God’s Unique Unity
- The unique Oneness of God has been called many different things
Isaiah 55:8–9
God’s Unique Unity from the New Covenant Scriptures
- We start with the unity of God in that He is One. There is none other.
Mark 12:28–29; 1 Peter 1:1–2; Luke 3:21–22; John 14:16; John 15:26; Matthew 28:19
- Inclusio of Divine Identity in Matthew
- Inclusio (Literary device): Repetition of the same language at beginning and end of a section of literature forming bookends.
Matthew 1:21–23; Matthew 28:20
The Brit Chadashah & 4 theological truths:
1. The Father is God
2. Yeshua is God (John 1:1)
3. The Ruach ha-Kodesh is God (Acts 5:3-4)
4. God is One! (1 Cor. 8:5-6)
What about God’s unique unity from the Tanakh?
Deuteronomy 6:4; Numbers 13:23; Genesis 1:26-27
- Echad – represents this idea of a oneness in plurality
- Our very first image of this plurality in oneness is found in the creation of mankind.
- Let us make man in our image. What could this mean?
- Isaiah and God’s Unique Unity – Isaiah 48
Isaiah 48:12–13, 16
The Concept of the Fluidity of God in the Tanakh
Leviticus 1:1; Leviticus 26:11–12; Deuteronomy 26:15
- The Fluidity of God is fully compatible with the Torah
- From the perspective of the Torah…We have to ask the question: “Where does God dwell?”
- We see that according to the Torah, God has 2 dwelling places both at the same time
- There is something mysterious about God where he can put on tent and live among his people without ceasing to be God in His heavenly dwelling place.
1 Kings 8:10–13; 1 Kings 8:29–30
- According to the Torah and the Prophets, there is this mysterious presence of God where he can dwell in one, two, or several places simultaneously but still be one God!
- God is in heaven and God dwells with his people at the same time – no contradiction!
The Mysterious Unity of God in Creation
What is a Targum?
- Jewish Aramaic translations of books of the Hebrew Bible.
- The targumic genre combines literal renderings of the biblical text with additional material, ranging in size from a word to several paragraphs. The additions provide important insights into ancient Jewish biblical interpretation.
John 1:1
- You can call the fluidity of God whatever you want… as long as it accurately depicts the truth of the Bible
Several Reasons God’s Fluidity is affirmed by the Torah:
- The Torah’s teachings about God’s mysterious presence (the one God is more than one place simultaneously)
- The Torah’s teachings about God’s mysterious unity (the one God more than one person simultaneously)
- The Torah’s teachings about God’s bodily appearances (the one God takes up physical abodes)
“Some Jews regard Christianity’s claim to be a monotheistic religion with grave suspicion, both because of the doctrine of the trinity (how can three equal one?) and because of Christianity’s core belief that God took bodily form. What I have attempted to point out here is that biblical Israel knew very similar doctrines, and these doctrines did not disappear from Judaism after the biblical period” (Summer, Bodies, p/135).
Book reference – The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel by Benjamin D. Sommer