Does Deuteronomy 6:4 Support Oneness or the Trinity?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:4, Genesis 2:24, Deuteronomy 6:5, Joshua 12, 1 Kings 22, Ezekiel 33, Ezekiel 48, Daniel 10

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--does-deuteronomy-64-support-oneness-or-the-trinity
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
it's not a very good argument. Um it's discussed in my book the oneness of God. But let me give you a brief outline. But before answering this directly, let me address the broader issue of interpretation.

Don't be intimidated when people cite the Hebrew and Greek. First of all, most of them, in this case, Hebrew, most of I I doubt if the person that wrote this is a native Hebrew speaker or a qualified Hebrew scholar. So, they really don't know what they're talking about. So, that's the first thing. Don't be intimidated. Second, translate the argument back into English and see if you can answer it. So the word one in English, can it mean absolute numerical oneness? Yes, we count 1 2 3. Can it mean union? We are one in the spirit of course. So yeah, no great revelation. We already we don't have to go to the Hebrew to know this.

One can mean numerical oneness. It can mean metaphorical oneness. It depends on the context and I'll get to that in a minute. But much more than abstractly looking at a word definition. You really have to look at the word in the context. So actually they cited Hebrew to intimidate you. But if you know English, you already know everything they just said. The word one can mean literal. It can mean metaphorical. So is it shocking that it would mean that in Hebrew? No, of course not. Um so if you actually look at the context which is the most important God is speaking to Israel in a pagan context where every all these other nations were polytheists.

They believed in many different gods and they also believe each nation had a supreme god. So if you look at the whole of Deuteronomy and you read it carefully, he's saying don't follow these false gods. Follow the true God. So in that context, is he saying here, "O Israel, the Lord our God is a council of gods that always work together or is he saying here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one, unique alone." Obviously that's what verse four is telling us. If that's not enough, look at verse five. You're to love the Lord your God with all your being. So the purpose of knowing there's only one God is so you can have a relationship of love with that one God.

So if there's a plurality, that would not fit. So there are several beings in union here. So love these different beings. No, the context is calling you to radical devotion, service, worship, and love because there's only one God. He deserves all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You're not to divide your loyalty. You're not to split your prayers to one person, 15 minutes to one person, 15 minutes to another person, 15 minutes to another person. When you go to heaven, you're not supposed to look for one person here, one person there, one person there. There's only one God. So, he deserves all your devotion.

So the context overwhelmingly says it's numerical oneness. Now uh also look at translators. So I I I pointed to you earlier that these are probably not Hebrew scholars or native Hebrew speakers. Well, who who would be more qualified? Well, the translators. So look at 10 translations of the Bible. How many of them say we are united? We are in union. The gods are in union. there's a council of gods in union. No, they always say one one one. Okay. So, that might be an interpretation. That might be an allowable um expansion of the root meaning of the word, but that's not the direct translation, the direct meaning.

So, the direct meaning is not here. O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is in union. That's not the direct translation. If you say it is, you're saying you're smarter than all the translators of the Bible. Okay? Now, if you do want to study the the Hebrew, yes, occasionally, like the English word one, uh it can mean the sense of union. But overwhelmingly, if you tally the thousands of times, most almost all the time it's one singular numerical one, one even the two or one flesh. If you think about it, well, we already know they're two persons. So, we we know that can only mean a metaphorical oneness.

So, that's no shock. But if you want to look at a little more closely, it is one unit. So, the two persons become one unit, not two units. But as you, as I've said, by contrast, nothing in the Bible says that God is two persons. So you don't jump to the conclusion, well here, O Israel, Yahweh must be two persons united because of the context. So in the the difference is in the context of husband and wife, you already know they're two persons. So that dictates what the word one is going to signify. But I've already given you the context for Deuteronomy 6:4. I'll just give you some examples just to clarify.

Uh here's where the word ekhad, the very word that they say should be translated normally as union. So I'll give you a in Joshua 12 a list. It lists a number of Canaanite kings each designated by the word one. So they conquered the king of Ai one. They conquered the king of Jericho one. They're actually counting numbers. That's Echod. So the pred predominant meaning is not union. Uh the prophet Makaya in first kings 22 is named as one. Abraham Ezekiel 33 is named as one. Um the list of the gates of the city in Ezekiel each one is numbered. Ezekiel 48. The angel Michael Daniel chapter 10.

So is Michael a union of persons? Is Abraham a union of persons? Is the prophet Mia a union of person? The gates a union of gates or each one gate is numbered? So the the main um the main emphasis the normal default is numerical oneness. And again the Jews to whom the Old Testament was given who had this passage of scripture in their own own native native language never thought it meant a union of persons. They always thought it meant absolutely one. Now there is another word yakid uh that's used for one but it's used only 12 times in the Bible. And so they say, well, if God really wanted to say absolute oneness, he should have used that because it excludes us.

Well, actually, if you study each occurrence of that, it has the connotation of only solitary, unique, but also lonely, desolate. So probably that would not be the best word to use for the oneness of God because it implies not just that he's alone, but somehow deprived. And it doesn't necessarily exclude um the idea of someone else because it's used several times of Abraham's only son Isaac saying his only Isaac. Well, actually he had another son Ishmael but Isaac was the unique or the precious or the promised son. So you could see from the usage in the Bible that that word probably wouldn't be the best word to use for God because if you're trying to say excluding false gods, well actually it would say he's the precious God for you, not necessarily the only God or that he's the lonely god, the desolate god, the deprived god, he's all by himself in that sense, which that would be erroneous.

So actually the normal word one is actually the best word to use for the one God. So when you delve into the Hebrew as well as the English and most importantly look at the context and then I would add look at all the passages in scripture. So look at the book of Isaiah over and over there these statements. God says, "No one before me, no one after me, no one beside me, no one like me, no one my equal. I created the heavens alone. I spread abroad the earth by myself. I'm the only savior. I'm the only God. Um I know no other. Uh I will not give my glory to another." So, you've got a dozen statements there that if you just took the word one in Hebrew or English, you could say, "Well, I wonder if it means actual oneness or if it just means unity." But when you when you read Isaiah, all those descriptions, well, that could only mean it could not mean a a union of persons or a union of gods or a council of gods.

It can only mean when when somebody's alone by myself, no one beside me, no one before me, no one after me, no one like me. Well, then that does define that word one more clearly. So, the Bible does a very good job of defining what that word one means in relationship to God.