Grafted-In Ministries

John Schoenheit

“Hear, O Israel! Yehovah is our Elohim, Yehovah alone!” It is believed by some Trinitarians that the Hebrew word ’echad (H259 אֶחָד), “one,” that is used in Deut 6:4 and other verses indicates a “compound unity.” Concerning the use of the word echad, Anthony Buzzard writes:

“It is untrue to say that the Hebrew word echad (one) in Deut 6:4 points to a compound unity. A recent defense of the Trinity argues that when “one” modifies a collective noun like “bunch” or “herd,” a plurality is implied in echad. The argument is fallacious. The sense of plurality is derived from the collective noun (herd, etc.), not from the word “one.”Echad in Hebrew is the numeral “one.” “Abraham was one [echad]” (Eze 33:24; “only one man,” NIV). Isa 51:2 also describes Abraham as “one” (echad; “alone,” KJV; “the only one,” NJBO, where there is no possible misunderstanding about the meaning of this simple word.” Anthony Buzzard and Charles Hunting, The Doctrine of the Trinity: Christianity’s Self-Inflicted Wound [International Scholars Publications, New York, 1998], p. 25).

In the Old Testament, there is no reference to the word “one” as indicating a plurality of any kind. A study of its uses in the Old Testament will reveal its simple meaning and the truth it conveys. It is used of “one” in number, “the first” in a series, “one” in the sense of “the same” or “alone,” and “one” in the sense of “each” or “a certain one.” It is used as “alone” in verses like Deu 6:4, and “first” in verses like Gen 1:5, when Elohim made light on the “first” day. The whole earth spoke “one” language before Babel (Gen 11:1). Hagar cast her child under “one” of the bushes (Gen 21:15). In Pharaoh’s dream, there were seven ears of grain on “one” stalk (Gen 41:5). In the plague on Egypt’s livestock, not “one” cow died in Israel (Exo 9:6). Exo 12:49 says that Israel shall have “one” law for the citizen and the foreigner. The examples are far too many to list for this frequently used word, which appears more than 950 times in the Old Testament, and there is no hint in any Jewish commentary or lexicon that it somehow implies a “compound unity.”

The history of the Jewish thought is well known. They were famous in the ancient world for being downright obnoxious when it came to defending their “one Elohim” against the polytheistic views of other civilizations. Elohim chose the Jews as His people, and He chose to communicate to them in the Hebrew language. The Jews debated their writings to the point of tedium and argued over almost every word in the Law, yet there is no evidence that any of them thought that their word for “one” implied a compound unity. That assumption did not develop until Christians needed evidence for the Trinity in the Old Testament; it is a late and invalid assumption with no solid evidence behind it.

Deut 6:4, “Hear, O Israel! Yehovah is our Elohim, Yehovah alone,” where echad is translated “alone,” is one of the strongest texts against the Trinity. The Bible affirms that Elohim is “one,” not “three-in-one” or some other plurality. This has been the rallying cry of Jews down through the ages who have stood aggressively against any form of polytheism or pantheism. Although it is commonly believed that Deut 6:4 (known as the Shema) is a statement of “monotheism” and thus the “compound unity” of Elohim, that is not what the verse is saying. Of course, it is certainly a statement about monotheism (that there is one Elohim), but that is not its primary emphasis.

In addition, it is not a statement about the compound unity of Elohim for a number of reasons. For one thing, the compound unity of Elohim does not appear in Scripture. Also, the Old Testament was given by Elohim to the Jews so they could know and obey Him, and never in the more than 3500 years since the Shema was written have the Jews understood it to refer to a compound unity in Elohim—quite the opposite. They took it to mean that there was only one Elohim, and they fiercely fought against polytheism throughout their history. So if the Shema was Elohim’s attempt to reveal a compound unity in Himself, the attempt was an epic failure. It makes much more sense that Elohim gave the verse to the Jews and intended it to mean what the Jews say it means. Furthermore, the Jews did not take the Shema as their primary statement of monotheism because many other verses in Hebrew Scripture made that point just as clearly.

Also, the context of the Shema in the Old Testament and where it is quoted in the New Testament indicate that the Shema is not saying “Elohim is ‘one,’” but rather is saying that Yehovah “alone” is Elohim. The context of Deut 6:4 is using the Hebrew word echad (H259 אֶחָד; “one, only, alone”) in the primary sense of “only” or “alone,” in contrast to the number “one,” and Mar 12:28-34 confirms this. Note how Deut 6:4-5 flow together and thus make a major—and logical—point: “Yehovah is our Elohim, Yehovah alone! And you must love Yehovah your Elohim with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.” It is because Yehovah “alone” is Elohim that we can worship him with “all” our heart, “all” our soul, and “all” our might. If we had more than one Elohim, our worship would have to be divided between all the gods we served, and each god would get only “part” of our heart, soul, and strength. In fact, that is what happens with Trinitarians today: they divide their worship of Elohim into the worship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But that division of worship is what is expressly forbidden by Deut 6:4 and Mar 12:29.

Also, the connection between Deut 6:4 and Zec 14:9 shows that echad means “alone,” not “one” in the sense of a compound unity. Deut 6:4 was the heart of the first and great commandment, and it said to Israel that Yehovah “is our Elohim,” (Israel’s Elohim), yes, “Yehovah alone.” But in fact, although Yehovah was “alone” in the sense that He was the true Elohim and Creator, that was not the way it was lived out in day-to-day life because Yehovah was not worshiped as “Elohim alone.” There were always other gods among the people of Elohim, and of course the pagan world was filled with all kinds of pagan gods. Jacob had to tell his family to put away their pagan gods (Gen 35:2). Joshua told Israel to put away their pagan gods but they never did (Jos 24:23). Israel served Baal and pagan gods throughout their history in Israel (cp. Jdg 2:11-13).

Thankfully, the prophet Zechariah foretold a time when “In that day Yehovah will be echad” (Zec 14:9). That is the same basic message as is in Deut 6:4, and echad cannot mean “one” in the Trinitarian sense of a compound unity because Zechariah was speaking about something new, that Yehovah “will be” echad. The nature of Elohim does not change, so what will change in the future so that Elohim “will be” echad in a way that He was not echad before? “In that day,” the day when Messiah reigns as king over the earth, Yehovah will finally be echad, “alone,” in a realized sense among the people. There will be no other gods on earth in Messiah’s kingdom. When Yeshua is finally king on earth there will be no pagan idols, pagan altars, or pagan worship. Finally, Yehovah “will be” “alone” as the Elohim who is worshiped on earth. Elohim had always wanted to be Elohim “alone” among His people, but He never was—the people always had other gods in the picture. But in the Millennial Kingdom, what Elohim longed for and stated in Deut 6:4 will be finally actualized on earth: Yehovah alone will be Elohim!

What should be clear is that Deut 6:4 is a statement about our personal relationship with Elohim. He “alone” is Elohim, so He is to be our only Elohim and we must worship Him with all that we are and have. Deut 6:4 is not primarily a statement about monotheism, it is a statement about relationship. Stated another way, Deut 6:4 is not about the nature of Elohim, it is about our relationship with Elohim. Monotheism is important, and Elohim had established that there was only one Elohim earlier in the book of Deuteronomy. Only about 50 verses before the Shema, Elohim had twice stated that He was the only Elohim. Deut 4:35 says, “Yehovah is Elohim, besides Him there is no other.” Four verses later Deut 4:39 reiterates that truth again and reads, “Yehovah is Elohim in heaven above and on earth below. There is no other.” After establishing that there is only one Elohim, Deut 6:4 then takes that truth and makes it personal: Yehovah who alone is Elohim is to be “our” Elohim, and we are to worship Him with all “our” heart, soul, and strength. Furthermore, after Deut 4:35, Deut 4:39 and Deut 6:4 have established that there is only one Elohim, and thus Yehovah alone is to be “our Elohim,” Deut 6:13 then says that we should fear and serve Him, and swear oaths in His name.

Furthermore, Yeshua quoted Deut 6:4 as part of the first and great commandment: “Hear, O Israel! Yehovah our Elohim is Lord alone” (Mar 12:29). It is quite inconceivable that Messiah would be promoting some form of the doctrine of the Trinity while at the same time quoting Deut 6:4 to a Jewish audience who then would have surely misunderstood him. According to the use of echad in Scripture, it is more reasonable to believe that Yeshua was simply affirming that if we are to love Elohim with all our heart we must be certain who He is—Elohim alone for there is no other