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FAQ # 165
QUESTION 165 : Does Zechariah 3:2 speak of
two Yahwehs [Yahovahs] or the Trinity in the Old Testament - father and
son?
Yahovah
said to Satan, "Yahovah rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahovah who has chosen
Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn't this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?"
-- Zechariah 3:2
This
scripture is quoted as proof that Jesus is...a person of the trinitarian
concept of three persons in God. Says one trinitarian:
"There are many who cannot see the Trinity in the
Old Testament. How they can not see it is beyond me especially in light
of this verse. Note that the angel of the Lord (= Christ), speaks unto
Satan and says "the Lord (= God the Father) rebuke you ... ".
We have already seen one example of this intertrinitarian dialogue in
chapter 1 where we find the angel of the Lord crying out to God in behalf
of Jerusalem. We may not understand the Trinity, but its existence can
hardly be argued" (The Book of Zechariah, An Exegetical Study, http://theopenword.org/books/zech/zech03.pdf).
We
should first point out that the above statements are more eisegesis than
exegesis, for they read into the verse that the angel of Yahovah is Christ,
and then further read into this verse that there is something here about
the trinity. There is nothing at all in this or the rest of Zechariah
that would point to the idea that the angel of Yahovah who was speaking
for Yahovah was in reality Christ. Such an idea is assumed... Regardless,
the idea of three persons in one God would have to be read into the verse,
for it certainly is not there.
Another
trinitarian writes: "One more place that the Son is identified as
YHWH is in Zechariah 3:2. An objective look at the passage clearly shows
that the angel of the LORD (who is the Son, the visible form of YHWH [Num.
12:8, Heb. 1:3]... is called YHWH." The words "clearly"
and "objective" are often misused as words to make an assumption
appear to be "clearly shown." There is nothing in the verse
that clearly shows that the Son is called "YHWH" (Yahovah, Jehovah).
The idea that the angel of Yahovah is Jesus is but an assumption to begin
with, and even if the angel of Yahovah were Jesus, at most this would
only prove that he was being called Yahovah as the spokesperson for Yahovah.
The
fact is that this is the angel of Yahovah is left "understood"
in verse 2, for it is directly stated in verse 3 that it is the "angel"
of Yahovah who is speaking and not Yahovah himself. With this thought
even many trinitarian translators have agreed, as we show in the translations
quoted below:
And
the angel of the Lord said to Satan, "May the Lord rebuke you, Satan;
may the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand
snatched from the fire?" -- Confraternity-Douay Version.
And
the angel of the Lord said to Satan, "May the Lord rebuke you, Satan;
may the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand
snatched from the fire?" -- New American Bible
The
angel of Yahovah said to Satan, "May Yahovah rebuke you, Satan, may
Yahovah rebuke, he who has made Jerusalem his very own. Is not this man
a brand snatched from the fire?" -- New Jerusalem Bible.
We
also wish to point out that the Syriac Peshitta text also reads "angel
of Yahovah", and not just "Yahovah," in Zechariah 3:2.
Regardless,
the context shows that it is the angel of Yahovah speaking for Yahovah.
(Zechariah 2:3; 3:1,6) One would have to –assume- that the angel that
speaks here was actually Jesus, which is not clearly shown from the scripture
itself.
[In addition, though angels are not always mentioned by name, as in Angel
of the Lord, we cannot assert that Michael the Archangel is Jesus Christ;
this is not only absurd but also clearly unscriptural (Dan 10:13, Dan
12:1). There is one God, Yahovah, who is also Jesus Christ in the flesh.]
{Source: Rest.
Light Min.}
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