Shema
The Shema is a Jewish prayer that teaches:
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!" -- Deuteronomy 6:4 (NKJV), Mark 12:29
or
"Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone." -- Deuteronomy 6:4 (NLT)
The original Hebrew:
שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה ׀ - אֶחָֽד׃
And Strong's Concordance:
echad: one
Original Word: אֶחָד
Part of Speech: Adjective
Transliteration: echad
Phonetic Spelling: (ekh-awd')
Definition: oneJesus reinforced the Jewish belief of a single God
This was also quoted by Jesus himself:
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he (Jesus) answered them well, asked him,
“Which commandment is the most important of all?”
Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one (Deuteronomy 6:4). And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that He is one, and there is no other besides Him (Deuteronomy 4:35).-- Mark 12:28-32 (ESV)
The Jews were not Trinitarians and certainly the scribe did not serve and worshipped Jesus as their God. Jesus could have corrected him, but instead he responded:
And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” -- Mark 12:34 (ESV)
In the Old Testament, there is no reference to the word “one” as indicating a plurality of any kind. A study of its uses in the Old Testament will reveal its simple meaning and the truth it conveys. It is used of “one” in number, “the first” in a series, “one” in the sense of “the same” or “alone,” and “one” in the sense of “each” or “a certain one.” It is used as “alone” in verses like Deuteronomy 6:4, and “first” in verses like Genesis 1:5 when God made light on the “first” day. The whole earth spoke “one” language before Babel (Genesis 11:1). Hagar cast her child under “one” of the bushes (Genesis 21:15). In Pharaoh’s dream, there were seven ears of grain on “one” stalk (Genesis 41:5). In the plague on Egypt’s livestock, not “one” cow died of the Israelites’ livestock (Exodus 9:6). Exodus 12:49 says that Israel shall have “one” law for the citizen and the foreigner. The examples are far too many to list for this frequently used word, which appears more than 950 times in the Old Testament, and there is no hint in any Jewish commentary or lexicon that it somehow implies a “compound unity.”
The history of Jewish thought is well known. They were famous in the ancient world for being downright obnoxious when it came to defending their “one God” against the polytheistic views of other civilizations. God chose the Jews as His people, and He chose to communicate to them in the Hebrew language. The Jews debated their writings to the point of tedium and argued over almost every word in the Law, yet there is no evidence that any of them thought that their word for “one” implied a compound unity. That assumption did not develop until Christians needed evidence for the Trinity in the Old Testament; it is a late and invalid assumption with no solid evidence behind it.
God in the Old Testament
God refers to Himself as one:
God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the LORD (YHVH) your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me." -- Exodus 20:1-3 (ESV)
This is what Moses believed:
To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD (YHVH) is God; there is no other besides Him... know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD (YHVH) is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. -- Deuteronomy 4:35,39 (ESV)
This is what Hanna believed:
"No one is holy like the LORD, for there is none besides You, nor is there any rock like our God." -- 1 Samuel 2:2 (NKJV)
This is what King David believed:
Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said... "Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears." -- 2 Samuel 7:18,22 (ESV)
and
For who is God, but the LORD (YHVH)?
And who is a rock, except our God?-- Psalm 18:31 (ESV)
and
All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name. For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God. -- Psalm 86:9-10 (NKJV)
and
There is none like you, O LORD (YHVH), and there is no God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears. -- 1 Chronicles 17:20 (ESV)
This is what King Solomon believed:
Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the LORD (YHVH), be near to the LORD our God day and night, and may He maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other. -- 1 Kings 8:59-60 (ESV)
This is what Hezekiah believed:
And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said: “O LORD (YHVH), the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; You have made heaven and earth. -- 2 Kings 19:15 (ESV); Isaiah 37:15-16
This is what Isaiah taught:
You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD (YHVH), “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.
...
“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:
I am the First and I am the Last;
Besides Me there is no God.And who can proclaim as I do?
Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people. And the things that are coming and shall come, let them show these to them.
Do not fear, nor be afraid;
Have I not told you from that time, and declared it?
You are My witnesses.
Is there a God besides Me?
Indeed there is no other Rock;
I know not one.’”-- Isaiah 43:10, 44:6-8 (NKJV)
and
For thus says the LORD,
Who created the heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the earth and made it,
Who has established it,
Who did not create it in vain,
Who formed it to be inhabited:“I am the LORD, and there is no other. For I am God, and there is no other;
...
Tell and bring forth your case; Yes, let them take counsel together.
Who has declared this from ancient time?
Who has told it from that time?
Have not I, the Lord?And there is no other God besides Me,
A just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me.
“Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
...
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,-- Isaiah 45:18,21-22; 46:9 (NKJV)
This is what the Levites believed:
Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said:
"Stand up and bless the LORD (YHVH) your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. You are the LORD, You alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and You preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you." -- Nehemiah 9:5-6 (ESV)
This is what Hosea prophesied:
Yet I am the LORD (YHVH) thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but Me: for there is no saviour beside Me. -- Hosea 13:4 (KJV)
This is what Joel prophesied:
You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD (YHVH) your God and there is none else. -- Joel 2:27 (ESV)
This is what Zechariah prophesied:
On that day the LORD (YHVH) will be one and His name One. -- Zechariah 14:9 (ESV)
Trinitarians look at this prophecy and reason that Isaiah was referring to the Godhead and there is only 1 Godhead, but inside the Godhead we have an equal Father and Son. However, Isaiah believed that YHVH (translated as "the LORD") Who was speaking is the Father:
For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O LORD (YHVH), are our Father. -- Isaiah 63:16 (ESV)
O LORD (YHVH), you are our Father. -- Isaiah 64:8 (ESV)
Jeremiah also believed that YHVH is the Father:
“I said, 'How I would set you among My sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations.'
And I thought you would call Me, 'My Father', and would not turn from following Me.
Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to Me, O house of Israel", declares the LORD (YHVH).
-- Jeremiah 3:19-20 (ESV)
Even Malachi wrote that God is only 1 Father:
Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? -- Malachi 2:10 (ESV)
God in the New Testament
Jesus teaches that he comes in his Father's authority, who is "the only God":
Then Jesus answered and said to them... “I do not receive honor from men. But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? -- John 5:41-44 (ESV)
If Jesus was God, and he came with his own honor he would be guilty of the same thing that he accuses the Jews of.
Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said... "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." -- John 17:1,3 (ESV)
Some argue that this is true for the Old Testament before Jesus was born, but Paul also believed that God is one after the crucifixion and after Jesus ascended:
God is one -- Galatians 3:20
In Paul's letter to Corinthians he wrote:
There is no other God but one.
For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords),
- yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him;
- and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.
-- 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 (NKJV)
Paul confirms this understanding called the Father "God" and Christ Jesus "man".
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus... -- 1 Timothy 2:5 (NKJV)
Why would in the same sentence "one God", means union of multiple, but "one mediator" means "one"?
The following verse is badly translated and causes confusion:
There is One God and Father of all. -- Ephesians 4:6 (ESV)
For an English reader it seems like Paul is contradicting himself. How can two entities be one? But the original Greek:
εἷς Θεὸς καὶ Πατὴρ πάντων
translates to:
one God also Father of all -- BibleHub
because the Strong Concordance states:
kai: and, even, also
Original Word: καί
Part of Speech: Conjunction
Transliteration: kai
Phonetic Spelling: (kahee)
Definition: and, even, also
Usage: and, even, also, namely.So what Paul is actually saying is the
"There is one God, who is also known as the Father of all"
This is also what Paul wrote in the previous chapter:
To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. -- 1 Timothy 1:17 (ESV)
Paul explains it in his letter to Corinthians as:
- Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit
- and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord;
- and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
-- 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 (ESV)
And to the Romans Paul teach there is only one God:
... To the only wise God be glory forevermore... -- Romans 16:27 (ESV)
Again this is confirmed in the Book of James:
You believe that God is one. You do well. -- James 2:19
Even, in the future, the book of Revelations reveals:
"Just are you, O Holy One, Who is and who was, for You brought these judgments. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!" And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!”
-- Revelation 16:5-7 (ESV)