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The Trinity—Is It Taught in the Bible?The Watchtower—1993 | October 15
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“I and the Father are one.”—JOHN 10:30.
Novatian (c. 200-258 C.E.) commented: “Since He said ‘one’ thing,[b] let the heretics understand that He did not say ‘one’ person. For one placed in the neuter, intimates the social concord, not the personal unity. . . . Moreover, that He says one, has reference to the agreement, and to the identity of judgment, and to the loving association itself, as reasonably the Father and Son are one in agreement, in love, and in affection.”—Treatise Concerning the Trinity, chapter 27.
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The Trinity—Is It Taught in the Bible?The Watchtower—1993 | October 15
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b Novatian is referring to the fact that the word for “one” in this verse is in the neuter gender. Hence, its natural meaning is “one thing.” Compare John 17:21, where the Greek word for “one” is used in an exactly parallel way. Interestingly, the New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967 edition) generally approves of Novatian’s De Trinitate, although it notes that in it “the Holy Spirit is not considered a divine Person.”
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