Dear Wesley,
Etymology is study of origin of words. Since you are highlighting TRINITARIAN MONOTHEISM (TM), let us discuss the subject in the light of objective reasoning. TM as far as i know, is the major founding doctrine of modern Christianity whether to the Catholic or Protestant Church. Correct me if I am wrong.
WHAT IS TRINITARIAN MONOTHEISM
Lets take a look into 1st word of TM, which is TRINITARIAN. In short it means a 'People who believe in 3 God Head'. Then came the 2nd word MONOTHEISM which means 'One God Ideology'.
In short, following are TM meaning in simple English:
1. TRINITARIAN - A faith in 3 Gods (but at the same time)
2. MONOTHEISM - A faith in 1 God
As we can see, by simple logic, those TM words are contradicting and canceling each other. If you are talking MONO (ONE), than it should be consistently MONO (ONE) or UNI and not a mix up.
How to authenticate whether Trinitarian, which is the winning doctrine favored by Roman Emperor over other competing Christian sect such as Unitarian, at the turn of the 1st melineum, is as originally intended by Jesus ?
The method of authentication is easy. Any honest researcher can quickly authenticate this fact just by reading few early passages of the 1st Christian Gospel -The Gospel of Matthew - and see whether TM is the original idea of Jesus or somebody else.
But before that, let's take another perspective of TM 'etymology'.
TM can be rephrased in consideration of religious cultural background of Roman Empire in earliest centuries CE as :
1. Culture of Poly Gods - Greek-Romans > represented by TRINITY
2. Culture of One God - Judaism > represented by MONOTHEISM
The whole idea of TM from my point of view is an attempt to fuse POLY (MULTI) with MONO (ONE), a new doctrine of belief by the earliest religious authority of Roman, in order to depart or trying to be unique in identity from traditional Judaism Monotheism. The intervention by the Roman Government in sepotong Trinitarian as a PREFERRED STATE DOCTRINE (a bloody process of sect selection) is very prominent event of Roman Empire history.
The word POLY means 'more than 1' and it is the antonyms to the word MONO (One). For example POLYTHEIST (Multi Gods) is antonyms to MONOTHEIST (One God).
It is considerable to say that TRINITARIAN is a subset of POLYTARIAN. So it is not far-fetched to say that TRINITHEISM which is the essence of TRINITARIAN, is subset of POLYTHEISM.
ROMAN EMPIRE HISTORY ON CHRISTIANITY
Back to the earliest centuries of CE (Common Era), Romans empire need new religious identity to unify its people. This religion must have "fresh outlook" and not be subjected to Judaism Synagogue authority, so that Romans will not be inferior to the Jews. In the same time the Roman Empire want to maintain the traditional mythology of Greek-Roman POLYTHEIST (Multi God) culture because of pragmatism approach or 'hellenistic market demand'.
The Trinity doctrine took new turn when it get the support and endorsement from the government. Since then it went viral throughout Europe. For example, in 325AD, a council was convened by the order of Constantine, the Roman emperor. He had been a leader in the cult known as Sol Invictus and now wanted to unite the Christian sects in the empire under his existing church; the Universal Church of Rome. Many changes to the religion of Christianity were about to take place at that council, including:
- Formulation for wording concerning the Trinity based on Anthanias
- Changing Verses of Bible
- Eliminating certain verses and books from the Bible
- Declaring Arian's "unitarian" (belief in the One God) as heresy
- Changing the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday
- Changing the date of Jesus' birthday to December 25th
- Introduction of Easter (pagan worship called "Feast of Ishtar")
- Church of Roman "officially" became the "Universal Church of the Holy Roman Empire" (the word 'Catholic' means 'universal')
THE RADICAL IDEA OF MONO GOD TO ROMANS
We have to remember that the idea of MONO GOD (One God) in the earliest centuries of CE (Common Era) is very radical and revolutionary to many pagans Romans.
They are not used to MONO GOD (One God) or MONO THEIST idea. They are still very much under the influence of Greek Hellenistic culture of POLY GOD (Multiple Gods) or POLY THEIST.
THE RADICAL IDEA OF UNSEEN GOD TO ROMANS
Unseen God is another radical idea to Romans.Since the Father and the Holy Spirit are the elements that cannot be seen, the third element JESUS, which is a physical incarnation of God or Son of God on earth, is the only element that, the new IMAGERY GOD of Romans can be materialized upon.
It is the habit of the pagan people of Romans that they need physical object of reverence to perform worship to their satisfaction. The image and picture of the God (the Jesus element), is the best way to get the people to focus on.
The Romans is not used to UNSEEN MONO GOD concept. In Arabic UNSEEN mean GHAIB. According to Quranic narrations, The Israelites want to see God before they could believe the message of Moses. In Matthew 6:6, Jesus did mention that God is Unseen.
Since Church is incorporating Old Testament into the Christian bible, I still don't understand why GOD THAT CAN BE SEEN is something that Christian was depending after, although it contradict OT narratives.
The story of Moses in Old Testament did stress the points that GOD IS UNSEEN in nature. The mount crumbles to dust when he request to see God. One of the God attributes, is that He cannot be seen and and Moses later repent for his excessive request.
As we could understand, the recalcitrant among the Israelites during Moses era, insist to see God.
The Romans want that privilege too and thus in the modern day, Jesus, the 3rd element of 'Head God' in Pauline religious doctrine is the only chance for them to SEE and IMAGINE the God.
They are many cultures in the eastern world that promotes GOD THAT CAN BE SEEN. Thus in India, MAHATMA GANDHI was considered the 11th incarnation of divine God to certain quarters. GAUTAMA BUDDHA too was elevated as divine God.
Although both of them have passed away, the imagery God that can generated from those personalities is evident and similar to what Jesus was being potrayed to this day.
To be continued...
