How can Jesus be God if Deuteronomy 6:4 says that God is one?
Deuteronomy 6:4 — "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD" — is one of the most foundational declarations in all of Scripture. Far from contradicting the deity of Christ, a closer look at the Hebrew text reveals something remarkable: the very verse that affirms God's oneness simultaneously points to a plurality within the Godhead.
The Hebrew of Deuteronomy 6:4: A Plural Unity
Most English readers miss a critical feature of the Hebrew language. A. J. Pollock draws attention to it directly:
A. J. PollockUnitarians are fond of quoting the well-known affirmation of the Oneness of God, "Hear O Israel; the LORD our God is one LORD" (Deut. 6:4). But do the Unitarians take care to give the real meaning of this Scripture? Do they inform us of a most remarkable feature in the Hebrew language? It possesses no less than THREE numbers: SINGULAR, one only; DUAL, two only; PLURAL, three or more.
When the verse is broken down in the original Hebrew, the pattern is striking. Pollock explains:
In the verses in question it reads thus, "Hear O Israel, the LORD [Jehovah, singular] our God [Elohim, plural] is one LORD [Jehovah, singular] and thou shalt love the LORD [Jehovah, singular] thy God [Elohim, plural]."
The word for "God" — Elohim — is plural (three or more), while "LORD" (Jehovah) is singular. This same pattern appears in the very first verse of the Bible. Pollock writes:
Indeed in the very first verse in the Bible the name for God is in the plural. We read, "In the beginning God [Elohim, plural] created [Bara, singular] the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Does the Unitarian explain why the plural noun is followed by a singular verb, if it is not to convey the thought of plural unity — One in Three, and Three in One, ONE GOD?
The Very Assertion of Oneness Preserves the Trinity
In his work on The Doctrine of the Christ, Pollock addresses this passage as one that supports rather than undermines the triune nature of God:
"Hear O Israel: The LORD [Hebrew, Jehovah, singular] our God [Hebrew, Elohim, plural] is one LORD [Hebrew, Jehovah, singular]" (Deut. 6:4).
Here in the very assertion that there is one God, care is taken to show that the UNITY of the Godhead embraces Three Persons — One in substance, power, will, wisdom, knowledge and counsel. No mind of man, however acute, can fathom this mystery. We know the truth of it from revelation alone.
And from his Bible Testimony to the Son of God:
This clearly shows that whilst Scripture affirms that there are three distinct Persons in the Godhead, yet there are not three Gods, but one; not a trinity of Gods, but a triune God.
This is not an isolated curiosity. Pollock notes in his article on The Names of God in the Old Testament:
It is very evident we cannot comment on all the two thousand two hundred places in which the name of God is in the plural. We would, however, 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 as follows — 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.
The Seed and the Full Flower
William Kelly, in his exposition of Deuteronomy, explains that the unity of God was the central truth committed to Israel — but not the full revelation:
William KellyThe point then for the Jew was the one true God. "Jehovah God that has brought thee out of the land of Egypt" — He was the only God. ... "Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one. And thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."
Then Kelly makes this crucial observation:
It seems needless to say that this is altogether short of Christianity ... The essential revelation of God to us is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — the Father displayed by the Son, and made known by the Spirit. This is just as characteristic a truth for us as the one Jehovah was for a Jew.
Deuteronomy 6:4 is the seed; the New Testament is the full flower.
The Old Testament's Own Witness to Three Persons
The Old Testament itself goes beyond bare monotheism. Pollock cites Isaiah 48:16 as the fullest Old Testament intimation:
"Come ye near unto Me, hear ye this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there AM I: and now the Lord GOD, and His Spirit, has SENT Me" (Isa. 48:16).
The One who speaks presents Himself in two ways. First as the I AM, the assertion of Deity; and secondly as THE SENT ONE. There are Three Persons seen here acting in fullest harmony.
E. C. Hadley addresses the eternal relationship of the Father and the Son — it is not a created relationship but belongs to the essential being of God:
E. C. HadleyA son is of the same nature and essence as his father and in the normal relationship, the son is attached to his father and is the object of his father's deep affection and enjoys close intimacy with him. All this then is implied in the term Father and Son when applied to the Godhead — being of the same nature and essence and having deep mutual affection and intimacy.
Christ's Own Testimony
The New Testament makes explicit what the Old Testament embedded in its grammar. The Lord Jesus said:
"I and My Father are One" (John 10:30).
Thomas, once doubting, confessed: "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28) — and Jesus accepted this worship without rebuke. As Pollock observes:
When the Lord Jesus was here on earth, He was constantly the object of worship, and never once did He refuse to accept such homage. If He were not God, it were blasphemous on His part to be a party to such demonstrations, but on the other hand if He was God, He could not refuse such homage.
Synthesis
Deuteronomy 6:4 does not deny that Jesus is God — it actually preserves the truth of the Trinity in its very grammar. The word Elohim (plural, three or more) paired with a singular verb teaches a plural unity: three Persons, one God. The New Testament does not introduce something foreign to the Old Testament; it unveils what was planted there from Genesis 1:1. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each fully God, yet there are not three Gods but one — one in substance, power, and will. Christ's deity does not violate the oneness of God; it is that oneness, rightly understood.