I continue from where I left off: APPEARANCE OF THE TRINITY TO ABRAHAM AND DAVID.

I will be quoting the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ 1984 New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures—With References , due to the Society “restoring” the divine name YHVH in all the places which the sopherim changed to Adonay.

JEHOVAH APPEARS AS THREE MEN

According to Genesis 18 Jehovah appeared to Abraham and that the latter then looked up and saw three men standing before him. Abraham brought water for the men to wash their feet and cooked food for them to eat, which the three men ate.

The narrative further states that Jehovah disclosed to Abraham that Sarah would conceive a son for him in the following year and that he was going down to Sodom to inspect the city to see if it had become evil enough for him to destroy.

The passage also goes on to say that the men headed towards Sodom while Jehovah stood there before Abraham, who then interceded with God to spare the city from destruction for the sake of the righteous within it. Jehovah proceeded to leave after finishing his conversation with the patriarch:

“Afterward Jehovah appeared to him among the big trees of Mamʹre, while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent about the heat of the day. When he raised his eyes, then he looked and there THREE MEN were standing some distance from him. When he caught sight of them he began running to meet them from the entrance of the tent and proceeded to bow down to the earth. Then he said: ‘Jehovah, if, now, I have found favor in your eyes, please do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be taken, please, and YOU must have YOUR feet washed. Then recline under the tree. And let me get a piece of bread, and refresh YOUR hearts. Following that, YOU can pass on, because that is why YOU have passed this way to YOUR servant.’ At this THEY said: ‘All right. You may do just as you have spoken.’ So Abraham went hurrying to the tent to Sarah and said: ‘Hurry! Get three seah measures of fine flour, knead the dough and make round cakes.’ Next Abraham ran to the herd and proceeded to get a tender and good young bull and to give it to the attendant, and he went hurrying to get it ready. He then took butter and milk and the young bull that he had got ready and set it before them. Then he himself kept standing by them under the tree as they were eating.

“THEY now said to him: ‘Where is Sarah your wife?’ To this HE said: ‘Here in the tent!’ So HE continued: ‘I am surely going to return to you next year at this time, and, look! Sarah your wife will have a son.’ Now Sarah was listening at the tent entrance, and it was behind the man. And Abraham and Sarah were old, being advanced in years. Sarah had stopped having menstruation. Hence Sarah began to laugh inside herself, saying: ‘After I am worn out, shall I really have pleasure, my lord being old besides?’ Then Jehovah said to Abraham: ‘Why was it that Sarah laughed, saying, “Shall I really and truly give birth although I have become old?” Is anything too extraordinary for Jehovah? At the appointed time I shall return to you, next year at this time, and Sarah will have a son.’ But Sarah began to deny it, saying: ‘I did not laugh!’ For she was afraid. At this HE said: ‘No! but you did laugh.’

“Later the men got up from there and looked down toward Sodʹom, and Abraham was walking with them to escort them. And Jehovah said: ‘Am I keeping covered from Abraham what I am doing? Why, Abraham is surely going to become a nation great and mighty, and all the nations of the earth must bless themselves by means of him. For I have become acquainted with him in order that he may command his sons and his household after him so that they shall keep Jehovah’s way to do righteousness and judgment; in order that Jehovah may certainly bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about him.’ Consequently Jehovah said: ‘The cry of complaint about Sodʹom and Go·morʹrah, yes, it is loud, and their sin, yes, it is very heavy. I am quite determined to go down that I may see whether they act altogether according to the outcry over it that has come to me, and, if not, I can get to know it.’

“At this point the men turned from there and got on their way to Sodʹom; but as for Jehovah, he was still standing before Abraham. Then Abraham approached and began to say: ‘Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous men in the midst of the city. Will you, then, sweep them away and not pardon the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are inside it? It is unthinkable of you that you are acting in this manner to put to death the righteous man with the wicked one so that it has to occur with the righteous man as it does with the wicked! It is unthinkable of you. Is the Judge of all the earth not going to do what is right?’ Then Jehovah said: ‘If I shall find in Sodʹom fifty righteous men in the midst of the city I will pardon the whole place on their account.’ But Abraham went on to answer and say: ‘Please, here I have taken upon myself to speak to Jehovah, whereas I am dust and ashes. Suppose the fifty righteous should be lacking five. Will you for the five bring the whole city to ruin?’ To this he said: ‘I shall not bring it to ruin if I find there forty-five.’

“But yet again he spoke further to him and said: “Suppose forty are found there.” In turn he said: “I shall not do it on account of the forty.’ But he continued: ‘May Jehovah, please, not grow hot with anger, but let me go on speaking: Suppose thirty are found there.’ In turn he said: ‘I shall not do it if I find thirty there.’ But he continued on: ‘Please, here I have taken upon myself to speak to Jehovah: Suppose twenty are found there.’ In turn he said: ‘I shall not bring it to ruin on account of the twenty.’ Finally he said: ‘May Jehovah, please, not grow hot with anger, but let me speak just this once: Suppose ten are found there.’ In turn he said: ‘I shall not bring it to ruin on account of the ten.’ Then Jehovah went his way when HE had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.” Genesis 18:1-33

This is where it gets interesting.

The next chapter indicates that two angels showed up to Sodom, who were two of the three men that Abraham saw, and that they were greeted by Lot who insisted that they stay at his house for the night. Lot soon realized these were not ordinary men, but had been sent to destroy Sodom for its evil, which would occur right after Lot and his family leave the city.

The passage records Lot calling these two men Jehovah, beseeching them to send him off to a nearby place for safe haven. The text then states that the Jehovah who were on earth destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah by summoning the Jehovah who was in heaven to rain down sulfur and brimstone upon the city:

“Now the two angels arrived at Sodʹom by evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodʹom. When Lot caught sight of them, then he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the earth. And he proceeded to say: ‘Please, now, my lords (adonay), turn aside, please, into the house of YOUR servant and stay overnight and have YOUR feet washed. Then YOU must get up early and travel on YOUR way.’ To this they said: ‘No, but in the public square is where we shall stay overnight.’ But he was very insistent with them, so that they turned aside to him and came into his house. Then he made a feast for them, and he baked unfermented cakes, and they went to eating… When he kept lingering, then in the compassion of Jehovah upon him, the men seized hold of his hand and of the hand of his wife and of the hands of his two daughters and they proceeded to bring him out and to station him outside the city. And it came about that, as soon as they had brought them forth to the outskirts, he began to say: ‘Escape for your soul! Do not look behind you and do not stand still in all the District! Escape to the mountainous region for fear you may be swept away!’

“Then Lot said to them: ‘Not that, please, Jehovah!’ Please, now, your servant has found favor in your eyes so that you are magnifying your loving-kindness, which you have exercised with me to preserve my soul alive, but I—I am not able to escape to the mountainous region for fear calamity may keep close to me and I certainly die. Please, now, this city is nearby to flee there and it is a small thing. May I, please, escape there—is it not a small thing?—and my soul will live on.’ So he said to him: ‘Here I do show you consideration to this extent also, by my not overthrowing the city of which you have spoken. Hurry! Escape there, because I am not able to do a thing until your arriving there!’ That is why he called the name of the city Zoʹar. The sun had gone forth over the land when Lot arrived at Zoʹar.

“Then Jehovah made it rain sulphur and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens, upon Sodʹom and upon Go·morʹrah. So he went ahead overthrowing these cities, even the entire District and all the inhabitants of the cities and the plants of the ground. And his wife began to look around from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. Now Abraham made his way early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Jehovah. Then he looked down toward Sodʹom and Go·morʹrah and toward all the land of the District and saw a sight. Why, here thick smoke ascended from the land like the thick smoke of a kiln! And it came about that when God brought the cities of the District to ruin God kept Abraham in mind in that he took steps to send Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when overthrowing the cities among which Lot had been dwelling.” Genesis 19:1-3, 16-29

Once it is kept it mind that the word angels (Heb. malachim) simply means messengers, then it is not hard to fathom that the two angels were actually the Son and the Holy Spirit. After all, the Holy Bible does indicate that the Son and the Spirit are the Father’s Messengers sent forth to relay God’s messages to mankind, and to accomplish God’s will on the earth. The Spirit is further identified as the Son’s Angel/Messenger since the latter sends the Spirit from the Father to guide his disciples into all truth, and to convict the world of their sin and need of Christ as Savior:

“And your good spirit you gave to make them prudent, and your manna you did not hold back from their mouth, and water you gave them for their thirst… But you were indulgent with them for many years and kept bearing witness against them by your spirit by means of your prophets, and they did not give ear. Finally you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.” Nehemiah 9:20, 30

“If you conceal your face, they get disturbed. If you take away their spirit, they expire, And back to their dust they go. If you send forth your spirit, they are created; And you make the face of the ground new.” Psalm 104:29-30

“‘Come near to me, YOU people. Hear this. From the start I have spoken in no place of concealment at all. From the time of its occurring I have been there.’ And now the Sovereign Lord Jehovah himself has sent me, even his spirit.” Isaiah 48:16

“But they themselves rebelled and made his holy spirit feel hurt. He now was changed into an enemy of theirs; he himself warred against them. And one began to remember the days of long ago, Moses his servant: ‘Where is the One that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is the One that put within him His own holy spirit?… Just as when a beast itself goes down into the valley plain, the very spirit of Jehovah proceeded to make them rest.’ Thus you led your people in order to make a beautiful name for your own self.” Isaiah 63:10-11, 14

“And their heart they set as an emery stone to keep from obeying the law and the words that Jehovah of armies sent by his spirit, by means of the former prophets; so that there occurred great indignation on the part of Jehovah of armies.” Zechariah 7:12

“Everything the Father gives me will come to me, and the one that comes to me I will by no means drive away; because I have come down from heaven to do, not my will, but the will of him that sent me. This is the will of him that sent me, that I should lose nothing out of all that he has given me but that I should resurrect it at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone that beholds the Son and exercises faith in him should have everlasting life, and I will resurrect him at the last day.” John 6:37-40

“But if anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I came, not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that disregards me and does not receive my sayings has one to judge him. The word that I have spoken is what will judge him in the last day;  because I have not spoken out of my own impulse, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a commandment as to what to tell and what to speak. Also, I know that his commandment means everlasting life. Therefore the things I speak, just as the Father has told me [them], so I speak [them].” John 12:47-50

“and I will request the Father and he will give YOU another helper to be with YOU forever, the spirit of the truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither beholds it nor knows it. YOU know it, because it remains with YOU and is in YOU… But the helper, the holy spirit, which the Father will send in my name, that one will teach YOU all things and bring back to YOUR minds all the things I told YOU.” John 14:16-17, 26

“When the helper arrives that I will send YOU from the Father, the spirit of the truth, which proceeds from the Father, that one will bear witness about me; and YOU, in turn, are to bear witness, because YOU have been with me from when I began.” John 15:26-27

“Nevertheless, I am telling YOU the truth, It is for YOUR benefit I am going away. For if I do not go away, the helper will by no means come to YOU; but if I do go my way, I will send him to YOU.  And when that one arrives he will give the world convincing evidence concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment: in the first place, concerning sin, because they are not exercising faith in me; then concerning righteousness, because I am going to the Father and YOU will behold me no longer; then concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I have many things yet to say to YOU, but YOU are not able to bear them at present. However, when that one arrives, the spirit of the truth, he will guide YOU into all the truth, for he will not speak of his own impulse, but what things he hears he will speak, and he will declare to YOU the things coming. That one will glorify me, because he will receive from what is mine and will declare it to YOU. All the things that the Father has are mine. That is why I said he receives from what is mine and declares [it] to YOU.” John 16:7-15

“And while he was meeting with them he gave them the orders: ‘Do not withdraw from Jerusalem, but keep waiting for what the Father has promised, about which YOU heard from me; because John, indeed, baptized with water, but YOU will be baptized in holy spirit not many days after this.’ When, now, they had assembled, they went asking him: ‘Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?’ He said to them: “It does not belong to YOU to get knowledge of the times or seasons which the Father has placed in his own jurisdiction; but YOU will receive power when the holy spirit arrives upon YOU, and YOU will be witnesses of me both in Jerusalem+ and in all Ju·deʹa and Sa·marʹi·a and to the most distant part of the earth.’” Acts 1:4-8

“However, Jehovah’s angel spoke to Philip, saying: ‘Rise and go to the south to the road that runs down from Jerusalem to Gaʹza.’ (This is a desert road.) With that he rose and went, and, look! an E·thi·oʹpi·an eunuch, a man in power under Can·daʹce queen of the E·thi·oʹpi·ans, and who was over all her treasure. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship, but he was returning and was sitting in his chariot and reading aloud the prophet Isaiah. So the spirit said to Philip: ‘Approach and join yourself to this chariot.’” Acts 8:26-29

“For, there being an incapability on the part of the Law, while it was weak through the flesh, God, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh,” Romans 8:3

“But when the full limit of the time arrived, God sent forth his Son, who came to be out of a woman and who came to be under law, that he might release by purchase those under law, that we, in turn, might receive the adoption as sons. Now because YOU are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts and it cries out: ‘Abba, Father!’” Galatians 4:4-6

In light of the above, the evidence seems to suggest that these two Angels were not spirit creatures that accompanied Jehovah. Rather, they were the uncreated Son and Spirit of God who appeared with the Father as three human beings for the express purpose of accomplishing the Father’s will to destroy the wicked cities.

ST. AUGUSTINE ON THE TRINITY IN GENESIS 18

Interestingly, the view that Abraham saw the Trinity manifest as three men was held by several early church fathers and writers, including Augustine!

Hers’s what this African father wrote in his treatise on the Trinity:

Chapter 10— Whether God the Trinity Indiscriminately Appeared to the Fathers, or Any One Person of the Trinity. The Appearing of God to Adam. Of the Same Appearance. The Vision to Abraham.

17. And first, in that which is written in Genesis, viz., that God spoke with man whom He had formed out of the dust; if we set apart the figurative meaning, and treat it so as to place faith in the narrative even in the letter, it should appear that God then spoke with man in the appearance of a man. This is not indeed expressly laid down in the book, but the general tenor of its reading sounds in this sense, especially in that which is written, that Adam heard the voice of the Lord God, walking in the garden in the cool of the evening, and hid himself among the trees of the garden; and when God said, Adam, where are you? replied, I heard Your voice, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself from Your face. For I do not see how such a walking and conversation of God can be understood literally, except He appeared as a man. For it can neither be said that a voice only of God was framed, when God is said to have walked, or that He who was walking in a place was not visible; while Adam, too, says that he hid himself from the face of God. Who then was He? Whether the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit? Whether altogether indiscriminately did God the Trinity Himself speak to man in the form of man? The context, indeed, itself of the Scripture nowhere, it should seem, indicates a change from person to person; but He seems still to speak to the first man, who said, Let there be light, and, Let there be a firmament, and so on through each of those days; whom we usually take to be God the Father, making by a word whatever He willed to make. For He made all things by His word, which Word we know, by the right rule of faith, to be His only Son. If, therefore, God the Father spoke to the first man, and Himself was walking in the garden in the cool of the evening, and if it was from His face that the sinner hid himself among the trees of the garden, why are we not to go on to understand that it was He also who appeared to Abraham and to Moses, and to whom He would, and how He would, through the changeable and visible creature, subjected to Himself, while He Himself remains in Himself and in His own substance, in which He is unchangeable and invisible? But, possibly, it might be that the Scripture passed over in a hidden way from person to person, and while it had related that the Father said Let there be light, and the rest which it mentioned Him to have done by the Word, went on to indicate the Son as speaking to the first man; not unfolding this openly, but intimating it to be understood by those who could understand it.

18. Let him, then, who has the strength whereby he can penetrate this secret with his mind’s eye, so that to him it appears clearly, either that the Father also is able, or that only the Son and Holy Spirit are able, to appear to human eyes through a visible creature; let him, I say, proceed to examine these things if he can, or even to express and handle them in words; but the thing itself, so far as concerns this testimony of Scripture, where God spoke with man, is, in my judgment, not discoverable, because it does not evidently appear even whether Adam usually saw God with the eyes of his body; especially as it is a great question what manner of eyes it was that were opened when they tasted the forbidden fruit; for before they had tasted, these eyes were closed. Yet I would not rashly assert, even if that scripture implies Paradise to have been a material place, that God could not have walked there in any way except in some bodily form. For it might be said, that only words were framed for the man to hear, without seeing any form. Neither, because it is written, Adam hid himself from the face of God, does it follow immediately that he usually saw His face. For what if he himself indeed could not see, but feared to be himself seen by Him whose voice he had heard, and had felt His presence as he walked? For Cain, too, said to God, From Your face I will hide myself; yet we are not therefore compelled to admit that he was wont to behold the face of God with his bodily eyes in any visible form, although he had heard the voice of God questioning and speaking with him of his sin. But what manner of speech it was that God then uttered to the outward ears of men, especially in speaking to the first man, it is both difficult to discover, and we have not undertaken to say in this discourse. But if words alone and sounds were wrought, by which to bring about some sensible presence of God to those first men, I do not know why I should not there understand the person of God the Father, seeing that His person is manifested also in that voice, when Jesus appeared in glory on the mount before the three disciples; and in that when the dove descended upon Him at His baptism; and in that where He cried to the Father concerning His own glorification and it was answered Him, I have both glorified, and will glorify again. Not that the voice could be wrought without the work of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (since the Trinity works indivisibly), but that such a voice was wrought as to manifest the person of the Father only; just as the Trinity wrought that human form from the Virgin Mary, yet it is the person of the Son alone; for the invisible Trinity wrought the visible person of the Son alone. Neither does anything forbid us, not only to understand those words spoken to Adam as spoken by the Trinity, but also to take them as manifesting the person of that Trinity. For we are compelled to understand of the Father only, that which is said, This is my beloved Son. For Jesus can neither be believed nor understood to be the Son of the Holy Spirit, or even His own Son. And where the voice uttered, I have both glorified, and will glorify again, we confess it was only the person of the Father; since it is the answer to that word of the Lord, in which He had said, Father, glorify your Son, which He could not say except to God the Father only, and not also to the Holy Spirit, whose Son He was not. But here, where it is written, And the Lord God said to Adam, no reason can be given why the Trinity itself should not be understood.

19. Likewise, also, in that which is written, Now the Lord had said to Abraham, Get you out of your country, and from your kindred, and your father’s house, it is not clear whether a voice alone came to the ears of Abraham, or whether anything also appeared to his eyes. But a little while after, it is somewhat more clearly said, And the Lord appeared unto Abraham, and said, Unto your seed will I give this land. But neither there is it expressly said in what form God appeared to him, or whether the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit appeared to him. Unless, perhaps, they think that it was the Son who appeared to Abraham, because it is not written, God appeared to him, but the Lord appeared to him. For the Son seems to be called the Lord as though the name was appropriated to Him; as e.g. the apostle says, For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many and lords many,) but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him. But since it is found that God the Father also is called Lord in many places — for instance, The Lord has said to me, You are my Son; this day have I begotten You; and again, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand; since also the Holy Spirit is found to be called Lord, as where the apostle says, Now the Lord is that Spirit; and then, lest any one should think the Son to be signified, and to be called the Spirit on account of His incorporeal substance, has gone on to say, And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; and no one ever doubted the Spirit of the Lord to be the Holy Spirit: therefore, neither here does it appear plainly whether it was any person of the Trinity that appeared to Abraham, or God Himself the Trinity, of which one God it is said, You shall fear the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. But under the oak at Mamre he saw three men, whom he invited, and hospitably received, and ministered to them as they feasted. Yet Scripture at the beginning of that narrative does not say, three men appeared to him, but, The Lord appeared to him. And then, setting forth in due order after what manner the Lord appeared to him, it has added the account of the three men, whom Abraham invites to his hospitality in the plural number, and afterwards speaks to them in the singular number as one; and as one He promises him a son by Sara, viz. the one whom the Scripture calls Lord, as in the beginning of the same narrative, The Lord, it says, appeared to Abraham. He invites them then, and washes their feet, and leads them forth at their departure, as though they were men; but he speaks as with the Lord God, whether when a son is promised to him, or when the destruction is shown to him that was impending over Sodom. (On the Trinity, Book 2; emphasis mine)

In the final installment I will show how the Spirit inspired David to confess both God and the Messiah as Jehovah Almighty: APPEARANCE OF THE TRINITY TO ABRAHAM AND DAVID PT. 3.

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