How can Jesus be God if Deuteronomy 6:4 says God is one?

Question

True Bible Answers · Accepted Answer

The Shema — Israel's daily confession that the Lord is one — is the shortest and sharpest objection ever raised against the deity of Christ. Commentators answer that this verse does not exclude Christ but actually guards the truth that would later be fully revealed, and that Jesus Himself quoted it without hesitation.

A Singular and a Plural in One Sentence

The Hebrew of this verse does something the English cannot show. Writers point to the two divine names Moses places side by side:

We cannot comment on all the two thousand two hundred places where the name of God is in the plural. But we would like to draw attention to two passages. Deuteronomy 6:4 says, "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD." In the original the names of God read like this — Jehovah (singular) our God (Elohim, plural) is one Jehovah (singular). Here, in this solemn affirmation of the Oneness of the Godhead, is the careful preservation of the truth of the Trinity.

A. J. Pollock

The Word "One"

Much also turns on which Hebrew word for "one" Moses chose. There was another available to him, and he did not use it:

Much has been made of this verse by orthodox Jews, who reverence it greatly. They call it the "Shema" after the first word, "Hear." It is often used by Jews and Unitarians to deny the three Persons of the Godhead. The Hebrew word "echod" (one), however, rules out such a denial forever, for it means a compound unity. Hebrew has another word which expresses exactly what Jews and Unitarians who reject the three Persons believe. It is the word "yochid"; this means a single one.

Arno Clemens Gaebelein

More Than One Divine Person Speaks in the Old Testament

The rest of the Old Testament does not treat God's oneness as bare solitude. One prophetic passage is regularly singled out as the clearest case:

The prophet Isaiah uses Adonai, the second name for God in the plural, in a very striking way. It presents the fullest testimony found in the Old Testament to the truth of the Trinity of divine Persons, yet ONE GOD. We read, "Come near to Me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time it came to be I have been there. And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit" (Isa. 48:16). Here we have One presented as "from the beginning," a clear assertion of Deity, since God alone has neither beginning nor end… The plural here takes in Three Persons, yet one God — (1) the LORD God; (2) His Spirit; (3) the Sent One.

A. J. Pollock

All Three Are Jehovah

If more than one Person is God, the question becomes which name belongs to whom. Commenting on how the Old Testament speaks of "the angel of the LORD" and then simply calls Him "the LORD," one writer draws the conclusion out:

The angel of the LORD is how the Lord Jesus is referred to in the Old Testament — not the only way, but a very usual way. The angel of the LORD is every now and then shown to be Jehovah Himself. I do not mean that He is the only Person who is Jehovah. As we read in Deuteronomy 6:4, "Jehovah our God is one Jehovah" — that is, it is Father, Son and Holy Spirit who are the one God we acknowledge as Christians. They are all three Jehovah, they are all equally Jehovah, and this helps us understand why He is viewed as "the Angel of Jehovah."

William Kelly

Jesus Quoted This Verse Himself

When asked which commandment ranked first, Jesus began not with the command to love but with the confession of God's oneness. That choice is not an embarrassment to His deity:

The Lord's answer is from Deuteronomy 6:5. Notice, however, how vital to the whole matter are the first words here, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." This is basic to all obedience on man's part. If the unity of the Godhead is not confessed, the very spirit of obedience is lacking. This is consistent with the words of the Lord Jesus, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). This involves therefore the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one indivisible God.

Leslie M. Grant

He Took the Honour Owed to God Alone

The test of any claim to deity is what a person does when worship is offered. Thomas addressed the risen Jesus as his Lord and his God:

Deniers of our Lord's deity have tried to escape the force of this by treating it as a mere exclamation, addressed to no one in particular, but the record plainly states that the words were said to the Lord… There is no greater sin than for a mere man to accept divine honours or praise, as the drastic striking down of Herod in Acts 12 shows. When John fell down before a holy angel, about to worship him, the instant reply was, "You must not do that!" (Rev. 22:9). Instead of rebuking Thomas, Jesus approved of his confession and called it faith.

F. B. Hole

Three Persons, Not Three Gods

The answer stops short of arithmetic. Commentators are careful to say what the doctrine is not, and to admit where understanding ends:

Here, in this very majestic declaration of the Oneness of the Godhead, care is taken to state it in a way consistent with the truth later revealed about the Three Persons of the Godhead — Father, Son and Spirit. These Three Persons, of one substance, completely united in thought, will, purpose and counsel, are not three Gods but One God — not a tritheism, but a Holy Trinity. We cannot understand the mystery of all this, but this truth lies at the very foundation of the Christian faith.

A. J. Pollock

Summary

- One, guarded. The verse states God's oneness, and in the same breath pairs a singular name with a plural one — the affirmation itself keeps room for what came later.

- One, defined. The Hebrew "echod" means a compound unity; the word for a solitary single one, "yochid," was available and was not used.

- One, unfolded. Isaiah 48:16 has a divine Speaker "from the beginning" sent by the Lord GOD and His Spirit — three Persons, one God.

- One, named. Father, Son and Spirit are all three Jehovah, all equally Jehovah — which is why the Old Testament can call the same Person "the angel of the LORD" and then "the LORD."

- One, confessed by Christ. Jesus quoted this verse as the first commandment and said, "I and the Father are one" — then accepted from Thomas the worship that belongs to God alone.