Chapter 5

"THE POWER OF THE MOST HIGH"

The trinitarian claim is that there are three 'persons' in the Godhead, one of whom is God the Holy Spirit. Is this understanding borne out by Scriptural references and allusions?

(1) INTRODUCTORY SALUTATIONS IN PAUL'S LETTERS

Every one of Paul's epistles contains an introductory salutation that includes reference to God and Jesus:

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:2).

"Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1:3).

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:2; Philippians 1:2).

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father" (Colossians 1:2).

"To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace to you and peace" (1 Thessalonians 1:1).

"Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 1:2).

"Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord" (1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:2, also see 4:1).

"Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour" (Titus 1:4).

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philemon 3).

Is it not an extraordinary thing that if Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, were convinced of trinitarian doctrine, he should exclude this third "equal and eternal person" from all his greetings! And more strangely still, where in the body of one letter he does include a further name, it is not the Holy Spirit:

"In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without favour ..." (1 Timothy 5:21)

If the Holy Spirit was a third member of the Trinity why was it omitted in favour of the angels, who indisputably are of lower status? Here, to add weight to this argument, are two comparable passages where reference to the Holy Spirit is lacking and one to the angels included. Would a 'God the Holy Spirit' be absent from the scenes described here?:

"For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:26).

"I [Jesus] will confess his name before my Father and before his angels" (Revelation 3:5).

What a contrast this makes to the endless repetition of the trinitarian doxology in church liturgy throughout Christendom! If the Holy Spirit exists as a separate person, why this repeated omission?

(2) NO WORSHIP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Careful students of the Scriptures have also noted that although there are innumerable verses describing worship offered to God the Father, many also to His Son, and at least a few to men, ⁽²³⁾ there is no place where the Holy Spirit is said to be worshipped, or a command to do so is given! Again, what a contrast with church practice.

(3) THE FATHER OF JESUS

There is an inherent contradiction in trinitarian doctrine over the identity of the father of Jesus. All Scripture and reason recognises God the Father (in trinitarian parlance "the first person") as the begetter of Jesus. Do Trinitarians ever ask themselves how it is that the Father is the father of Jesus, when actually he is described as being begotten of the Holy Spirit? The angel Gabriel told Mary:

"'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God"' (Luke 1:35).

And in Matthew's record we read:

"Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 1:18).

The begetter here is expressly stated to be the Holy Spirit, who, according to trinitarian teaching, was "the third person" and not "the first"! Where is Jesus ever called the Son of the Holy Spirit?. What are we to believe this false teaching or the straightforward declaration that Jesus was begotten by "the power of the Most High", as Luke's parallelism makes perfectly clear?

(4) IS A "PERSON" DIVISIBLE INTO FRACTIONS?

If the Holy Spirit is a person, yet another serious objection involves the partial bestowal of one person upon another:

"And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh .. yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants ... I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy" (Acts 2:17-18).

The Authorised and Revised Versions have here the literal rendering (in both places) "of my Spirit", meaning "some of my Spirit". The same Greek preposition (apo) is used in Mark:

"When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, to get from them some of [apo] the fruit of the vineyard" (Mark 12:2). ⁽²⁴⁾

On the Acts 2:17-18 passage Weymouth's translation has a footnote: "literally 'of' or 'from' My Spirita share or portion." In the sense of sharing a power there is no difficulty, but how possibly can one receive a fraction of a person?

Nor is this the only occurrence of this concept; we have also:

"By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit" (1 John 4:13).

Here a different preposition (ek "out of") is used, but the import is the same. Schonfield's "Authentic New Testament" reads: "Has given us some of his own Spirit;" the "Translator's New Testament" and "Today's New Testament" read: "a share of his Spirit", and Weymouth "a portion of ..." ⁽²⁵⁾  A person cannot be portioned out in this way, but a power easily can be.

(5) IS A "PERSON" A "FLUID"?

The Acts passage just considered (2:17) poses a further problem to Trinitarians, viz. how a "person" can be "poured out" on others. This expression is to be found in not a few biblical texts besides that quoted by Peter from Joel 2:28-29 (see also Proverbs 1:23; Isaiah 32:15; 44:3; Ezekiel 39:29; Zechariah 12:10; Acts 10:44-45; Romans 5:5; Titus 3:6). In most of these passages, if not in all, the analogy of anointing with oil is being used (with Acts 10:38 compare 1 John 2:27). The likeness of Spirit to a fluid (either liquid or, in the case of wind and breath, a vapour) underlies many diverse New Testament references. For example, the Spirit is likened to "rivers of living water" (John 7:38-39): the Corinthians were a letter from Christ "... written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God" (2 Corinthians 3:3), and they had been "made to drink of one Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:13). The Ephesian believers were exhorted not to drink wine but to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). These analogies are consistent with an invisible motivating or controlling power, but are they fitting even compatible with a person?

(6) THE WITNESS OF "ACTS"

Yet another serious problem for the trinitarian believer is the "deafening silence" of the record in "Acts of the Apostles" about the alleged "three persons of the Godhead". Over half this book is concerned with the Jewish scene, mainly in Jerusalem but also in Judea and Samaria, and in synagogues abroad. There can be no shadow of doubt that the strong monotheism of Jews and Samaritans would have flared up instantly and vehemently, had the apostles preached anything remotely savouring of trinitarian doctrine. But on this subject Luke is silent throughout; not a hint, not a whisper of such contention does he mention, and the only reasonable and fair conclusion is that such novel teaching was totally absent from "the words of salvation" proclaimed in the earliest decades of the Christian era. False doctrine on this subject first appears in the writing of the sub-apostolic church fathers, after the entry of "fierce wolves" into the flock as Paul had warned (Acts 20:29)many of them only half-converted Greek philosophers, whose speculations are known to have included concepts of a triune godhead. This historical trend is described in chapter 8.

"THE COUNSELLOR, THE HOLY SPIRIT"

The conclusions we have come to from our analysis of many Scriptural references to the Holy Spirit (see pp.83ff) may now be applied to the series of passages on "the Comforter" in John 14-16. Trinitarians consider these to be some of the strongest evidence for believing in the existence of a "third person" in the Godhead. It will be helpful at the outset to reproduce the passages in full and then examine the detailed statements of each:

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor, to be with you for ever, ¹⁷even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you. ¹⁸I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you" (John 14:15-18).

"These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. ²⁶But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14:25-26).

"But when the Counsellor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me; ²⁷and you also are witnesses .." (John 15:26-27).

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸And when he comes, he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment: ⁹of sin, because they do not believe in me; ¹⁰of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more; ¹¹of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. ¹²I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you" (John 16:7-15).

First, some facts which should be borne in mind in approaching these verses:

1. The subject of the Counsellor is introduced in John 14:16. There is no mystery about the Greek word "parakletos"; it means literally "called to one's side", i.e. to one's aid. It was used in a court of justice to denote a legal assistant, a counsel for the defence, an advocate; then, generally, one who pleads another's cause, an intercessor, advocate. ⁽²⁶⁾  The AV "Comforter" is based on the related verb and noun, both of which are frequently translated as "comfort", "console" or "consolation", but this rendering fails to evoke the court-room flavour of the term, hence the choice of "Counsellor" by both RSV and NIV. This aspect is well brought out in the only occurrence of the word outside John's gospel:

"... but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).

2. "Another Counsellor" (Greek "allos" another of the same kind) is a promise of someone (or something) of comparable status other than the personal presence of Jesus.

3. The other names here for the Counsellor are "the Holy Spirit" (14:26) and, three times, "the Spirit of truth" (14:17; 15:26; 16:13). This latter phrase reappears in John's first epistle:

"By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error" (1 John 4:6). ⁽²⁷⁾

The context, from 1 John 4:1 onwards, explains these two contrasting "spirits":

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already" (1 John 4:1-3). 

It is evident that these "spirits" are themselves real people John is referring to true and false prophets in Christian assemblies. In the mouths of the former is "the spirit [or "Spirit"] of truth" but from the mouths of the latter proceeds "the spirit of error", or falsehood. A splendid Old Testament illustration of this conflict between truth and falsehood is to be found in Micaiah's confrontation with the prophets of Baal in Ahab's reign, when the LORD put a lying spirit into the mouths of all the king's prophets (1 Kings 22:21-23). But, like a later namesake, the true prophet here was "filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD ... to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin" (Micah 3:8). Towards the end of his epistle John says explicitly: "the Spirit is the truth". ⁽²⁸⁾

4. The sending of the Counsellor from the Father by Christ's request was contingent upon Jesus "going away" from the disciples, i.e. his ascension to the Father's right hand (see John 16:7 and 7:37-39). Yet Jesus expressly said: "I will not leave you desolate [literally: "orphans"]; I will come to you" (14:18).

5. This promise was given to "the Twelve", ⁽²⁹⁾ and it is more than possible that the Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit was only upon these (see below on "Spirit gifts" pp. 118ff).

6. According to these chapters the role of the Counsellor was:

(a) to teach the twelve all things

(b) to bring to their remembrance all that Jesus had told them (John 14:26).

(c) to bear witness to Christ (John 15:26)

(d) to convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:8)

(e) to guide the twelve into all the truth

(f) to declare the things that were to come (John 16:13)

7. The impression made by these passages on the reader looking for proof of the existence of the Trinity is that another person is being described (i.e. other than Jesus or his Father) both by the frequent personal pronouns ⁽³⁰⁾ and also the various functions assigned to the Counsellor: indeed the very title "Counsellor" strongly suggests this.

COMMENT

We propose that the key to the problem is to be found in the circumstances in which Jesus made this promise. The occasion was, of course, "the last supper", when Jesus' arrest, trial and crucifixion were but hours ahead. For three years he had been the close companion, guide and protector of the twelve. Now he was about to be taken from them, no longer to be physically with them (except for the forty days before his final ascension Acts 1:3). There had, however, been at least one occasion during his earthly ministry when the Twelve, and later the Seventy, were sent out in pairs, on a mission to preach the gospel and heal the sick and for the latter work they were given Spirit power, about which they rejoiced on their return to Jesus (Luke 9:1ff; 10:1ff and 10.17ff). The promise of Pentecost was that, in the absence of Christ's physical presence, his Spirit power was to be poured out upon them in much fuller measure than previously to perform even greater works than he himself had accomplished (John 14:12). Nevertheless it was as if he were still bodily with them, hence he said categorically: "I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you" (John 14:18). The record in Acts shows how "the Spirit" of Jesus taught, guided and stimulated the memories of the Twelve of all Jesus had said and done during their three-year discipleship. By this Spirit they became effective and fruitful witnesses to his sacrificial death, resurrection and glorification at his Father's side. ⁽³¹⁾

The identification of the Counsellor with the Spirit of Jesus has strong confirmation from a number of other passages, notably the reference (already quoted) in John's first epistle (this epistle is indubitably an inspired commentary on his gospel): "but if any one does sin, we have an advocate [parakletos] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). We may well ask, are there really two separate advocates? Does not such an idea call into question the adequacy of Christ's own omnipresence and power with his followers? We are plainly told that there is only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). So Jesus would appear to have a two-fold role, viz.: as our advocate in heaven with the Father, and on earth by his Spirit guiding and directing the witness of his Apostles. As for the Spirit of Christ in action and in a law court too! what better example could we have than that described by Paul?:

"At my first defence no one took my part; all deserted me ... But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength to proclaim the word fully, that all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth" (2 Timothy 4:16-17).

This identification receives further support from some Old Testament references to the promised Messiah:

"And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD" (Isaiah 11:2).

"For to us a child is born .. and his name will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).

For those who prefer the title "the Comforter" we have:

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me ... to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion to give them ... the oil of gladness instead of mourning ..." (Isaiah 61:1-3).

Thus the prophet Isaiah looked forward to a messianic ruler who would be both Counsellor and Comforter, especially to Israel.

Further points of coincidence are found:

"... the anointing which you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that any one should teach you; as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him" (1 John 2:27).

This anointing, says John in verse 20, was by "the Holy One" almost certainly Jesus himself, for so Scripture describes Jesus in the quotation made by Peter on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:27"thou wilt not ... let thy Holy One see corruption"). The anointing "abides in you," says John, confirming what Jesus had said in John 14:17: "he dwells with you" (same word). And again in this context Jesus says: "Abide in me, and I in you ..." (John 15:4ff). Note particularly in both passages, that this Spirit anointing would teach them all things. ⁽³²⁾

Finally, the Counsellor would be with the apostles for ever (John 14:16). This agrees with Jesus' own promise: "I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Matthew 28:20). In sum, there are so many points of contact between what is revealed about the nature and work of "the Spirit of truth" and of "the Spirit of Jesus" that the two phrases may be taken as synonymous. However, a variant on this has been proposed, viz. that just as in the Exodus from Egypt God appointed the angel of His presence to lead His people through the desert to the promised land (Exodus 23:20ff), so the corresponding angel of Christ's presence oversees and directs the lives of his saints the guiding role of the Spirit of promise (John 16:13) corresponds exactly to that of the Exodus angel (Isaiah 63:14 LXX).

For references to Christ's angel see Acts 12:11, where he rescued Peter from prison, and Revelation 1:1; 22:16two verses particularly appropriate to John 16:13: "... he will declare to you the things that are to come" the context of Jesus' last message in a nutshell! Maybe some of the outworking of Christ's promise is along these lines.

For completeness, mention should be made of the proposal of some that the Counsellor is purely a personification of the power of God. While it is true that personification is often used in both Testaments e.g. Wisdom and Folly in Proverbs 9, and Sin as a master in Romans 6, the details of Jesus' promise are, in the authors' opinion, much more satisfactorily understood on the lines expounded above. But in neither case is separate personality ever ascribed to the Spirit in Scripture.

REVIEW OF OTHER PASSAGES ALLEGED TO SUPPORT A "THIRD PERSON" IN THE GODHEAD ⁽³³⁾

We have examined in some detail "the Counsellor" verses in John 14-16, and have demonstrated how the Scriptural concept of the Spirit as the mind and power of both Father and Son disposes of any need to postulate a "third person". Attention to the precise wording of Jesus' promise in the light of parallel testimonies reveals clearly enough the teaching and guiding role he played in the apostolic age. We wish now to look at some other verses often quoted to support a trinitarian viewpoint, largely, it seems, because each refers to Jesus and his Father together with the Spirit. In fact it would be surprising if these three were not associated, in view of the very close connection between them, as defined above. It is quite another matter, however, to infer from this association that the Spirit is a person; we are persuaded that this inference is nearly always drawn because people come to these verses already strongly indoctrinated with trinitarian ideas. What is needed is an open-minded approach to such passages to interpret them in the light of their immediate context and the wider framework of biblical teaching as a whole. This we will now attempt to do, reviewing passages often quoted in standard Bible dictionaries and other reference works as proofs of a trinity. In the following quotations we must remember that the capital letter 'S' at the beginning of the word spirit has been included at the discretion of the translators: there is no such indication in the original.

(1) "And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" (Galatians 4:6).

Is this a reference to the indwelling of a personal spirit-being in the heart of a believer? There are other comparable "Abba, Father" verses which ought to be considered before we answer:

"... When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' it is the Spirit himself [Greek auto, "itself"] bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:15-16).

The context of this passage in Romans 8 includes these words: 

"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God" (Romans 8:14).

"But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God really dwells in you. Any one who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you ..." (Romans 8:9-10).

And what was this spirit of Christ that has to be received? It was demonstrated at the time when he too cried Abba, Father:

"And he said, 'Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what thou wilt'" (Mark 14:36).

This last passage makes it clear that "the Spirit of Christ" is the spirit of the Son's obedience and submission to God obeying the Father's will and not his own. The others indicate that all believers are required to have this motivating spirit it is the characteristic attitude of a true son (or daughter) of God and a "sine qua non" of his (her) thought and behaviour if he (she) is to attain to salvation. We must be led, in humility and trust, by this spirit and attitude so perfectly exemplified by Christ. Only in such a spirit can we acceptably approach the Father in prayer, as Paul elsewhere writes:

".. for through him [i.e. Christ Jesus verse 13ff] we both [Jews and Gentiles] have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:18).

Not one of all these passages requires, or even favours, a separate "third person".

(2) "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the fellowship [Greek: koinonia] of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Is this a passage that demands the personality of the Holy Spirit? The only close parallel to the italicised phrase is in Philippians 2:1-2

"So if there is any encouragement [Greek: paraklesis "comfort", hence "the Comforter"!] in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation [Greek: koinonia] in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind."

What does the apostle Paul mean by "the fellowship (koinonia) of the Holy Spirit" in these verses? He is plainly appealing to the Philippians to be wholly of "one mind" with each other, not in any worldly way but with the true Christian virtue of love the spirit shown above all by Jesus in the sacrifice he offered in order to become the Saviour of the world. We must share with Jesus this mind and motivation, for fellowship [Greek: koinonia] means sharing, participation, having things in common. Our will must be subordinated to his, as his was to his Father's. Again there is no good ground whatever to invoke a "third person". Let anyone still minded to do so on the basis of this verse ponder the apostle John's words:

"that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3).

Has "the beloved disciple" forgotten to include "the third person" in the scope of his fellowship?! Or should we not rather accept his inspired statement that the body of faithful believers, who are led by the Spirit (mind) of Jesus within them, completes the true divine family? This theme will be explored in chapter 7.

(3) "chosen ... by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood ..." (1 Peter 1:2).

How are believers "sanctified by the Spirit"? The identical statement appears also in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 and in both cases the original Greek could simply mean "sanctification of [the believer's] spirit" as in fact the RSV margin proposes for the latter reference. In this case clearly no personal Holy Spirit is intended. Romans 15:16 is different: ".. sanctified by the Holy Spirit", pointing to God's or Christ's power as the agent of sanctification. And this of course is the sense of the RSV and NIV in 1 Peter and 2 Thessalonians. But it must be noted that elsewhere the power of sanctification is attributed not to a personal being but to the Word of God. Jesus prayed: "Sanctify them by the truth: your word is truth" (John 17:17 NIV). Jesus had said earlier (John 6:63): "the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." Thus it is the Spirit Word of God (Ephesians 6.17) spoken by Christ, humbly accepted by the believer and allowed to rule his mind and actions, that purifies, separates and sanctifies his life, not an indwelling member of the Trinity. We may add that there is a demonstrably close connection between the biblical concepts of "spirit", "word" and "truth", and this also is explored in chapter 7.

(4) "... Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who [Greek: "which"] are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness ..." (Revelation 1:4-5).

The One "who is and who was and who is to come" is identified in verse 8 and 4:8 as "the Lord God, the Almighty". Jesus himself, as stated, is "the faithful witness ...", but who (or "what" the pronoun is neuter in Greek) are "the seven spirits before the throne"? Again the book tells us they are "seven torches of fire" burning before the throne (4:5), while 5:6 identifies them as the seven horns and seven eyes of the slain Lamb, evidently symbolic of the Lamb's divine power and penetrating insight, given him by his Father. Taken as symbols these seven spirits present no problem (see Isaiah 11:2 already quoted on page 110), but are there seven "Holy Ghosts"? The NIV, perhaps sensing the anomaly, offers as an alternative translation "the sevenfold Spirit", but the Greek is plural and reads: "from the seven spirits" (apo tön hepta pneumatön).

(5) "...'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in [Greek: eis "into"] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age'" (Matthew 28:18-20).

In the authors' opinion this is the only biblical passage which might reasonably be adduced by Trinitarians in favour of "three persons" sharing one name. ⁽³⁴⁾  But on what principle are we to allow one verse, apparently teaching a certain doctrine, to rule out the testimony of a hundred verses teaching the opposite? The faithful expositor's duty is to ascertain the consensus of scriptural teaching, and construe the obscure or apparently non-conforming passage in the light of the many clear testimonies on any particular subject. This is the principle we have been conscientiously pursuing throughout this book, and we propose to do so for the passage now under review.

Matthew 28:19 is the only record of Jesus specifically commanding baptism, but the necessity of this rite may also be seen in his words in Mark 16:16 and John 3:5. The baptismal formula given here is unique as such in its naming of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the "Acts of the Apostles" and Paul's letters the corresponding formula is simply "baptised into (the name of) the Lord Jesus" (with some slight variants) see Acts 8:16; 19:5; Romans 6:3; Galatians 3:27. As with our Matthew passage, all these references use the Greek preposition "eis", i.e. "into" rather than "in", but translators have not always been consistent in their English rendering.

We can infer that this apostolic formula is "shorthand" for the fuller one in Matthew's account, and that therefore Jesus is, as it were, the focus of "the Name" YAHWEH. ⁽³⁵⁾  God has given this name to His dear Son also (Philippians 2:9-11), for "Jesus" is the Greek form of "Joshua", whose name means "YAH[WEH] is Salvation". The Holy Spirit is "the Spirit of YAHWEH" with which Jesus was anointed, and which as "the Word of Truth" begets every son and daughter of God (James 1:18) as they rise to "newness of life" from the baptismal waters. ⁽³⁶⁾ Thus the "one Name" covers all three entities, without recourse to "the personality of the Holy Spirit" as taught by Trinitarians.

There is also the possibility that the words "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" were a later addition. This is supported by the fact that they were never included in quotations of Matthew 28:19 by the "early fathers". For example, Eusebius, who died about the year 340, quotes the verse at least 18 times, but always in the form "Go ye into and make disciples of all the nations in my name, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I commanded you".

SECTION 4: SPIRIT GIFTS PAST AND PRESENT

REFERENCES

23. e.g. 1 Chronicles 29:20; Matthew 18:26; Revelation 3:9

24. For further examples see Luke 6:13; John 21:10; Acts 5:2.

25.  Parallel examples using "ek" will be found in Luke 8:3; 1 Corinthians 9:7; 10:17; Galatians 4:19; Ephesians 4:13.

26. Vine: "Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words".

27.  Note that the RSV does not capitalise "spirit" here; the NIV capitalises the first occurrence only, but with a footnote offering "spirit" with a small "s" as alternative.

28.  This statement is explored in some detail in chapter 7 (page 299).

29. Judas' place being taken by Matthias, Acts 1:26.

30.  It should be borne in mind, however, that the personal pronouns used here are not decisive. The Greek original uses "he" and "him" etc in connection with "Counsellor" because "parakletos" is grammatically of masculine gender, while with "Spirit" (being neuter gender), "it" and "which" appear. Thus 14:7 is literally "... even the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither sees it or knows it". In short, the choice of pronouns does not necessarily decide between personal and impersonal subjects. See also Ch. 6 Sect. 4 (p.248).

31.  See Appendix at the end of this chapter (p.146-7) for further details.

32.  This teaching role has many Old Testament precedents e.g.: Nehemiah 9:20 "Thou [YAHWEH, the covenant God - verse 17 and Exodus 34:6] gavest thy good Spirit [the angel of the presence?] to instruct them, and didst not withhold thy manna from their mouth ..." Psalm 143:7,10 "Make haste to answer me, O LORD! My spirit fails! ... Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God! Let thy good spirit lead me on a level path!"

33. See also Chapter 6, Section 3, p.190ff)

34.  Ignoring 1 John 5:7 in the AV, recognised by all scholars as spurious see page 32.

35.  See p. 51ff.

36.  For the biblical principles pertaining to baptism see "Thine is the Kingdom", pp 154-156.