Craig old boy, you talk like you're mespucha.
Mary, I wonder if we aren't hung up on a problem brought on by our innocence of understanding regarding the meaning of some of the terms we hear every day but don't really know what they mean?
You are of course correct about the fact that the Hebrews were monotheists. But damn, look at what a murdering low-life, sacrifice chasing, mote loving, primitive judge-accountant God they picked to be monotheistic WITH.
And then we come to the Greek & Aramaic "New" Testament, and we hear about something called "divine" and "divinity" and also we begin hearing about the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost - Three Gods! What is that all about?
You know, I've been investigating as much as possible about that concept "divine" and I've stumbled across a new understanding about what it means, and it is this: God is the source of all which is divine. God is characteristically and invariably divine, but all that which is divine is not necessarily God, though it will be co-ordinated with God and will tend towards some phase of unity with God. This unity, this unifying quality, is best comprehended by the children of God, you and me, as divinity. Now the first three beings of all creation were God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. All divine. And because they were all perfectly divine, they were and are in perfect unity and accord with each other. They are ONE. Just like when your spouse accepted your proposal of marriage, at that moment you two were ONE. Just like your best friend in the world when he/she says "let's go buy a case of beer" you and your best friend are ONE.
In this way, the three persons of the trinity may be referred to as being ONE, because of the fact of their infinite and eternal harmony, love, and agreement one with the other. I believe it's so hard for us to conceive of this kind of harmony and love because we've never seen it on this planet. But there it is, a fairly simple explanation of the so-called "mystery" of the trinity. There's really no mystery if you know the definition of the words being used. And when you use the correct definition of the word divine, things start popping into place.
And at no time during the explanation of the meaning of divinity has the name Jesus of Nazareth come up. That's another misapprehension: Jesus of Nazareth is not the second person of the trinity IMHO. If you will think of all the confusing scriptures about the second person of the trinity and at the same time remember that Jesus ain't Him, then things on that level start clearing up as well.
And now I'm winded, tuckered out. So I'm gonna quit you'll be happy to hear. I hope you like my idea.
francois
