Problems People have with the Trinity Doctrine

The Greek text is: “καὶ (kai; and) ὁ λόγος (ho logos; the Word) ἦν (ēn; was) πρὸς (pros; with) τὸν θεόν (ton theon; the God).” Before the Universe had ever been created, “the Word was with (pros) God”. You may recall from Part 4, that ton (“τὸν”) is the form of the word “the” when it is in the accusative case. Why are both “the” and “God” (“τὸν θεόν”; ton theon) in the accusative case here? It is because “God” is the object of the preposition pros (“πρὸς”; used about 700 times in the New Testament).

But unlike the prepositions we described earlier; that is, ἐκ (ek; out of or from) which always employs the genitive case and εἰς (eis; into) whose objects are always in the accusative case, pros can have a number of meanings depending upon the context; and in some verses, whether its objects are in the dative or genitive cases: Yet, it occurs only one time in the NT with the genitive case (Acts 27:34; where it means, advantageous or necessary for; “important for” [NET], “need it to” [NIV] or “this is for” [NAU, KJV]) and seven times with the dative; where it means at, by or near: Mark 5:11, Luke 19:37, John 18:16; 20:11, 12 (2 times) and Revelation 1:13 (“around” or “about”). However, most of its occurrences are with objects in the accusative case (692 times), where πρὸς (pros) can have a spatial meaning of: toward, towards or to when used with verbs expressing movement,

or ________; for or ________ when used with _________ .

Of the ___ occurrences of the phrase πρὸς τὸν θεόν (pros ton theon), of them are usually translated

The only example I know of in Scripture where it is said that someone was “praying to himself” is Luke 18:11.^[1]

89.112 πρὸς^g: a marker of association, often with the implication of interrelationships — ‘with, before.’ εἰρήνην ἔχομεν πρὸς τὸν θεόν ‘we have peace with God’ Romans 5.1; καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν ‘the Word was with God’ John 1.1; παρρησίαν ἔχομεν πρὸς τὸν θεόν ‘we have confidence before [obviously as in a positional relationship; not time] God’ 1 John 3.21.^[2]

can also mean “to” or “towards” if supported by the context; which it often does. For example,

But no matter how you slice it, πρὸς (pros) never meant anything like ‘was out of’ or ‘was derived from.’ And the Apostle John clearly could have used the preposition ἐκ (ek; out of or from) if that had been what he (or God) had meant by this. or ‘ ... ’.

No where in Scripture will anyone find a statement that “the Word”, “Jesus” or “the Son” is identical to the person (or personal distinction) of either “the Father” or “the Spirit.”

The "Trinity" - Part 6

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¹[Return to Text] And curiously, that phrase also uses the word pros: "The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself [πρὸς ἑαυτὸν; pros heauton]: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.’" (Luke 18:11; NAU). So even though he used the word “God,” according to Jesus, he was only "praying... to himself! " That is both sad and yet another example of self-delusion.

²[Return to Text] Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996, c1989). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: Based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition.) (1:791). New York: United Bible societies.

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