Contra Stavrinides Index
Next Part
Previous Part

Contra Stavrinides
by Frank Nelte

PART VI: DEUTERONOMY 6:4

One of the key scriptures used by Dr. Stavrinides to support his idea that ... "God is ONE being in three hypostases" is Deutero-nomy 6:4. The King James reads as follows:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God [is] one LORD: (Deuteronomy 6:4)

This translation is unfortunately rather misleading, as I will show.

Transliterated into our alphabet this reads:

"Shama Yisrael Yahweh Elohim Yahweh echad".

The words "Yisrael" (i.e. Israel), "Yahweh" and "Elohim" are familiar to us. That leaves only two other words ... "shama" and "echad".

THE WAY TO ESTABLISH "DIFFICULT" WORDS:

The best way to really know what God is telling us when we are faced with a "difficult" word, is to look at how God inspired this word (or even its root word) to be used elsewhere in His Word. Quite often we'll be able to check out the usage in other verses, where the rest of the verse makes the meaning plain. In this way we are looking to God to explain the meaning to us, rather than to "scholars" who are taking a stab in the dark. That is the approach we learned from Mr. Armstrong, who repeatedly told us that the Bible explains itself ... we should avoid trying to attach our ideas (or the ideas of scholars) to the Bible.

So let's see how God inspired the two key words in Deut. 6:4 to be used elsewhere in the Old Testament.

THE CONTEXT OF DEUTERONOMY 6:4

In Deuteronomy chapter 5 the ten commandments are reiterated. The emphasis is that OBEDIENCE to God is essential. In verse 29 God says: "O that there were such a heart in them, that they would ... keep all my commandments always ...". The last verse of the chapter, verse 33, states: "Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you ...".

Chapter 6 starts out: "Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you ...". Verse 3 reads: "Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it ...". Verse 5 enjoins the command: "And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart ...".

Verse 6 reads: "And these words which I command you this day ..." and this is followed in verse 7 with: "And you shall teach them diligently ...". Verses 8 - 9 in effect say: be sure you don't ever forget my laws.

The rest of chapter 6 follows this same theme of focusing on the importance of OBEDIENCE TO GOD. This should be easy to see.

So how does verse 4 tie into this theme? It doesn't really seem to say anything about obedience at all! ... if the King James translators were correct!

So let's move on ...

PUNCTUATION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT:

It is well-known that the Hebrew text has no punctuation marks. The translators provided these to make the text easier to understand. And it certainly is a great help, generally speaking. But it is also a fact that WRONG PUNCTUATION can very dramatically change the meaning of a verse. This is more likely in passages where the meaning is not so obvious or where the translators' paradigms block out a correct understanding. In the New Testament the best-known passage in this regard is probably Luke 23:43, where the simple placing of a comma can radically alter the meaning of the verse ("Verily I say unto you today, .." versus "Verily I say unto you, today ...").

So the fact is that God did not inspire any punctuation with Deut. 6:4. As we saw above, the text reads as follows:

"Shama Yisrael Yahweh Elohim Yahweh echad".

THE HEBREW WORD "SHAMA":

This word is translated as "hear" in this verse. It is used 1159 times in the Old Testament ... thus quite common. In the KJV it is translated as:

In Deut. 6:4 this word is used in the IMPERATIVE mood, which means that it is to be understood as a command, an order! It does not just mean "listen", but rather: "listen to AND OBEY the things I want you to listen to".

The word "shama" is used many times in the imperative mood. Often the translators chose to then translate it as "obey". At other times they rendered it as "hearken", an old English word meaning "to pay close attention"; at other times just as "hear".

In all of the following scriptures "shama" is in the imperative mood, expressing a command, an order. The KJV has rendered it in these verses as "obey" or "hearken" or "hear". I have typed the translation of "shama" in capital letters.

Now therefore, my son, OBEY my voice according to that which I command thee. (Genesis 27:8)
And his mother said unto him, Upon me [be] thy curse, my son: only OBEY my voice, and go fetch me [them]. (Genesis 27:13)
Now therefore, my son, OBEY my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran; (Genesis 27:43)
Beware of him, and OBEY his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name [is] in him. (Exodus 23:21)
And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, HEARKEN unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. (Genesis 21:12)
Now therefore HEARKEN, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do [them], that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you. (Deuteronomy 4:1)
And the LORD said unto Samuel, HEARKEN unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. (ISamuel 8:7)
And the LORD said to Samuel, HEARKEN unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city. (ISamuel 8:22)
And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, HEAR, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them. (Deuteronomy 5:1)
HEAR, O Israel: Thou [art] to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, (Deuteronomy 9:1)
And shall say unto them, HEAR, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them; (Deuteronomy 20:3)

When "shama" is used in the imperative mood, it really needs an object ... someone or something that is to be obeyed. This may be in the form of "obey me or some other person" or in the form of "obey the things I tell you". It is important to understand that in Hebrew the imperative mood is an expression of an order.

Next, notice also that this word "shama" is the only verb in this verse. None of the other 5 words is a verb. All of the trans-lators have chosen to provide the verb "is" for this verse ... but God did not inspire the word "is" to be there. Often when the translators have provided this verb, it is helpful or even essential in English. But we should not assume that it is always automatically correct. To do so would assume that the translators have a clear grasp of what God intended to convey in the original, which they don't necessarily have at all. Psalm 111:10 also applies to translators of the Bible ...

The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that DO [his commandments]: his praise endureth for ever. (Psalms 111:10)

Right, now let's look at "echad".

THE HEBREW WORD "ECHAD":

This word is translated as "one" in this verse. It is used 951 times in the Old Testament, thus also quite common. In the KJV it is translated as follows:

While the word certainly means "one", a survey of its usage makes clear that this is not its only meaning in English. For example, this word is used in the following passages:

In Genesis 27:44 Rebekah instructs her son Jacob to stay with her brother Laban "A FEW" ("echad") days. The word "days" is used in the plural in Hebrew and thus Rebekah CERTAINLY DID NOT MEAN "one day". THIS IS HOW GOD INSPIRED THIS WORD TO BE USED HERE!

In Joshua 22:20 Phinehas said to the two-and-one-half tribes about Achan: "... and that man perished not ALONE ("echad") in his iniquity". In this context "alone" fits very well.

In I Chronicles 29:1 David said: "... Solomon, my son, whom ALONE ("echad") God has chosen ...". Once again the context shows that "alone" is a very suitable translation of the word "echad". NOTE: David CLEARLY did NOT mean that he had only one son ... Solomon; or that Solomon is the only one God has ever chosen.

In Isaiah 51:2 God says about Abraham: "... for I called him ALONE ("echad"), and blessed him ...". Here too the context shows that "alone" can be a suitable translation of "echad". And in this verse it is GOD who is using this word "echad". God does NOT mean that He has not also called other people at other times.

Ezekiel 7:5-6 is interesting on two counts: its use of the word "echad" and also the syntax of these two sentences is noteworthy. Here God says: "An evil, an ONLY ("echad") evil, behold, is come". Here "only" is the translation of "echad". We should be able to readily see that the words "alone" and "only" have a certain overlap ... in the verses we looked at above, the word "alone" could easily be replaced by the word "only". Note also that God is not trying to say that no other evils have ever come along.

But notice also the construction in Ezekiel 7:

This form of repetition is quite similar to what we find in Deuteronomy 6:4.

In Joshua 4:2,4,5 the word "echad" is used three times and always translated as "EVERY". For example, Joshua 4:2 reads: "Take you twelve men out of the people, out of EVERY (echad) tribe a man". Notice that if you read only the second half of this verse, you might draw the conclusion that "echad" tells you that there is only one tribe under consideration. You have to know from elsewhere that Israel consisted of TWELVE tribes and not only one tribe.

An abbreviated form "chad" is used in Ezekiel 33:30.25.

TO SUMMARIZE THE USES OF "ECHAD":

"Echad" certainly means "one". But it equally clearly also has other meanings. Its use in the Scriptures shows that it is also used when very clearly MORE THAN ONE exists ... it does not preclude others from existing separately. For example:

PUTTING THE PICTURE TOGETHER:

In the Hebrew Deut. 6:4 reads:

"Shama Yisrael Yahweh Elohim Yahweh echad".

This means in English:

"Hear and obey, O Israel, Yahweh Elohim, Yahweh alone (or only)."

Or, to put it in a clearer way:

"O Israel, (hear and) obey Yahweh Elohim, Yahweh alone".

STEPS IN THE ARGUMENT:

In his Handouts Dr. Stavrinides likes to present his reasoning as "steps in the argument" to prove his logic. Thus I will now apply this same approach to the analysis of Deut. 6:4. Here are the steps:

  1. This verse has SIX words in it, the first TWO of which Dr. Stavrinides conveniently ignores in the 4 different renderings he proposes to examine.
  2. Only ONE of these six words is a verb ... the FIRST word, which he has ignored in his discussion. Without this verb present the reader is forced to provide the verb "to be" to make some sense out of the four words Dr. Stavrinides looks at.
  3. The ignored verb "shama" is in the imperative mood, which means that it expresses a command. It does not simply mean "to hear in a passive way"; but rather "to hear with the intention of obeying and responding to what is heard".
  4. The imperative mood requires a predicate, something or someone that Israel is to "hear and obey".
  5. Points #3 and #4 above are substantiated by the scriptures I have referred to above , which all use the verb "shama" in the imperative mood.
  6. When the verb "shama" is included in the assessment of this verse, then there is no need to provide the verb "to be" in an artificial way. The sentence has a subject (Israel) with a verb (hear and obey) that is in the imperative mood, expecting, grammatically, an object (God, Yahweh Elohim) to be listened to and obeyed.
  7. The theme of the entire context of this verse is: OBEDIENCE TO GOD. The explanation I have given is in total harmony with this theme.
  8. What the JEWISH understanding of this verse is, has nothing to do with the question. Their understanding is flawed in many places, as even Jesus Christ pointed out; e.g.
    Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. (Matthew 22:29)

    Also, Dr. Stavrinides himself said on tape #2 that to quote books written by scholars means nothing. I agree with this.

  9. This removes the uninspired punctuation --- THE COLON! --- which effectively separated the imperative verb from its subject. When we realize that the verb "shama" very definitely means "to obey", then it becomes self-evident that the One Israel is required to obey is Yahweh, Jesus Christ, the God of the Old Testament. The effect of this uninspired punctuation (i.e. the colon after "Israel") is just as great as the effect of the comma in Luke 23:43 ... it completely changes the meaning and the thrust of the verse.
  10. This explanation is in keeping with the usages of "shama" and "echad" in other passages of the Old Testament. There is no reason to challenge that "ALONE" is a correct translation of "echad" in Joshua 22:20 and in IChron. 29:1 and in Isaiah 51:2; and that "ONLY" is a correct translation of "echad" in Ezek. 7:5.
  11. "The nature of God" is certainly not the context of Deutero-nomy 6:4. What Dr. Stavrinides refers to as "the nature of God" is not really THE CONTEXT anywhere in the Bible ... that's why he says that the Bible only contains "hints" about this subject. Since Deut. 6:4 is not in the context of this subject, Dr. Stavrinides' claim that ..."Deuteronomy 6:4 is about God's unity" is an artificial forcing of this verse into his interpretation.
  12. Dr. Stavrinides' reasoning in trying to limit the meaning of this verse to one of only two options, that he has arbitrarily selected, is in error. Both of his wrong options are only "red herrings", intended to divert attention from the real meaning of this passage.
  13. Having selected two wrong options as the only possibilities, it is easy enough for Dr. Stavrinides to prove one of these to be wrong. Therefore he then concludes that his other wrong option must be the correct answer. His conclusion is wrong because his foundational assumed premise ("the theological possibilities behind Deuteronomy 6:4 are two") is wrong!
  14. The matter that God is "one family of beings" does not enter the question of Deut. 6:4 one way or the other. It would only become an issue if his assumed false premise that this verse is about "God's unity" were correct.
  15. Anyone whose mind is being guided by the Holy Spirit of God will recognize that what Deuteronomy 6:4 tells us is indeed:
    "O Israel, hear (obey!) Yahweh Elohim, Yahweh alone."
  16. In the Handout entitled "The Modern Trinitarian Problem" Dr. Stavrinides repeatedly appeals to Deuteronomy 6:4 as proof for his assertions. For example, at the top of page 5 he says:
    "The Old Testament leaves no doubt that the worship of more than one deity is pagan (I comment on this starting on page 30). The Book of Deuteronomy, in particular, is emphatic about the oneness of the true God: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one' (6:4). THIS IS THE DEFINITIVE STATEMENT ON THE HEBREW CONCEPT OF MONOTHEISM."

    On page 6 he states:

    "The conclusion that God is one, IN THE STRICTEST POSSIBLE SENSE, may be disturbing to some, but the evidence is clear: (1) The INDISPUTABLE testimony of Deuteronomy 6:4, in Hebrew." (6 other "evidences" follow, which will be addressed in PART XIV, starting on page 87)

In this section I have shown that he has misinterpreted this verse and that his evidence is far from "indisputable".

CONCLUSION:

Deuteronomy 6:4 is the most important biblical snippet that Dr. Stavrinides builds his theory of "one being in three hypostases" on. Since he has misinterpreted this verse, it follows that his whole theory is wrong.

But let's move on ...

Contra Stavrinides Index
Next Part
Previous Part