A reader in Martinville, Arkansas, has sent along a booklet for our comments. It is by Dr. Leopold Cohn, and is issued by the American Board of Missions to the Jews, Brooklyn, N.Y. Its avowed purpose is to “convert Jews to a belief in the Doctrine of the Trinity.”
Dr. Cohn, himself a Jew, argues that the Old Testament “teaches with great emphasis that God is not a yachid, which means an only one, or an absolute one, but achad, which means a united one,” and cites Deuteronomy 6:4 as an example of the use of achad concerning God. “Here, Ο Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one (achad).”
But achad (or, better, echad) cannot be taken as meaning “a united one,” as alleged by Dr. Cohn. Here are just a few examples, taken at random, from more than 550 occasions when echad is translated “one” in the Old Testament.
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Author: P. H. Adams
Keywords: echad, god is one, monotheism, trinity, Tri-unity, Oneness, LORD is one, One God, trinitarian, three persons one god, three persons, doctrine trinity, compound unity, plural pronoun, royal we
Bible reference(s): Genesis 3:22, Deuteronomy 6:4, Zechariah 14:9, Mark 12:29, Ephesians 4:5
Source: “The Jews and the Doctrine of the Trinity,” The Testimony, Vol. 17, No. 201, September 1947, pp. 320-2.
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