One of the failures of the readers of the Old Testament is not knowing that the word “God,” more often than not, is the Hebrew word “el-o-heem’” which appears over 2,500 times in the Old Testament. This is a plural word which is translated into the singular and is used in the opening statement of the Bible: “In the beginning God (el-o-heem’) created the heaven and the earth.” If this word had been translated into the English, “Godhead,” no harm would have been done to the text and would have in fact made it more clear! For it is not one member of the “Godhead” who created “the heavens and the earth,” but all three members!
John, the apostle, in his opening statement in “The Gospel According to John” wrote: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1-3). Thus, the “Word,” which was “made flesh” as stated in verse fourteen; which we commonly refer to as the second member of the Godhead, was active in the creation of Genesis one, verse one. Also, in the second verse of Genesis, Moses wrote: “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” There is no doubt that the “Godhead,” known in the New Testament as: 1) the Father, 2) the Son, and 3) the Holy Spirit, were active in creation; but not only in creation. The Godhead was active in most of the activity throughout the Old Testament when the word “God” is used. While in the New Testament, the action is more individual action. This is not to say, that the three of the Godhead did not have different activities, even in creation, but the word used is “el-o-heem” which identifies the three: the Godhead!
As noted in the first article, the word “Godhead” appears three times in the New Testament. A few words about the three different words used by Paul, as he is the one who used the word, “Godhead.” First, Acts 17:29: “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead (theios) is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.” This Greek word was used in two ways; first among the Greeks: “a general name of deities or divinities as used by the Greeks; and second, as Paul used it: “spoken of the only and true God, trinity.” The Greeks, those in Athens to whom Paul was speaking, made their “theios” out of gold, silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device, but Paul was teaching that THE Godhead was no such! For he had just said: “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring” (verse 28). Did any of their gods give them life and being? No! But the “Godhead” of which Paul spoke did!
The second Greek word used in Paul is letter to the church at Rome, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead (theiotēs) ; so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). Here the apostle is writing about the eternal power and Godhead; and the word is nowhere else used in the New Testament. The word he used means: “divinity, divine nature.” It is the divine nature, or essence of all that is God and it is revealed “by the things that are made,” which are seen; and get this, it is important here to notice Paul’s next words: “so that they are without excuse!” The things that shout out to all that will hear, God exists!
The third Greek word is used by Paul in his letter to the Colossians: “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead (theotēs) bodily (Col 2:9). The Greek used here means: “Deity 1a) the state of being God.” It might help, to say Christ “the infinite attributes essential to such a nature” (Adam Clarke). This word also appears nowhere else in the New Testament!
So, what do we learn from this? We learn that each of the three, better known in the New Testament, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are all that is God; and when viewed as one, they are the “Godhead.” This prepares us for a more fuller study of our subject: “THE MYSTERY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!”
Frank R. Williams