Back to www.yoel.info.
Book Review 1 of 1:
Vol. 101, Number 4, Fall 2004, pp. 311-312
Professor John P. Hartwig
Book Review Editor
Book Review
by Professor John F. Brug
The
Jewish Trinity: When Rabbis Believed in the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, by Yoel Natan. Chula Vista,
CA: Aventine Press, 2003, 358 pages, paperback $19.99.
Despite conventional wisdom that the Old Testament only hints at distinct persons of Yahweh, the premise of this book holds that it is, in fact, as explicit about the Trinity and the deity of the Messiah as is the New Testament. Moses and the other writers of the Old Testament wrote strikingly and often about the Trinity and the deity of the Messiah.
Natan attempts to present a comprehensive treatment of the Trinity in the Old Testament. He includes many more passages than those traditionally cited in connection with this topic. Among the lines of evidence considered are the plural references to the Trinity, collective nouns, and special names such as the Angel of the Lord, Spirit, Panim, etc. Evidence is also arranged as presented by individual authors or sections of the Old Testament. Natan refutes those who deny that the Trinity is found in the Old Testament and deals with the issue of whether the Masoretes may have minimized some of the evidence pointing to the Trinity in the Old Testament. The New Testament usage of the Old Testament Trinitarian passages is also summarized.
Natan presents a massive amount of evidence for his case. I did not find all of it to be persuasive, for example, his belief that Panim is a true plural “Presences” and refers to both the Son and the Spirit. It seems more likely that Panim in its various forms refers to the Spirit, even in passages in which they stand in relationship of poetic parallelism with each other. But even if one questions a number of his arguments, a huge amount of evidence for his case remains.
Interesting side discussions cover topics such as whether Jesus’ trial was conducted in Greek or Aramaic and the proportionate use of Aramaic, Hebrew, Latin, and Greek in Israel.
Though presenting a very complex argument with many lines of evidence, the volume is relatively user-friendly since synopses are provided for each chapter, and evidence is presented both in individual chapters and in topical appendices. Since Natan is speaking from a perspective of Messianic Judaism [Yoel Natan note: or rather “writes in a Messianic Jewish-friendly style”], Jesus is regularly referred to as Yeshua. In the section on the Presences of Yahweh, Natan does present the Lutheran doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. He has a high view of the inspiration and authority of Scripture.
This book is a very comprehensive argument for the recognition of the Trinity in the Old Testament.
Professor John F. Brug, PhD, 1984, U of Minnesota, Semitic Languages and Archaeology
Book Review 2 of 2:
Vol. 43, No. 6
Front page + pp. 20-21
7 Feb 2005
New Haven, Missouri
“The Trinity in the Old Testament”
By Herman Otten, Editor, Christian News
Christian News has often said that the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is taught in both the Old and New Testament. The God of historic Christianity, the Trinity, is not some God fabricated by man in some long evolutionary process. He is the God directly revealed in both the Old and New Testaments. The chapter on the Trinity in the editor’s Baal or God (1965) presents some of the passages in the Old Testament which teach the doctrine of the Trinity, the only God who actually exists. Luther repeatedly insisted that The Holy Trinity is the God of both the Old and New Testaments.
Liberals have long denied that the Old Testament teaches the doctrine of the Trinity. Some 45 years ago when an orthodox Old Testament scholar at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, told the seminary that he intended to write his doctoral dissertation on the Trinity in the Old Testament, he was told by his faculty advisors that there is no evidence in the Old Testament for the doctrine of the Trinity. He was not permitted to write any Th.D. Thesis on the topic. The faculty advisors refused to consider any evidence he might present.
The Jewish Trinity is the title of a book by Yoel Natan and published by Aventine Press, Chula Vista, California, 358 pages, $19.99.
A Fall, 2004, Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly said in a review by WLQ Editor John Brug: “Natan presents a massive amount of evidence for his case…But even if one questions a number of his arguments, a huge amount of evidence for his case remains.”
[Yoel Natan’s note: Christian
News then reprints on pages 20-21 Prof. Brug’s
book review (above), and also the Synopsis]
Also see Amazon’s reader reviews. There are links to these at www.yoel.info.
Book Recommendation by Amazon
Top Ten Reviewer, 1 Sep 2007
Joburgpete "Irridium" from Johannesburg, South Africa, has posted
2,276 book reviews at Amazon, and is currently Ranked
the No. 8 reviewer of books. He recommended The Jewish Trinity book for
the subject of the Trinity. Joburgpete also has Moon-o-theism
on his recommended book list for explaining the Mideast: Middle
East Nightmare
Here`s where Joburgpete recommends my The Jewish Trinity--in a review
on another author`s book: Yeshua, by Yitzhak Ben Aaron Levy:
excerpt: The next chapter, One
In Purpose, addresses the issue of the
Trinity which [word—Y.N.] is not found in the
Bible, but please also see
The Jewish Trinity by Yoel Natan in this regard.
Book
Recommendation 2 of 2:
Book Recommendation by Wikipedia editors of the “Trinity”
Entry, Nov 2007
External links:
excerpt:
The Jewish Trinity: When Rabbis
Believed in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by Yoel Natan at Google Books
The
Jewish Trinity Sourcebook, by Yoel Natan
There is no formal book reviews yet, and I provide no synopsis. One can find reader reviews at Amazon, however. There are links to these at www.yoel.info.
Back to www.yoel.info.
Moon-o-theism, by Yoel Natan (Aug 2006)
Book Review 1 of 1:
Schmidt, Alvin J. The Great Divide: The Failure of Islam and the Triumph of the West.
Foreword by Marvin Olasky. Regina Orthodox Press, Boston, Massachusetts, www.reginaorthodoxpress.com, 2004, ISBN: 1-928653-19-7, 352 pages.
Find it at Addall.com or BestBookDeal.
Dr. Alvin Schmidt’s book has recommendations from: Anis Shorrosh (Islam Revealed), Marvin Olasky (The Religions Next Door), Robert Spencer (Islam Unveiled, Onward Christian Soldiers, Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics), Ergun Mehmet Caner (Unveiling Islam) and Tom White (Director, Voice of the Martyrs).
After writing briefly about some “Allah was a moon god” evidence, Alvin Schmidt wrote on p. 26:
But whether it will ever be definitively known that Islam’s use of the crescent moon stems from the moon-god remains to be seen [see Endnote 48].
Endnote 48 reads: Yoel Natan has a book manuscript in process that explores in great the possible linkage between the Islamic crescent and the ancient Middle East astral gods, especially the moon god.
Also see Amazon’s Reviews (links at www.yoel.info).
Book Recommendation 1 of 1:
Book
Recommendation by Amazon Top Ten Reviewer, 1 Sep 2007
Joburgpete "Irridium