“The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way,
before His works of old.”
(Prov 8:22, NKJV)
Although the word ‘Trinity’ does not appear in the Word, it is clear that it underlies the entire Bible. Our translation of Gen 1:1 reads: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” In the Jerusalem Version, which uses the correct Hebrew and Greek translations of the names of God, it reads as follows: “In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.”
Almost all translations of the Bible use the same word, “God”, when translating the different names of God. As names within a Biblical cultural context almost always links to identity, it is imperative for us to become acquainted with God’s various names. (We’ll shortly return to this point.) The Hebrew name used in Gen 1:1, Elohim, points to plurality – “rulers, judges, divine ones, gods” (Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions). Therefore it is suited that God later in Gen 1:26 states: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…”
Christ’s life did not start approximately 2000 years ago when a virgin named Maria was impregnated by the Holy Spirit. Col 1:15-19 provides us with this comprehensive explanation of Christ – “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell …”
Christ’s honoured position is prophetically worded in Prov 8:22-24, 26-31: “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water. While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, or the primal dust of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was there, when He drew a circle on the face of the deep, when He established the clouds above, when He strengthened the fountains of the deep, when He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters would not transgress His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in His inhabited world, and my delight was with the sons of men.”
- Sela: How does Phil 2:5-8 correspond to this?
- Read: 1 Chr 13; Jer 39; Phil 2
- Memorise: Phil 2:3
