(Fwd) Is God a Person in His Divine Nature?

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> 
> Forwarded message:
> From:     Self <Single-user mode>
> To: higher-fire@prairienet.org
> Subject: Is God a Person in His Divine Nature?
> Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 09:45:38
> 
> >From Scripture we know that God is a Spirit.  We must worship Him in 
> Spirit and in truth.  But is God a Person in His Divine Nature? Is He 
> called a Person in the original language in which the scriptures were 
> written? In the KJV there is only one scripture where the word Person 
> is used in reference to God, that is in Hebrews 1:3 and looking at it 
> in the original greek I don't believe that the word Person should be 
> used. If we could conclude that the word Person is not a correct way 
> to describe God in His Divine Nature then the trinity would be 
> without an argument, the term persons would be unscriptural, God in 
> three persons would be an unscriptural term as God is a Spirit. 
> gdrost@nbnet.nb.ca
> 
> 

This is very loaded question because the buisness of three person's
involves some very esoteric language.  The church Fathers who spoke Greek
began calling God three hypostoses (a word that be translated underlying
realities or substances.)  This is exactly the word translated as Person
in the King James, and it is a word deeply related to the original
formulation of the Trinity.

There seem to be four questions you are asking:

1 If the Greek text calls God one Hypostis should we call God three
Hypostyses?

2. Should a hypostysis be translated as Person in the Bible.

3. Should we translate Hypsostsysis as Person when we are speaking of
Theories of the Godhead from the third and fourth century (we always do
this.)

4. Do any of the above questions have anything to do with the question of
whether God is Trinity.

1.I realy think the answer is No, and this shows how careless certain 
Church Fathers (Origen, Anthanathius ect. were.)

2. I realy doubt this is the best translation of the word, and I doubt it
has ever lead to anything but confusion (Who but a scholar who had studied
the question would understand this translation.)

3. This makes the confusing question of the orgin of the Trinitarian view
more confusing than it already is (and was pretty confusing to start
with.)  The bottom line is that just because the Latins translated
Hypostatysis as Persona does not mean that translating the same word as
Person in English is productive.

4. I think the answer to this is Yes.  By calling God three Hypostysis in
stead of one, the Church Fathers made a drastic break from the language in
the Scripture.  I believe it is wisest to describe God entirely in
Scriptural terms:

Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, ..


		Yeaton Clifton