Saturday, January 12, 2019

Godhead/Trinity Versus "Divine Nature"


According to dictionary.com Godhead is listed as:

"Godhead
[god-hed]
noun
...the Holy Trinity of God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Ghost."

To many people, "Godhead" means the Trinity, as I am sure the young man does in a video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llSOfugeYXI who is upset that the New European Version Bible does not use the word "Godhead."

The word "Godhead" is used three times in the King James Bible:

Acts 17:29 - Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
Romans 1:20 - For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Col. 2:9 - For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

If we substituted the word "Trinity" in place of "Godhead" then it would really only work at Acts 17:29, and at Colossians 2:9 it would be strange to speak of the Trinity dwelling inside Jesus. When you really think about it, the word "Godhead" is strange and archaic and most Bibles now don't even use it anymore. The word does not even appear in the BDAG Lexicon, which defines QEOTHTOS as "the quality or characteristic(s) pert. to deity, divinity, divine nature, divineness."

As the Revised English Version (REV) states: "Thus different theologians have interpreted it to mean various things, including the will of God, divine grace and gift, and even 'the Church' itself, along with interpretations that can be found in many translations, such as Deity, divinity, Godhead, God, 'God’s being,' 'all that God is,' and 'God’s nature.' What is clear from Scripture is that God gave Christ the gift of holy spirit and worked through him to accomplish His purposes. Thus, God was in Christ, reconciling the world (2 Cor. 5:19), and Jesus said, 'If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.' This verse is not saying that Jesus was God, but rather the fullness of what God is was in Christ—God’s character, power, and glory, resided in Christ, and now, as per Col. 2:10, it resides in us, and our challenge is to allow it to show forth from our flesh bodies and walk like Christ walked."

H. V. Reed in the Restitution adds:

"The reader has been led to infer that this was among the most approved and clearly stated ideas of the original scriptures. Nothing can be more unfair. The word godhead is not good English: it means nothing in itself and conveys no idea to the reader. What is a godhead? The idea in the original is simple and beautiful. We will note the three texts wherein it occurs. Acts 17: 'Being, therefore, already offspring of God, we ought not to be supposing that which is Divine to be like unto gold, or silver, or stone, etc. (Rotherham.) Rom. 1:20; 'For his unseen things from a world's creation are to be clearly seen by the things made being perceived, both his eternal power and divinity.' (Rotherham.) Col. 2:9: 'For in him (Christ) dwelleth all the completeness of the Divine nature in a body.' The word godhead like the word trinity, carries with it the idea of a society, which is not the idea of the original. Had the word been left out of the revised Testament it would have removed another impression from the 'three-in-one-God' theory. Modern criticism has forced certain interpretations from the sacred texts, and it will be a long time before doctrinal harmony and Biblical exegesis will expurge from the creed of man the theories of endless misery, the destruction of our globe, and the heathen dogma of the God society, or trinity. No effect on the part of authorized versions will succeed in bolstering up theories which are contrary alike to sound reason and the Scriptures of truth."

See also Colossians 2:9 and the Deity of Christ

and Colossians 2:9, Theotes and Godhead


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