Questions

Is There a Relationship Between the Christian Trinity and the Pagan Trinity?

Question
Is there a relationship between the Christian Trinity and the pagan trinity? Or what is the difference between them?

Answer
There is a very great difference between the Christian Trinity and what is sometimes called a trinity in paganism.

1. The first and serious difference is that the Christian Trinity is connected to monotheism, that is, the Three are One. This does not exist at all in paganism. If monotheism is separated from the Trinity in Christianity, the Trinity loses its meaning, concept, and essence.
   Many people give the example of Isis, Osiris, and Horus in Pharaonic worship and think that Christianity took from this trinity and similar ones… but the reality is otherwise…
   Christianity says: “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God.” Did the Pharaohs believe that Isis, Osiris, and Horus were one god? They undoubtedly believed that they were gods.

2. Another difference is that the pagan trinity includes a father, a mother, and a son, and this son resulted from physical procreation, as a result of marriage between the father and the mother.
   Isis married Osiris and gave birth to a son from him, who is Horus.
   As for the Christian Trinity, there is no woman in it, no wife, and no physical procreation…
   The Son in the Trinity is not born from a god father and a goddess mother—far be it… Rather, He is like thought when it is born from the mind, or like heat that is generated from fire… It is a non-physical birth.
   We will give an example of the Christian Trinity:
   From fire heat is generated, and from it light emanates, and fire with its light and heat is one thing. Fire cannot exist without heat and without light… Likewise the Christian Trinity: God, with His mind and His Spirit, is one being. And God cannot exist without His mind or without His Spirit.

3. Therefore, we present a third difference in the pagan trinity, which is the temporal difference between its members. The father and the mother existed before the existence of the son. There may also be a temporal difference between the age of the father and the mother themselves…
   But in the Christian Trinity there is no temporal difference between the Father and the Son. Both are equal in eternity. God has existed since eternity with His mind, with His thought, with His Word, with His wisdom, with His knowledge. There is no temporal difference. That is, there was not a time that passed and then this rational Word or this speaking Mind was born to Him, as happens with a physical father and his son… Rather, the Son exists in the Father since eternity without any temporal difference.

4. A fourth difference between the Christian and pagan trinities is the element of mutual indwelling. The Father is in the Son in the Holy Spirit, and the Son is in the Father in the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is in the Father and the Son… without separation. As the Lord Christ said: “I am in the Father and the Father in Me” (John 14:11), “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
   As for the pagan trinity, there is separation in it. Each person is separate from the other, having an independent self-entity.

An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Fifth Year – Issue Four – 26/10/1974.

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