4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord;[a] (RSV)

Deuteronomy 6:4

This is the Shema, one of the most famous Biblical passages within the Jewish (and Christian) scriptures. Oftentimes, Jews will use the Shema as a proof text against the idea of the Trinity. After all, if the LORD is “one,” how can He be made up of three (or two… or ten…) persons?

I recently heard a claim that the Shema actually supports (or at least, does not deny) the idea of a multi-personal Godhead. Since this sounds a bit too good to be true for trinitarian Christians, I decided to look at it on my own.

Quick breakdown of the Shema

First, what is the Hebrew for this famous Biblical passage?

 שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד

Reading right to left (which is what Hebrew does):

shema (שְׁמַע) y’israel (יִשְׂרָאֵל) Yahweh (יְהוָה) elohenu (אֱלֹהֵינוּ = elohim w/ first person plural pronoun suffix) Yahweh (יְהוָה) eḥāḏ (אֶחָד)

If we disregard English grammar for a moment, we get something like:

“Hear Israel Yahweh our God Yahweh one”

Clearly, a dry word-for-word translation just doesn’t make much sense in English. This is one of those times where I think we should take a moment to appreciate the work that translators do for us. Often times they must make difficult judgement calls when translating Hebrew into English because there’s always a chance you could lose nuance.

In this phrase, there is no verb supplied, only implied. Legitimate translations of the Hebrew include:

  1. The Lord our God is one Lord.
  2. The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.
  3. The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Notice the verb “is” is always provided in English even though there isn’t a Hebraic equivalent. To make the English work, we have to supply the verb.

But what if we sit in the ambiguity for a second?

I actually like thinking about it like it is: “Hear Israel: Yahweh, our Elohim, Yahweh… one.” It’s not poetry, but the simplicity of the idea presented is interesting to ponder.

The Hebrew word eḥāḏ (אֶחָד)

The word eḥāḏ (translated here as “one”) implies a “uniqueness” or a “stand-alone-ness.” Its usage in this passage does not necessarily contradict a multiplicity inside the “oneness” or “uniqueness” of Yahweh; for instance, Adam and Eve are described as becoming “one flesh” (same word) in Genesis 2:24:

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (ESV)

The word “one” is eḥāḏ, describing the flesh of the two humans coming together. Clearly, there are two humans that are separate and distinct, but yet the use of the term “one flesh” indicates that this union is something unique, something separate, from all other unions.

The point?

Clearly, this isn’t some knock-down argument for the existence of the Trinity in the Shema. But, in my opinion, you certainly can’t use the Shema as a claim against the multiple personhood that makes up the Godhead of Yahweh.

Lastly… God is listed three times (two personal names, Yahweh, and the identifier elohim) in a row and then called eḥāḏ…?

Fascinating.

For more information, check out The Bible Project’s article and video series on the Shema.