his martyrdom (ca. ad 110–117))

The apostolic Fathers: “Ignatius to the Magnesians 13”

Be eager, therefore, to be confirmed in the commandments of our Lord and His Apostles, so that ‘whatever you do may prosper’ in body and spirit, in faith and charity, in the Son and Father and Spirit… As Jesus Christ in His human nature was subject to the Father…

Polycarp of Smyrna (ca. ad 69–155 or 81–167)

The Martyrdom, as we now have it, consists of two parts: (1) a letter from the Christians of Smyrna addressed to Churches everywhere and especially to that at Philomelium (Chapters 1–20); (2) a group of three supplements: (a) a chronological appendix (21), (b) a commendatory postscript (22.1), (c) a history of the transmission of the document (22.2–4).

The apostolic Fathers: “The Martyrdomof St. Polycarp 14”

As he looked up to heaven, he said: ‘Lord God Almighty, Father of Thy beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have received knowledge of Thee, God of the angels and powers, of the whole creation and of the whole race of the righteous who live in Thy sight, 2 I bless Thee, for having made me worthy of this day and hour; I bless Thee, because I may have a part, along with the martyrs, in the chalice of Thy Christ, “unto resurrection in eternal life.” ’ resurrection both of soul and body in the incorruptibility of the Holy Spirit. May I be received today as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, among those who are in Thy presence, as Thou hast prepared and foretold and fulfilled, God who art faithful and true. For this and for all benefits I praise Thee, I bless Thee, I glorify Thee, through the eternal and heavenly Hight Priest, Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, through whom be to Thee with Him and the Holy Spirit glory, now and for all the ages to come. Amen.’

¹¹ Francis X. Glimm, “The Martyrdom of St. Polycarp,” in The Apostolic Fathers, trans. Francis X. Glimm, Joseph M.-F. Marique, and Gerald G. Walsh, vol. 1, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1947), 148.

Justin Martyr – Apologist (150 AD)

First Apology (61)

Chapter 61. Christian baptism

I will also relate the manner in which we dedicated ourselves to God when we had been made new through Christ; lest, if we omit this, we seem to be unfair in the explanation we are making. As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water. For Christ also said, Unless you be born again, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. John 3:5 Now, that it is impossible for those who have once been born to enter into their mothers’ wombs, is manifest to all. And how those who have sinned and repent shall escape their sins, is declared by Esaias the prophet, as I wrote above; he thus speaks: Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from your souls; learn to do well; judge the fatherless, and plead for the widow: and come and let us reason together, says the Lord. And though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white like wool; and though they be as crimson, I will make them white as snow. But if you refuse and rebel, the sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Isaiah 1:16-20

And for this [rite] we have learned from the apostles this reason. Since at our birth we were born without our own knowledge or choice, by our parents coming together, and were brought up in bad habits and wicked training; in order that we may not remain the children of necessity and of ignorance, but may become the children of choice and knowledge, and may obtain in the water the remission of sins formerly committed, there is pronounced over him who chooses to be born again, and has repented of his sins, the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe; he who leads to the laver the person that is to be washed calling him by this name alone. For no one can utter the name of the ineffable God; and if any one dare to say that there is a name, he raves with a hopeless madness. And this washing is called illumination, because they who learn these things are illuminated in their understandings. And in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and in the name of the Holy Ghost, who through the prophets foretold all things about Jesus, he who is illuminated is washed.

Irenaeus – Bishop of Lugundum in Gaul (modern day Lyon, France) (180 AD)

Against Heresies book 4 chapter 20

…For with Him were always present the Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom, freely and spontaneously, He made all things, to whom also He speaks, saying, Let Us make man after Our image and likeness;Genesis 1:26 He taking from Himself the substance of the creatures [formed], and the pattern of things made, and the type of all the adornments in the world… I have also largely demonstrated, that the Word, namely the Son, was always with the Father; and that Wisdom also, which is the Spirit, was present with Him, anterior to all creation… There is therefore one God, who by the Word and Wisdom created and arranged all things;

Theophilus bishop of Antioch (latter part of the second century)

Letter to Autolycus Book 2 chapter 15

Chapter 15. Of the Fourth Day.

On the fourth day the luminaries were made; because God, who possesses foreknowledge, knew the follies of the vain philosophers, that they were going to say, that the things which grow on the earth are produced from the heavenly bodies, so as to exclude God. In order, therefore, that the truth might be obvious, the plants and seeds were produced prior to the heavenly bodies, for what is posterior cannot produce that which is prior. And these contain the pattern and type of a great mystery. For the sun is a type of God, and the moon of man. And as the sun far surpasses the moon in power and glory, so far does God surpass man. And as the sun remains ever full, never becoming less, so does God always abide perfect, being full of all power, and understanding, and wisdom, and immortality, and all good. But the moon wanes monthly, and in a manner dies, being a type of man; then it is born again, and is crescent, for a pattern of the future resurrection. In like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of the Trinity, of God, and His Word, and His wisdom. And the fourth is the type of man, who needs light, that so there may be God, the Word, wisdom, man. Wherefore also on the fourth day the lights were made. The disposition of the stars, too, contains a type of the arrangement and order of the righteous and pious, and of those who keep the law and commandments of God. For the brilliant and bright stars are an imitation of the prophets, and therefore they remain fixed, not declining, nor passing from place to place. And those which hold the second place in brightness, are types of the people of the righteous. And those, again, which change their position, and flee from place to place, which also are called planets, they too are a type of the men who have wandered from God, abandoning His law and commandments.

Tertullian – Author and Apologist (b. circa AD 160 – d. AD 230)

Against Praxeas Chapter 2

Godhead

In the course of time, then, the Father forsooth was born, and the Father suffered, God Himself, the Lord Almighty, whom in their preaching they declare to be Jesus Christ. We, however, as we indeed always have done (and more especially since we have been better instructed by the Paraclete, who leads men indeed into all truth), believe that there is one only God, but under the following dispensation, or οἰκονομία, as it is called, that this one only God has also a Son, His Word, who proceeded from Himself, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. Him we believe to have been sent by the Father into the Virgin, and to have been born of her — being both Man and God, the Son of Man and the Son of God, and to have been called by the name of Jesus Christ; we believe Him to have suffered, died, and been buried, according to the Scriptures, and, after He had been raised again by the Father and taken back to heaven, to be sitting at the right hand of the Father, and that He will come to judge the quick and the dead; who sent also from heaven from the Father, according to His own promise, the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost. That this rule of faith has come down to us from the beginning of the gospel, even before any of the older heretics, much more before Praxeas, a pretender of yesterday, will be apparent both from the lateness of date which marks all heresies, and also from the absolutely novel character of our new-fangled Praxeas. In this principle also we must henceforth find a presumption of equal force against all heresies whatsoever — that whatever is first is true, whereas that is spurious which is later in date. But keeping this prescriptive rule inviolate, still some opportunity must be given for reviewing (the statements of heretics), with a view to the instruction and protection of various persons; were it only that it may not seem that each perversion of the truth is condemned without examination, and simply prejudged; especially in the case of this heresy, which supposes itself to possess the pure truth, in thinking that one cannot believe in One Only God in any other way than by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the very selfsame Person. As if in this way also one were not All, in that All are of One, by unity (that is) of substance; while the mystery of the dispensation is still guarded, which distributes the Unity into a Trinity, placing in their order the three Persons— the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in substance, but in form; not in power, but in aspect; yet of one substance, and of one condition, and of one power, inasmuch as He is one God, from whom these degrees and forms and aspects are reckoned, under the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. How they are susceptible of number without division, will be shown as our treatise proceeds.

Gregory Thaumaturgus – Greek Church Father (b. AD 213 – d. AD 270) / Right before the great persecution under Diocletian in 303 AD

Declaration of faith

There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is His subsistent Wisdom and Power and Eternal Image: perfect Begetter of the perfect Begotten, Father of the only-begotten Son. There is one Lord, Only of the Only, God of God, Image and Likeness of Deity, Efficient Word, Wisdom comprehensive of the constitution of all things, and Power formative of the whole creation, true Son of true Father, Invisible of Invisible, and Incorruptible of Incorruptible, and Immortal of Immortal and Eternal of Eternal. And there is One Holy Spirit, having His subsistence from God, and being made manifest by the Son, to wit to men: Image of the Son, Perfect Image of the Perfect; Life, the Cause of the living; Holy Fount; Sanctity, the Supplier, or Leader, of Sanctification; in whom is manifested God the Father, who is above all and in all, and God the Son, who is through all. There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged. Wherefore there is nothing either created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was non-existent, and at some later period it was introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without change, the same Trinity abides ever.

Other Trinitarians

Greek Church Father Origen (185-254)

Bishop Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170-235)

Greek Church Father Athanasius of Alexandria (296- May 2, 373)

Conclusion

The Godhead is well documented based in what is found in the Old Testament, the New Testament and letters or apologies from the early church. The founding Fathers of the Church knew about the differences between God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and they also knew about how the three of them are one in essence, but because of the persecution and their focus in making more disciples, they had never used a specific name to refer to this triadic formula. But we have evidence that they received this knowledge from the Apostles of Jesus and the Apostles received this knowledge from Jesus himself. Reason why we can find the three persons of the Godhead in the Creeds of the early Church.

There is enough evidence to support the idea of the Trinity and how it is formed by three persons of the Deity with different roles although they are one in essence and one in nature. Economically, God the Father is not equal to God the Son and God the Son is not equal to God Holy Spirit, but the three of them are one God.

Although the word Trinity or Godhead is not found in the Bible there are several verses that show YHWH interacting with humans, when God took a bodily form of one or two or three different persons with their own roles and different titles. Therefore, in order to explain the Trinity from a theological view, it was necessary to create terms to study and to understand this complexity in a world that demands answers and a logic view point of faith. Reason why there was a need to create the Ontological’s term which explains “What God is” and the Economical’s term to explain “What God does”, both terms in conjunction defines what we call The Trinity.

Leo Ramirez