Quote:
Chaim
While history seems silent on "real" Trinitarians who lived between 80-380 ACE, there are some writings from even before that period that shows Jews never worshipped anything remotely resembling a Trinity, and were strict, radical monotheists. See here : LINK
=What Do We Mean by "First-Century Jewish Monotheism"?
by L. W. Hurtado


I posted an extensive post that seems to be deleted (or something else went wrong), what really dissapoints me, because I had hours of preparation in it. So, in short:

-in the article the writer states:

"I urge us to work more inductively, gathering what "monotheism" is on the ground, so to speak, from the evidence of what self-professed monotheists believe and practice. In fact, I suggest that for historical investigation our policy should be to take people as monotheistic if that is how they describe themselves, in spite of what we might be inclined to regard at first as anomalies in their beliefs. Such "anomalies," I suggest in fact are extremely valuable data in shaping our understanding of monotheism out of the actual beliefs of actual people and traditions who describe themselves in monotheistic language."

Judiasm takes itself as monotheistic, and so does Christianity.

-In ancient texts (the Tanach, the Targum, Philo, the NT, the early churchfathers) there are all kinds of expressions/names used to denote the Divine:
God
the Word of God
the Spirit of God
the Wisdom of God
the Son of God

Already in Genesis 1:1,2 this variation can be found (God created the world; the spirit of God "hovered" over the water; God expressed Himself by saying 'light').

Often the Spirit of God is desribed as an 'actor', someone that acts (I don't mean the theater-word acting, I hope I'm understood correct here); the same goes for the Word of God. Of course these ways of phrasing are variations of saying: 'God says this' or 'God does that' : it is One God.

This is the same for Christianity: the Word, the Spirit and the Father are one God. One difference with Judaism is that these wordings are more than poetry: they are understood as referring to 'Persons' (not gods) who can act on their own (but in full unity with the other 'Persons'). Trinity is not about three gods.

When God gave His Spirit "on all flesh" (Joel) He gave Himself, and not 'a force' or something. God came to live within us personally, through His spirit. That is how I understand it.

On the alleged creation of the Son/Word:
the creed says of the Son/Word he was born/begotten of the Father "before all times", and the Spirit came forth from the Father and the Son.

Aad