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In addition to insisting that
echad means “
plural oneness” some also insist that, if God had intended the meaning of “absolute oneness” (singleness, only one individual) at Deut. 6:4, he would have used the word
yachid (or
yacheed).
So let’s examine the intended meanings of
echad and
yachid.
First, it certainly wouldn’t be surprising to find that some noted
trinitarian authority on Biblical Hebrew had written somewhere that
echad means “united or
plural oneness.” but I haven’t found one yet!
Here is what I have found written about
echad by authorities on Biblical Hebrew:
The
only definition given for
echad in the very trinitarian
New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance is: “a prim[ary] card[inal] number;
one”. We find no “plural oneness” there!
The highly respected Biblical Hebrew authority, Gesenius, says that
echad is “a numeral having the power of an adjective, one.” He then lists the various meanings of
echad as:
“(1) The same,”
“(2) first,”
“(3) some one,”
“(4) it acts the part of an indefinite article,”
“(5) one
only of its kind,”
“(6) when repeated [
echad ...
echad] ‘one ... another’,”
“(7) [
K echad]
AS one man.” [The initial consonant of this word, “
K,” actually means “
as” or “
like,” so in this special form the meaning is close to that of a plural oneness.
But this is not the form used at Deut. 6:4 !! ]
Gesenius also lists a plural form of the word (
achadim,) which means “joined in one, united.” This, too, is not the form used at Deut. 6:4 which context shows, instead, to have
meaning #5 above. - See
Gesenius’ Hebrew-
Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, #259, Baker Book House. Surely, if God (or Jehovah) were really a union of persons, a united one, this form which truly means “united one” would have been used to describe “Him” repeatedly in the Holy Scriptures. But it and all other words with similar meanings were never used for God (or Jehovah)!
By using a good Bible Concordance (such as
Strong’s or
Young’s) we can find all the uses of
echad in the Bible. Unfortunately (due to space limitations),
Young’s and
Strong’s both list the rare plural form
(achadim,) and the “
AS one”
(Kechad,) form along with the common singular form
(echad) without distinguishing among them.
Nevertheless, since both the plural form and the
kechad form are used quite rarely (see Ezek. 37:17 and 2 Chronicles 5:13 for examples), we can see that the overwhelming majority of the uses of
echad listed in these concordances (over 500) obviously have the meaning of
singleness just as we normally use the word “one” today.
If you should find a scripture listed as using
echad in your concordance that definitely has the meaning “plural oneness” or “together,” or “as one,” you should check it out in an interlinear Hebrew-English Bible. If the word in question is really the
echad form of the word (as at Deut. 6:4), then it will end with the Hebrew letter “d” in the Hebrew portion of your interlinear. If, however, it is really the plural form of the word
(achadim), then it will end in the Hebrew letter “m”. And if the word is really
Kechad (“
AS one”), it will begin with the Hebrew letter “k”. Remember, though, that Hebrew reads from
right to left (so the
LAST letter of a Hebrew word is really the letter at the extreme
LEFT.)
Using your concordance along with an interlinear Hebrew-English Bible in this manner, I don’t believe you will ever find
echad (as used at Deut. 6:4) literally meaning “plural oneness”!
Further emphasizing the impropriety of this “plural oneness” interpretation of
echad are the many trinitarian renderings of Deut. 6:4. In the dozens of different trinitarian Bible translations that I have examined none of them have rendered Deut. 6:4 (or Mark 12:29) in such a way as to show anything even faintly resembling a “
plural oneness”!!
Even the highly trinitarian
The Living Bible, which, being a paraphrase Bible, is able to (and frequently does) take great liberties with the literal Greek and Hebrew meanings in order to make better
trinitarian interpretations, renders Deut. 6:4 as “Jehovah is our God, Jehovah
alone.” Notice that there’s not even a hint of a “plural oneness” Jehovah!
The equally trinitarian (and nearly as “freely” translated as
The Living Bible)
Good News Bible (GNB) renders it: “The L
ORD - and the L
ORD alone - is our God.” - Compare the equally “free-handed” (and trinitarian)
The Amplified Bible.
Yachid
A few trinitarians insist that not only does
echad mean “plural oneness,” but that, if singleness were intended by the Bible writer, the Hebrew word
yachid would have been used at Deut. 6:4.
Here is how it was presented to me by one trinitarian:
“The word for ‘one’ in this great declaration [Deut. 6:4] is not
Yachid which is an absolute oneness but rather
echad which means ‘united one.’ Had the Holy Spirit desired to state absolute mathematical oneness in this all-important declaration, He could have easily used the word
yachid, couldn’t He?”
We have already seen the desperate falsity of the “
echad-means-’plural-oneness’” idea. But what about
yachid? Did the Bible writers really use it whenever they meant “absolute mathematical oneness”? We have already seen that they really used
echad for “absolute mathematical oneness,” and a good concordance will show they did this consistently—many hundreds of times!
Yachid, on the other hand, is only used about 12 times in the entire Bible and then only in a narrow, specific sense.
The Old Testament language authority, Gesenius, tells us that
yachid is used in three very specialized ways: (1) “only” but primarily in the sense of “
only begotten”! - Gen. 22:2, 12, 16; Jer. 6:26; and Zech. 12:10. (2) “solitary” but with the connotation of “
forsaken” or “
wretched” ! - Ps. 25:16; 68:6. (3) As
yachidah (feminine form) meaning “only one” as something most dear and used “poet[ically] for ‘
life’ - Ps. 22:20; 35:17.” - p. 345 b.
We find
yachid is never used to describe God anywhere in the entire Bible! But it
is used to describe Isaac in his prefigured representation of the
Messiah (and ‘
only-begotten’): Gen. 22:2, 12, 16. It is also used at Judges 11:34 for an
only-begotten child. The ancient Greek Septuagint translates
yachid at Judges 11:34 as
monogenes (“only-begotten”): the same NT Greek word repeatedly used to describe
Christ (even in his pre-human heavenly existence - 1 John 4:9).
Monogenes, however, like the Hebrew
yachid, is never used to describe the only true God, Jehovah (who is the Father
alone).
So, if Jehovah were to describe himself as “forsaken” or “wretched,” or were speaking poetically about his “dear life,” or were describing himself as the “only-begotten son” (which he never does anywhere in the Bible!), then he might have used
yachid.
But since he was describing his “mathematical oneness” at Deut. 6:4, he properly used
echad!
For the rest of my personal study on this subject see:
Examining the Trinity: Echad - 'One'
