The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Trinity Doctrine

First, this has to do with the Greek, not the Hebrew. Second, the study of Greek consists of MUCH more than looking up a word in Strong or Thesaurus, etc. Words in Greek (and I may add many other languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, etc.) are translated also according to CONTEXT. Third, if we look at the CONTEXT we see that ALL THREE persons of the Trinity are being discussed in John 14; The Father (vs. 8-10, 21, 23, 26, 29, 31, etc.); The Son (vs. 6, 8-11, 15, etc.); and the Holy Spirit (vs. 16-17, 26, etc.). Moreover, in the verse itself it speaks of Christ and the Father—plural, not singular. Lastly, the verbs in question are the indicative future middle 1st person plural of erchomai, translated WE … and the indicative future middle 1st person plural of poiew, translated OUR … BOTH verbs are PLURAL, not singular, and should be translated accordingly as per the rules of Greek grammar (please review: A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature; Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament; New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries; The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament; An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon; Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains; The Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament; A Greek-English Lexicon; A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition; A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, Revised Edition; Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains; Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics; and Basics of Biblical Greek, etc. on the matter).

The CONTEXT speaks of a WE and OUR and not a singular context. Basically what we are seeing here (John 14) is the connection that Jesus can say that the presence of the Holy Spirit is interchangeable with that of the Father and the Son. The coming of the Holy Spirit is, in effect, the coming of the entire Trinity (Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity). Christ is espousing the doctrine of the Trinity for those who are alive (in Him) to perceive it.

To deny the Trinity or any part thereof is to deny Christ and to proclaim you are not a Christian. To not fully understand it is one thing (for it is indeed a mystery), but to deny it is unbelief, heretical, etc.! Before you come to ANY conclusions, please read the book above. Hopefully it will assist you with an accurate account of the debate that has concerned the Trinity and it will further your beliefs to a solid Christian foundation.