Where is the Trinity in the Bible?

The passages

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.

Deuteronomy 6:4

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Matthew 28:19

I and my Father are one.

John 10:30

My Father is greater than I.

John 14:28

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

2 Corinthians 13:14

The problem

The Bible affirms one God, and it speaks of the Father, the Son and the Spirit in ways that suggest all three are divine. It also says the Son is sent by the Father, prays to him, and is "not greater". The word "Trinity" first appears in Christian writing around AD 180 (Theophilus of Antioch used a related term) and Tertullian used the Latin trinitas around 200. The full doctrine, three persons in one substance, was formulated at Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381). The one explicit verse often cited, the Johannine Comma, is a late addition (see the separate entry).

What believers and scholars say

The pattern is there. Trinitarian readers point to places where the three are named together (Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:14, the baptism of Jesus), and to the New Testament's habit of giving Jesus titles and functions that belong to the God of Israel. Bauckham argues that the earliest Christians included Jesus in the unique identity of the one God.

Development, not invention. Defenders say that the creeds spelled out what the texts imply, using philosophical terms because the debates required them. Critics reply that the terms went beyond what the writers said.

Other readings. Unitarian and subordinationist views, which hold that Jesus is distinct from and lesser than the Father, were present in the early church and still have adherents. They point to John 14:28 and 1 Corinthians 15:28. Ehrman and Hurtado agree that high claims about Jesus appeared early. They differ on how to explain them.

Mystery. Many Christians note that the doctrine does not claim to be fully comprehensible. It describes what the revelation requires and acknowledges its limits.

Where this leaves it

The New Testament does not state the Trinity in a formula. It gives material that the church worked into one. Whether the result is a faithful reading or an imposition depends on the weight you give to the whole pattern as against the single texts. Both sides can make a serious case from the same pages.