6. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity in the Old Testament.
Because this is a much disputed point, we will treat it under a special section. Luther's position can be briefly summarized thus: Although the holy Trinity is not so clearly revealed in the Old Testament as in the New, it is nevertheless "mightily" attested there. "So then three persons in the divine essence are understood immediately in the beginning of the world and through the prophets afterward, but ultimately fully revealed through the gospel." 1252) To the objection whether he (Luther) believes that all Jews have recognized the triune God, his answer is:1253) "Although the majority has not believed this doctrine, as even today the Turks and Jews do not agree with us. And what is more, among those who hear our sermon [in the New Testament] there are also many who neither respect nor believe such doctrines. For the same thing happens to them that Isaiah says of his listeners in chapter 6, that their hearts are hardened and their ears thick, and their eyes
1252) St. L. 1, 274.<w:t xml:space="preserve">1253) St. L. II, 940.
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blinded, that they see not with their eyes," etc. Like Luther, the Lutheran theologians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and beyond find the doctrine of the Trinity revealed in the Old Testament to such an extent that believers recognized and believed it. In contrast, the Helmstedts, under Georg Calixt's leadership, maintained that "the mystery of the Trinity had been known in some way to the patriarchs and prophets by God's special revelation, but was not so contained in the Old Testament Scriptures that it could be found there by anyone at one time, nor could it be found there now, apart from the New Testament. Traces (vestigia) or rather indications (indicia) of the Trinity were found there, but no clear and convincing sayings."1254) If we look at more recent theologians, Luthardt says:1255) "The Old Testament contains only the presuppositions of the Trinitarian knowledge of God, because of the Trinitarian revelation of God; only the New Testament brought with it also that." And about the proof of Scripture of the old Lutheran teachers Luthardt judges:1256) "This proof of Scripture rests almost throughout on incorrect or forcible exegesis and in general on an unhistorical view which fails to recognize the gradual course of revelation." Kirn then drives tabula rasa and stoops to the assertion:1257) "Today no theologian will find in the Old Testament for proofs of the Trinity."
All controversy over the revelation of the Holy Trinity in the Old Testament is put to rest within the Christian Church by the fact that Christ and the apostles of Christ teach and demonstrate the divine personality of both the Son and the Holy Spirit from the Old Testament. Matt. 22:41 ff. Christ proves from the 110th Psalm that the Messiah is not only David's Son, but also David's Lord. "David's Lord", however, does not merely denote the "germ" or the "hint" of a personality, but a fully formed and fully expressed person, as everyone must admit. In passing, Christ teaches Matt. 22 also immediately teaches the divine personality of the Holy Spirit from the Old Testament when he says that David, through the Holy Spirit (εν πνεύματι), calls the Messiah his Lord. With this the Savior says
1254) Bei Quenstedt I, 510. <w:t xml:space="preserve">1255) Compendium 10, S. 112.
1256) op. cit., p. 111. <w:t>1257) RE.3 XX, 112.
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what David already says about himself in 2 Sam. 23:2: "The Spirit of Jehovah (ר֥וּחַ יְהוָ֖ה [HEBREW]) has spoken through me." In the 1st chapter of Hebrews, the deity of Christ, and thus the divine personality of Christ, is set forth from six Old Testament passages: Ps. 2:7; 2 Sam. 7:14; Ps. 97:7; Ps. 45:7; Ps. 102:26-28; Ps. 110:1. If we look at the predicates of the Messiah in the passages mentioned (founding the earth, loving righteousness and hating unrighteousness, kingdom and dominion, divine worship), everyone must admit that not only the "germ" of a personality but the full personality is attributed to the Messiah. Read also Ps. 110:1 ff., where Christ is described both as the ruler over His people and over the whole earth and as the priest who reconciles men with God. Concerning the revelation of the personality of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament it should be said: When the Old Testament says of the Spirit of God that He was active in creation, Gen. 1:2, judged or rebuked the human race, Gen. 6:3, spoke through David, 2 Sam. 23:1-3, was indignant and embittered by the children of Israel, Is. 63:10, הֵ֛מָּה מָר֥וּ וְעִצְּב֖וּ אֶת־ר֣וּחַ קָדְשׁ֑וֹ [HEBREW], the divine personality of the Holy Spirit is clearly taught in these actiones et passiones. Finally, the Old Testament does not lack such scriptural passages in which (similar to the New Testament, Matt. 28:19 and 2 Cor. 13:13) the three persons of the Godhead are mentioned side by side. Such a passage is obviously Is. 63:8-10: For he (יְהוָ֔ה [HEBREW]) said, They are indeed my people, children who are not false. Therefore he was their Savior. He that afflicted them afflicted him also;1258) and the angel that is before him ( וּמַלְאַ֤ךְ פָּנָיו֙ [HEBREW] [Isaiah 63:9] the angel of his countenance, the angelus increatus, the Son of God1259) , helped them. He redeemed them, because he loved them and spared them. He took them up and carried them from time immemorial. But they embittered and outraged his Holy Spirit (אֶת-ר֣וּחַ קָדְשׁ֑וֹ [HEBREW]).
Having thus established from the divine names and the divine predicates the divine personality of both the Son and the Holy Spirit, it is quite natural to refer also the Old Testament passages to the Trinity,
1258) According to the K'ri לֹ֣ו [HEBREW][Isaish 63:9].
1259) See the following explanation about the "angel of Jehovah".
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a. In which God speaks of Himself in the plural, like Gen. 1:26: "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness"; Gen. 3:22: "Adam was made as one of us"; Gen. 11:7: "Come, let us go down and confound their language there" etc.; b. In which God is called upon and praised threefold, as Num. 6:24-26: "The Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace!" with the addition (v. 27): "For you shall take my name upon the children of Israel, that I may bless them." Further, the Trishagion Is. 6:3: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! All the earth is full of his glory!"
To the treatment of the question whether the holy Trinity is revealed in the Old Testament also belongs the discussion of the scriptural passages which speak of the מַלְאַ֨ךְ יְהוָ֔ה [HEBREW][Angel of the Lord] and ascribe to itself divine names and predicates. They are found throughout the Old Testament from Genesis (ch. 22:11 ff.: Isaac's sacrifice) to the prophet Malachi (ch. 3:1 ff.: the angel of the covenant). In the former place it says v. 11-18: "Then the angel of the Lord called out to him [Abraham] from heaven and said: Abraham, Abraham! He answered, Here am I. And he said, Take not thine hand unto the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared thine only begotten Son for my sake" (already this "for my sake" completely excludes the relation to an angelus creatus). And not only does Abraham call v. 14 the place "The Lord (יְהוָ֔ה [HEBREW]) behold," but "the angel of the Lord" speaks to Abraham again and refers to himself v. 15-17 as Jehovah, who has sworn by himself that he will bless and multiply Abraham's seed like the stars in the sky and like the sand on the shore of the sea. That also by these statements the relation to a created angel is absolutely excluded is obvious. Especially detailed information about the "angel of the Lord", the messenger of God κατ' εξοχήν, gives us the passage Ex. 3:1-15. Moses comes as a shepherd in the land of Midian with his flock to Mount Horeb. There מַלְאַ֨ךְ יְהוָ֔ה [HEBREW][Angel of the Lord] appears to him in a fiery flame from the bush. Because the bush is not consumed by the fire, Moses steps closer to inquire why the bush is not burning. Until then, it was still possible to believe in the appearance of an angelus
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creatus can still be thought of. But from v. 4 on, this assumption is excluded. It says v. 4: "When Jehovah saw that Moses was coming, God called out to him from the bush, 'Do not come near!'" Here "the angel of the Lord" is called Jehovah himself. But more. The Angel of the Lord continues to address Moses, referring to Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and as the God of His people Israel, whom He now intends to redeem from the bondage of Egypt through Moses' ministry. And when Moses presses for a still closer designation of Him who sent him, the angel of the Lord defines himself as אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה [Lord][Exodus 3:14], as the essential, unchanging God. Luthardt's objection that the identification of the מַלְאַ֨ךְ יְהוָ֔ה [HEBREW][Angel of the Lord] with יְהוָ֔ה [HEBREW][Lord] declares, that a created angel as a representative or messenger of Jehovah could very well call himself Jehovah is certainly not valid. If, for example, the English envoy had the idea of introducing himself in Washington as His Majesty the King of England, this would result in his immediate recall.
The passages in which the "angel of the Lord" is identified with Jehovah are numerous. A longer list of these passages with their exposition can be found in Gerhard.1260) Luther says about the Maleach Jehovah in a sermon:1261) "So the patriarch Jacob distinguishes the persons Gen. 48:15-16: 'The God who has nourished me all my life until this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless these boys, that they may grow and become many,' etc. Here he gives the Lord Christ the name and calls him an angel, not that he is an angel because of his nature or essence, for that would be a public idolatry, that he should call upon an angel and ask for his blessing. For this reason, however, he calls him an angel, so that he should not lead his being everywhere like the invisible God, but should be sent on earth, clothed in our flesh and sacrificed for our sin. As Christ also used to say in the New Testament: "The Father who sent me"; again: 'As the Father has sent me' and in the prophet Isaiah 61:1: 'The Lord has sent me to heal the brokenhearted'; again Is. 63:9: 'Angelus faciei
1260) Loci, L. De Natura Dei, § 36. 37.
1261) On Sunday Trin. St. L. XIII, 670 f.
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eius salvavit eos; the angel who is before him helped them'. So Malachi calls Christ an angel of the Testament, Mal. 3:1. So that the two names, God and angel, give two different persons and yet the essence is completely one and without all difference. For the angel is also eternal, natural God, otherwise Jacob would not call upon him; but he is called an angel for his office and command, which he has as the Son from the Father." In our time the correct view of the Maleach Jehovah as angelus increatus is held by Hengstenberg, Keil, Thomasius, Rohnert, Philippi. Philippi writes:1262) "The Maleach Jehovah is distinct from Jehovah personally and yet one with Him." He refers to the following passages: Gen. 16:7-14; chap. 18:19; 21:17-19; 22:11-18; 31:11-13, compare with 28:11-22; 33:25-30, compare with Hos. 12:5; 48:15 f. ; Ex. 3:1-7; 13:21, compare with 14:19; 23:20 f.; 33:14 and Is. 63:8-9; Jos. 5:13; 6:2; Judg. 6:11-24; 13:3-25. Philippi adds that according to "the simplest and most natural interpretation," these passages "represent the Maleach Jehovah as an uncreated angel, identical with Jehovah, to whom divine attributes, actions, names, and worship are ascribed. If one were to regard this merely as an exuberant, Oriental mode of expression, one would thereby lose all firm ground of Scripture interpretation under one's feet and would fall in consistent succession to the rationalistic evaporation of even the firmest and most indissoluble revelation."1263) Also, from what the Scriptures teach about the Maleach
1262) Doctrine of Faith 3 III, 191.
1263) Likewise Joseph Addison Alexander in his shorter commentary on Isaiah, Vol. II, p. 394, in the exposition of Is. 63:9: "The old Christian doctrine is that the Angel of God's presence, who is mentioned in the passages already cited, and from time to time in other books of the Old Testament (Gen. 28:13; 31:11; 48:16; Ex. 3:2; Josh. 5:14; Judg. 13:6; Hos. 12:5; Zech. 3:1; Mal. 3:1; Ps. 34:8), was that Divine Being who is represented in the New Testament as the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His Person (Heb. 1:3), the image of God (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15), in whose face the glory of God shines (2 Cor. 4:6), and in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9). For the true sense of what follows [viz. Is. 63:9], as to taking up and carrying them, see above, on chap. 46:3. The verb redeem is not only of frequent occurrence in these prophecies (chap. 43:1; 44:22, 23; 48:20; 49:7, etc.), but is expressly applied elsewhere to the redemption of Israel from Egypt (Ex. 6:5; Ps. 74:2; 77:16) and is therefore applicable to all other analogous deliverances."
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Jehovah, what Luther says about the doctrine of the Trinity in the Old Testament in general is confirmed:1264) "In the New Testament everything is clearly and powerfully testified of the holy divine three-foldness or Trinity, which is not so clearly emphasized in the Old Testament, but is nevertheless also powerfully indicated." When Kirn, as we have already heard, made the lofty assertion that nowadays no theologian would want to find proofs for the Trinity in the Old Testament, he more than cast doubt on his own quality as a theologian. Above all, he did not consider that he was accusing Christ and his apostles of false evidence, because they, as we have seen, prove the Holy Trinity from the Old Testament.1265)