amatuerscholar
Member
One doesn't have to look outside of Judaism to see the roots of the idea of the Trinity. But first, the links.I used to believe in the Trinity doctrine when I was still a devout Christian, but I've since come to believe that it, like stories about Jesus, has pagan roots. I decided to reexamine it and conduct my own research to uncover its true origins after reading some informative posts about it by another member. It's similar to how I decided to reject my Christian-indoctrinated beliefs about Satan and demons after reading some informative posts by a Baháʼí member.
As a former Christian, I now believe that the Trinity doctrine was copied and adapted from paganism, and these two articles will explain why.
First article: Pagan Roots of the Trinity Doctrine
Second article: How Ancient Trinitarian Gods Influenced Adoption of the Trinity
Starting with the second link, the fact that other societies placed importance on the number three does not mean that they all originated the idea in the same manner. One has to show some direct influence between the two, an influence that is more than just the same number. The link provided no such influence between the two, and instead just argued that it must be so since they all had three of something.
The first link gets the history wrong from the beginning, and in fact actually contradicts that second link you posted. Now the big problem here is that the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church were not the ones to introduce the idea of the Trinity into the theology. They also get the formation of ideas wrong. The Apostles Creed did not give way to the Nicene Creed. The Apostles Creed is developed in the 5th century, when the Nicene creed is from the 4th century. Now the Roman Catholic Church, which this article states wrote the Apostles Creed, is not officially formed until the 6th century, with Pope Gregory I. The article then repeats the myth that Constantine made Christianity the state religion, when he never did. He legalized the religion, but did not make it the official religion.
So basically, there is no reason to take any of the history they write to be legitimate, especially when they make the argument that the trinitarian view doesn't have a basis in Judaism.
Daniel Boyarin probably has written the most about this, but Judaism does have what can be called a binitarian view of God. In the Hebrew scripture, we see Wisdom personified as a facet of God. When we see Wisdom personified, it is separate from God, but still God. It's a facet. Same thing with the Spirit of God. It's a facet of God.
This idea of Wisdom being a facet of God is then transformed into the idea of the logos, such as by Philo of Alexandria. This view is directly adopted by the author of John, who takes the idea of the logos, which is attached to the idea of Wisdom personified, and incorporates it into the ideology of Jesus.
We see Paul doing this as well, by describing Jesus in terms that were used for Wisdom.
So yes, the trinitarian ideas do have a root in the Jewish idea of binitarianism.