Who is the "one Lord", for Paul?

In Ps 110:1, in Hebrew, the One and Only YHWH is contrasted with 'adôni (“my lord”). In the LXX translation, we find ho kyrios contrasted with ho kyrios mou. So this is perfectly in line with the usual LXX translation of YHWH with ho kyrios. The key word, for both versions, is: contrasted. However, and unlike Ps 110:1, Paul, in 1Cor 8:6, refers to Jesus as eis kyrios (“one lord”). Exactly as Deut 6:4 refers to the One and Only God, not only in the LXX translation (kyrios eis), but also in the original Hebrew (YHWH 'echad). Now, unless one is ready to resort to the desperate gambit of affirming that there is a (significant) difference between eis kyrios (1Cor 8:6) and kyrios eis (Deut 6:4 – LXX), the two expressions are essentially one and the same.

One may say that what is important about 1Cor 8:6 is the context of the whole chapter 1Cor 8, where Paul speaks to the Corinthians about the right attitude to take regarding the food sacrificed to idols. As is known, Paul had a rather "liberal" attitude about the issue, with the only limit that those who are "stronger" should not cause scandal to those who are "weaker" and have scruples.

But the text of 1Cor 8:6 cannot be treated lightly: Paul speaks as though the One God (eis theos, the Father) had entirely transferred the title and role of One Lord (eis kyrios, that is the same role that is esclusive to YHWH in Deut 6:4 – LXX) to His resurrected, ascended and glorified Son, Jesus Christ.

Certainly Paul caused scandal among the Jews, and in particular the Judaeo-Christians of Jerusalem, by not imposing the Mosaic Law on Gentile Christian converts. In fact, Paul's "liberal" attitude towards the Mosaic Law was so extensive, that he went as far as affirming that ...

Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Instead, keeping God’s commandments is what counts. (1Cor 7:19)

But I suspect that Paul's affirmation that (the resurrected, ascended and exalted) Jesus Christ was (had become?) eis kyrios was considered by the orthodox Jews Paul’s peculiar heresy. 

Maimonides: more than perplexed about the Trinity

There cannot be any belief in the unity of God except by admitting that He is one simple substance, without any composition or plurality of elements: one from whatever side you view it, and by whatever test you examine it: not divisible into two parts in any way and by any cause, nor capable of any form of plurality either objectively or subjectively. (Moses Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed 1.51)

I find it the epitome of irony that the great Rambam is enlisted by some Trinitarians in defense God's unity, as though he hadn't also severely condemned the "mystery" of the Trinity.

Here is what he wrote, elsewhere:

When the master of the prophets [Moses] intended to to inform us us that Almighty God is One, and that there is no second unto Him, and to remove from our minds [lit. "erase from our hearts] the false view of the dualists [Hebrew: mishniyim from sheney meaning two, i.e., those who believe im two gods], he clearly stated the following fundamental principle: Hear o Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one [Deut. 6:4]. The Christians cite this Biblical phrase as proof of their contention that God is three, in that they assert: it is stated the Lord, and it is stated the our God, and it is stated the Lord, there are thus three names; [sic!], then it is stated  One, proving that they are three and that the three are one. Heaven forbid! [I.e. may God preserve us from such false and evil interpretations of Scripture]. (Moses Maimonides' Treatise on Resurrection, pp. 21-22)

Maimonides, in the very same paragraph, affirms the Oneness of God (on the basis of Deut 6:4) and condemns the (ab)use that Christians make of the same Deut 6:4 to “prove” that “they are three and that the three are one”.

Marcellus of Ancyra and how he would have saved us from the "Cappadocian compromise"

Marcellus of Ancyra (died ca. 374 CE) is an enigmatic figure. He was a staunch Nicene, friend of Athanasius, defended by popes but also reviled as a heretic. Eusebius of Caesarea wrote two polemical tracts against Marcellus, Contra Marcellum and De Ecceiastica Theologia

Joseph  Lienhard wrote a fundamental book about him, Contra Marcellum: Marcellus of Ancyra and Fourth-Century Theology (Washington, D.C., 1999).

The beginning of Lienhard’s the book is an account of Marcellus' life (pages 1-19) and a list of nine works that can possibly be attributed to him (pages 19-27). Marcellus' major work, the Contra Asterium, published in 336, only survives in fragments, mainly quotations by Eusebius. The rest of the book is an account of what people said Marcellus' heresy was and investigation into the truthfulness of the claims (pages 28 to 240). By 355 Marcellus retired into obscurity.

Critics claimed that Marcellus believed that God was a Monad and only emerged as a Trinity for the sake of salvation (page 50). Marcellus was labelled as a Sabellian. Lienhard points out this comes from his opponents and not from Marcellus's own writings. In the end Lienhard affirms that Marcellus was guilty of a bit too much speculation (which he somewhat disavowed in the end) and some inconsistencies in his christological/theological terminology.

One of the useful aspects of Lienhard’s book is that it makes one understand better that the Arian controversy was much more complex than most textbooks let on.

Two passages from Lienhard’s book, in particular, are worth quoting.

Epiphanius of Salamis writes 'I myself once asked the blessed pope Athanasius about this Marcellus, what his opinion of him was. He neither defended him nor expressed hostility towards him. He only smiled, and indicated that he was not far from error, but he considered him excused'. (page 9)

But Athanasius never betrayed Marcellus. Basil of Caesarea, the leading figure of the Cappadocians, wrote to Athanasius to secure a Western condemnation of Marcellus (Ep. 69, 2; 82). Athanasius left Basil’s letters unanswered, and never acted. Basil later complained that his letters to Athanasius had accomplished nothing (Ep. 89, 2 to Meletius).

Lienhard writes, 'Marcellus of Ancyra is one of the more intriguing figures of the fourth century. While he is hardly the most important theologian of that century, he played a small but significant role in the development of doctrine in that era' (page 141).

But it is the concluding paragraph of the book that, somehow, indicates that Lienhard didn’t say all that he wanted to say:

Marcellus, and many who though as he did, finally snapped the great chain of being and freed Christian doctrine from one of the most perduring assumptions of the Platonic world-view. As the eastern Church accepted the formula "one ousia, three hypostaseis", it gained clarity in its doctrine. But Marcellus may still say to the Church that the phrase remains in need of careful explanation and that there are other ways, too, of speaking about the mystery of God, One and Three. (Contra Marcellum, cit, p. 244 - emphasis added)

What "other ways"? The options are not unlimited. The "Cappadocian settlement" is unsatisfactory (besides being un-scriptural), because it is an unstable compromise, permanently oscillating between tritheism and modalism. Then, what are the other options we are left with?

Having read Marcellus’ excerpts, in particular in the quotations from the books that Eusebius of Caesarea wrote to attack him (Contra Marcellum and De Ecclesiastica Theologia) I am believe that the correct interpretation of Marcellus' central thought is this: God is one ousia, one hypostasis and one prosopon. He is also, ab aeterno, endowed with two essential attributes, His Word (logos, dabar) and His Spirit (pneuma, ruach).

Jesus is, indeed, the Incarnation of God’s eternal Word and, after the Resurrection and the Ascension, forever seated at God’s right, as Lord.

Was Origen a unitarian? Nah!

One of Dale Tuggy's favs (at the his SEP > Trinity and SEP > Unitarianism entries - the latter subordinated by Tuggy himself to the Trinity entry by calling it a "Supplement to Trinity"; amply supported in many posts at his blog trinities.org/blog: see here and here, for a selection) is that Subordinationism has nothing to do with Trinitarianism (which Tuggy considers to exist only in its fully-fledged, co-eternal, co-equal, tri-personal, final verson), whereas it would be a sub-category of Unitarianism.

Of course this is historically ludicrous (the fully-fledged Trinity certainly did not pop out of the blue in 381 AD or later; the terms "unitarian" and "unitarianism" both appeared at the end of the 17th century, with reference to a phenomenon that is no earlier, anyway, than the 16th century, with Lelio Sozzini (1525 - 1562) and Fausto Sozzini (1539 - 1604), respectively uncle and nephew). 

But even a simple look at dictionary definitions shows the obvious:

• [subordinationism] the doctrine that the first person of the Holy Trinity is superior to the second, and the second superior to the third. (Dictionary.com, © Random House, Inc. 2017)

• [subordinationism] either of two interpretations of the doctrine of the Trinity, often regarded as heretical, according to which the Son is subordinate to the Father or the Holy Ghost is subordinate to both (Collins English Dictionary – Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers)

• [subordinationism] the theological tenet of progressively declining essence within the Trinity. (-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc.)

• [subordinationism] a doctrine in theology: the second and third persons of the Trinity are subordinate (as in order or essence) to the first person and the Holy Spirit is subordinate to the Son (© 2017 Merriam-Webster, Incorporated)

The last of the list is, IMO, the most obvious and intuitive and, I believe the closest to the common understanding. Certainly none of them is too narrow.

So, not only Dale Tuggy makes a totally idiosyncratic use of the notions of Unitarianism and Subordinationism, but he repeatedly tries to argue that Origen (ca. 184 - 254) is a Unitarian (see here).
I have repeatedy affirmed that Origen IS a trinitarian, of the Subordinationist kind. More, his doctrine of the “eternal generation of the son” will be absolutely essential to the later full-fledged Trinitarians, so much so that both Athanasius of Alexandria and Basil of Caesarea (the eldest of the Cappadocian scoundrels) strongly defended Origen’s (trinitarian) orthodoxy.

This is what we read about him in the Encyclopaedia Britannica:

Origen shows himself to be one of the most original and profound of speculative theologians. Neoplatonist in background, he constructed a system that embraces both the notion of the preexistence of souls, with their fall and final restoration, and a deeply subordinationist doctrine of the Trinity—i.e., one in which the Son is subordinate to the Father. (Encyclopaedia Britannica > Patristic literature)

As for the logical/grammatical/semantic point of the adjective "Subordinationist", the very word presupposes that there are (at least) two entities – of the same or similar nature– that are hierarchically subordinated, so, indeed, the expression “subordinationist unitarian” is (if not a "contradiction in terms"), certainly an oxymoron. On the other hand, to say that creatures are subordinated to their Creator is a triviality.

Justin Martyr, with his doctrine of the Logos as theos kai kyrios eteros was certainly a Subordinationist. In fact, with good reason, the first Subordinationist. As repeatedly affirmed by me, it was with Justin Martyr that the Philonian “original sin” of the “two gods” entered Christianity.
That the word Trinity would have “come to mean a triune god, a tripersonal god in some sense containing equal persons” (as Dale Tuggy says here) is certainly obvious by the end of the 4th century. To affirm that the word “trinity” would not have been used before then, is manifestly false. The ONLY thing that the pre-Constantinopolitan Trinity lacked before 381 is precisely the co-equality (and, for some, the co-eternity). To deny that pre-Nicene/Constantinopolitan Trinity would have been Trinity is to beg the question of what is relevant to the definition of Trinity.
One thing that Dale Tuggy omits to confront is whether there is any support, in the Scripture (OT and NT) for referring to the pre-incarnated Word/Logos/Dabar as "person", and to the Spirit/Pneuma/Ruwach as "person" at all, not in the unusual and obfuscating sense of "subsistence" (or "supposit" as some fancily say), BUT in the common sense of “self conscious being, endowed with reason, freedom and will“. More or less the definition of Severinus Boethius. (BTW, there is no support, in the Scripture …)

Obviously Arius and the Arians broke with the ante-Nicene Fathers, otherwise the Arian Controversy which, obviously, Nicea 325 was not enough for settling, would be totally incomprehensible. Was Arius a “trinitarian”? Certainly NOT in the sense of the equality of the “Son” with the Father, but also NOT in the sense of the similarity, because he affirmed (for the first time, and clearly departing from the tradition) that the “Son” was NOT generated, not emanated, BUT created by God, the Father Almighty. 

Was Arius a Subordinationist? Most certainly NOT in the sense that Origen was (and Tertullian, and others) were.

Insisting that everything before Arius is "unitarianism" simply fails to explain the whole dynamic of Christian dogma, in particular in its most critical period, the Arian Controversy, from beginning to (authoritarian) end, from 318 to 381.

 "Humanitarian unitarianism” is too reductive, because it doesn't take into account Jesus' divinity, and that the ONLY way to take into account Jesus’ divinity is to affirm, with the Prologue to the Gospel of John, that Jesus is indeed (NOT a pre-existing “person”, BUT) truly and literally (NOT by way of metaphor), the Incarnation of God’s Eternal Word/Logos/Dabar.

Subordinationism, Arianism, Trinitarianism, Unitarianism, Strict Monotheism

1. Some claim (Dale Tuggy is one of them - see trinities.org/blog) that one can only properly speak of "trinity" or "trinitarianism" when one has the whole hog doctrine (co-eternality, co-equality, tri-personality, "one ousia in three hypostaseis"). But this is pure sophistry, because that definition was only achieved at the end of the 4^th century, after a prolonged strife first between the Arians and the Nicene, then the semi-Arians and the new-Nicene, then through the "great compromise" of the Synod of Alexandria of 362 AD, then through the (essential) role of the Cappadocian scoundrels.

2. As is well known , the Arian controversy started with the rebuttal of Arius, in response to the doctrine of the similarity of the "Son" to the father, preached by the (then) bishop of Alexandria, his bishop. Mark this, only similarity, not equality. To which sermon, Arius replied that "if the Father begat the Son, he that was begotten had a beginning of existence: and from this it is evident, that there was a time when the Son was not. It therefore necessarily follows, that he

[the Son] had his substance from nothing." (The Ecclesiastical Histories of Socrates Scholasticus) What Alexander affirmed was simply the standard belief of the Church, or at least of its highest ranks. Origen brought it even further, by affirming the "eternal generation of the Son" (a formula that, later, turned out to be very useful to the "trinitarians" ...) It certainly did NOT alter the status quo. It was Arius who undoubtedly altered the status quo, affirming (or at least implying) that the "Son" was a creature.

3. Subordinationism, that is the doctrine that the "Son" (and the Spirit) are divine beings, BUT are inferior to the Father, is intrinsically un-stable, if affirmed within the Scriptural Religion, that is a religion which proclaims the unconditional Oneness of God. Inevitably, under a challenge like the one that Arius brought forth, it can only evolve (and stabilize) into full-fledged "trinitarianism" (or "binitarianism"), OR it can evolve into "unitarianism" (in the obvious sense that there is no such thing as a "pre-existing Son" – let alone "pre-existing Son" and that Jesus was just a man, however exalted.)

4. There is another option, that I refer to as Strict Monotheism. Historically it was fully formulated only by Marcellus of Ancyra: the Word/logos/dabar and the Spirit/pneuma/ruach are essential, eternal attributes of the One God and Father. Jesus Christ is real God because the divine logos got incarnated (sarx egeneto) in him. He is real man, having derived his real humanity from the Blessed Virgin Mary. Jesus Christ is a real person, BUT, contrary to what Trinitarians (and also Subordinationists and even Arians) affirm, NOT a split second before he was conceived by the BVM.

To whom does the title Lord belong?

Christians have always claimed to be in profound theological unity with Israel’s great confession: “Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord” (Dt 6:4 LXX); yet they have have had no qualm about confessing “one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Cor 8:6).

Lets examine in full the two verses, and evidence the Greek of the critical words …

“Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord” [kyrios eis] (Dt 6:4 LXX)

“Yet for us there is one God [eis theos], the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord [eis kyrios], Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” 1 Cor 8:6)

… it becomes even more evident that Paul attributes ONLY to Jesus the qualification of eis kyrios, that the Deuteronomy attributes ONLY to YHWH …

… unless, of course, in desperation, one claims that the order of the words eis and kyrios makes all the difference. 

So, reading the text of 1 Corinthians 8:6, it seem that Paul has introduced a very relevant shift in the Biblical doctrine of the Godhead: the “one God, the Father” shares the title of “one Lord” with the Jesus Christ, nay Jesus Christ has become the “one Lord”.

Perhaps, more that anything else, this is the reason why the Jews considered Paul with great suspicion.

Jesus resorts to a double ellipsis in John 8:58?

Let’s look at the relevant verses of John 8:

⁵⁶ Your father Abraham was overjoyed to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.” ⁵⁷ Then the Judeans replied, “You are not yet fifty years old! Have you seen Abraham?” ⁵⁸ Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, before Abraham was, I am!” (John 8:56-58)

The critical phrase is the last one: in Greek, prin abraam genesthai egô eimi and, even more specifically, the phrase prin abraam genesthai.

Now, genesthai is the Second Aorist – Middle Deponent – Infinitive form of gi[g]nomai, which has a very broad spectrum of meanings (see Liddel-Scott-Jones Greek Lexicon), the most fundamental of which is “to become” and, only derivatively, “to be [born]” (absolute sense). Normally, in the sense of “to become”, genesthai is followed by a predicate, which is apparently not the case in John 8:58, so, the Greek phrase prin abraam genesthai is usually understood as though genesthai was actually used in the absolute sense, and consequently translated with something like “before Abraham was [born]”.

The English Unitarian Thomas Belsham (1750 – 1829), to interpret John 8:58, considered, among other arguments, that of double ellipsis (see A Calm Inquiry Into the Scripture Doctrine Concerning the Person of Christ, § 3, pp. 53-55).

The argument runs, more or less, like this. If, instead of interpreting genesthai as absolute (“to be [born]”), we suppose that genesthai means “to become” (in an elliptical sense to be determined), the key phrase at John 8:58 becomes:

[Lit. Eng.] before Abraham become [ellipsis], I am [ellipsis]

Neither “become”, nor “I am” are, reasonably, used in an absolute sense. So, there may be an ellipsis associated with each verb. Unpacking the [double ellipsis], we may have:

“Before Abraham become [father of a multitude (viz. of nations) – Gen 17:5] I am [the Messiah]”

Less obscurely, what Jesus is saying to “the Jews” may be something like this:

“And verily I say, that the time for the accomplishment of what he foresaw is not yet arrived: for before Abram shall be Abraham, i. e. become the father of many nations, according to the import of his name, I am the Christ your Messiah.” (Interpretation and paraphrase of John 8:58 provided at the Theological Repository vol. iv. p. 351, as quoted by Thomas Belsham in A Calm Inquiry Into the Scripture Doctrine Concerning the Person of Christ, p. 54)

Belsham notes that this interpretation of John 8:58 was first proposed by the Polish Socinians (presumably, the Polish Brethren, a non-trinitarian Protestant church that existed in Poland from 1565 to 1658).