Did the Early Church invent the Trinity?

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The Sacred Faith

12 min readJan 4, 2022

“The Trinity” icon, also known as “The Hospitality of Abraham” — “The Trinity” icon, also known as “*The Hospitality of Abraham”*

The doctrine and concept of the Trinity is encapsulated in Matthew 28:19, where Jesus instructs the apostles: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. John, who was very close to Jesus and obviously knew him well, alludes to this teaching frequently in his Gospel, too. For example: John 1:1; John 8:58; John 10:30; and John 10:38.

Yet, despite this, and numerous other examples throughout the New Testament which point towards the threefold nature of God, plenty of myths and legends abound online and in books which state that the divinity of Jesus (and therefore the Trinity) were invented at the Council of Nicaea.

But any serious reader of Church History will see and know that that is complete nonsense. Christians have recognised the divinity of Jesus since the earliest times, even if they didn’t use the word “Trinity”.

First use of the word “Trinity”

The word Trinity was first used as early as A.D. 170 by Theophilus of Antioch, a Patriarch of Antioch, when writing about the creation account and how it relates to the nature of God:

In like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of the Trinity, of God, and His Word, and His wisdom. And the fourth is the type of man, who needs light, that so there may be God, the Word, wisdom, man. — Theophilus, Of the Fourth Day, Chapter XV

Then in the early third century, around A.D. 208–210, Tertullian was the first to use “Trinity”, “person”, and “substance” to explain that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit:

The numerical order and distribution of the Trinity they assume to be a division of the Unity … yet of one substance, and of one condition, and of one power, inasmuch as He is one God, from whom these degrees and forms and aspects are reckoned, under the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost … they are susceptible of number without division … which distributes the Unity into a Trinity, placing in their order the three Persons… — Tertullian, Against Praxeas, chapter 2, 3

Earlier still, we can find Trinitarian language used about God in 1 Clement (~95), the Epistle of Barnabas (~70–96) and the letters of Ignatius (108–110) long before Nicaea codified the terminology. Not only are these very early texts, but the authors are links back to the Apostles themselves, having sat under, and learnt from them. Could they have got such a core belief wrong so soon after learning from Paul or John? It’s highly unlikely. So, to display this as plainly as possible, and to act as a proof against those who would like to rewrite history and say that “the Church invented the Trinity/deity of Christ at Nicaea”, below is a large selection of quotes from Apostolic period onward showing that Christians everywhere for all time have believed Jesus was the divine Son and Word of God, incarnate in flesh, yet still recognised him as God and creator.

Quotes From the Early Church

The Didache (~A.D. 70)

And concerning baptism, baptise this way: Having first said all these things, baptise into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living [running] water. … But if you have neither, pour out water three times upon the head into the name of Father and Son and Holy Spirit. — Didache 7:1, A.D. 70.

Clement of Alexandria (c. 95–140)

Do we not have one God and one Christ and one Spirit of grace which was poured out upon us? And is there not one calling in Christ? — 1 Clement 46:6, ~A.D. 95
Brothers, we ought to think of Jesus Christ, as we do of God, as ‘Judge of the living and the dead’ — 2 Clement 1:1, ~A.D. 95–140 (This text was likely not written by Clement himself, but was possibly an anonymous sermon which was attributed to Clement at a later date)

Ignatius of Antioch (c. 108–110)

…to the Church which is at Ephesus, in Asia … and elected through the true passion by the will of the Father, and Jesus Christ, our God… — Letter to the Ephesians 1, A.D. 108–110.
For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the appointment of God, conceived in the womb by Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Ghost. — Letter to the Ephesians 18:2, A.D. 108–110

Justin Martyr (c. 150)

…and that we reasonably worship Him, having learned that He is the Son of the true God Himself, and holding Him in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third, we will prove. For they proclaim our madness to consist in this, that we give to a crucified man a place second to the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of all… — First Apology 13:5–6, A.D. 150.

Martyrdom Of Polycarp (c. 155)

[Christ] who is the Son of God, we worship, but the martyrs we love as disciples and imitators of the Lord — Martyrdom Of Polycarp 17:3, ~A.D. 155

Theophilus of Antioch (c. 170)

In like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of the Trinity, of God, and His Word, and His wisdom. And the fourth is the type of man, who needs light, that so there may be God, the Word, wisdom, man. — Of the Fourth Day, Chapter XV ~A.D. 170

Athenagoras of Athens (c. 176–180)

But the Son of God is the Logos of the Father, in idea and in operation; for after the pattern of Him and by Him were all things made, the Father and the Son being one. And, the Son being in the Father and the Father in the Son, in oneness and power of spirit, the understanding and reason (νοῦς καὶ λόγος) of the Father is the Son of God. But if, in your surpassing intelligence, it occurs to you to inquire what is meant by the Son, I will state briefly that He is the first product of the Father, not as having been brought into existence (for from the beginning, God, who is the eternal mind [νοῦς], had the Logos in Himself, being from eternity instinct with Logos [λογικός]); but inasmuch as He came forth to be the idea and energizing power of all material things, which lay like a nature without attributes, and an inactive earth, the grosser particles being mixed up with the lighter. The prophetic Spirit also agrees with our statements. “The Lord,” it says, “made me, the beginning of His ways to His works.” The Holy Spirit Himself also, which operates in the prophets, we assert to be an effluence of God, flowing from Him, and returning back again like a beam of the sun. Who, then, would not be astonished to hear men who speak of God the Father, and of God the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and who declare both their power in union and their distinction in order, called atheists? — Embassy for the Christians, Chapter X ~A.D. 176–180)

Irenaeus (c. 189)

For the Church, although dispersed throughout the whole world even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and from their disciples the faith in one God, the Father Almighty … and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became flesh for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit” — Against Heresies 1:10:1, A.D. 189.

Tertullian (c. 216)

We do indeed believe that there is only one God, but we believe that under this dispensation, or, as we say, oikonomia (Gk. οἰκονομία, “economy”), there is also a Son of this one only God, his Word, who proceeded from him and through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made … We believe he was sent down by the Father, in accord with his own promise, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father and the Son, and in the Holy Spirit” — Against Praxeas 2, A.D. 216.
And at the same time the mystery of the oikonomia is safeguarded, for the unity is distributed in a Trinity. Placed in order, the three are the Father, Son, and Spirit. They are three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in being, but in form; not in power, but in kind; of one being, however, and one condition and one power, because he is one God of whom degrees and forms and kinds are taken into account in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” — Against Praxeas 2, A.D. 216.
Keep always in mind the rule of faith which I profess and by which I bear witness that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are inseparable from each other, and then you will understand what is meant by it. Observe now that I say the Father is other [distinct], the Son is other, and the Spirit is other. This statement is wrongly understood by every uneducated or perversely disposed individual, as if it meant diversity and implied by that diversity a separation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — Against Praxeas 9, A.D. 216.
Thus the connection of the Father in the Son, and of the Son in the Paraclete, produces three coherent persons, who are yet distinct one from another. These three are, one essence, not one person, as it is said, ‘I and my Father are one’ [John 10:30], in respect of unity of being not singularity of number — Against Praxeas 25, A.D. 216.

Origen (c. 225)

For we do not hold that which the heretics imagine: that some part of the being of God was converted into the Son, or that the Son was procreated by the Father from non-existent substances, that is, from a being outside himself, so that there was a time when he [the Son] did not exist — The Fundamental Doctrines 4:4:1, A.D. 225
For it is the Trinity alone which exceeds every sense in which not only temporal but even eternal may be understood. It is all other things, indeed, which are outside the Trinity, which are to be measured by time and ages — The Fundamental Doctrines 4:4:1, A.D. 225
The Father generates an uncreated Son and brings forth a Holy Spirit — not as if He had no previous existence, but because the Father is the origin and source of the Son or Holy Spirit. — On First Principles 1.2.3, A.D. 225

Hippolytus (c. 228)

The Word alone of this God is from God himself, wherefore also the Word is God, being the being of God — Refutation of All Heresies 10:29, A.D. 228

Pope Dionysius (c. 262)

Next, then, I may properly turn to those who divide and cut apart and destroy the most sacred proclamation of the Church of God, making of it [the Trinity], as it were, three powers, distinct substances, and three godheads. . . . [Some heretics] proclaim that there are in some way three gods, when they divide the sacred unity into three substances foreign to each other and completely separate” — Letter to Dionysius of Alexandria 1, A.D. 262.
Therefore, the divine Trinity must be gathered up and brought together in one, a summit, as it were, I mean the omnipotent God of the universe. . . . It is blasphemy, then, and not a common one but the worst, to say that the Son is in any way a handiwork [creature]. … But if the Son came into being [was created], there was a time when these attributes did not exist; and, consequently, there was a time when God was without them, which is utterly absurd. — Letter to Dionysius of Alexandria 1–2, A.D. 262.
Neither, then, may we divide into three godheads the wonderful and divine unity. . . . Rather, we must believe in God, the Father Almighty; and in Christ Jesus, his Son; and in the Holy Spirit; and that the Word is united to the God of the universe. ‘For,’ he says, ‘The Father and I are one,’ and ‘I am in the Father, and the Father in me’ — Letter to Dionysius of Alexandria 3, A.D. 262.

Gregory the Wonderworker (c. 265)

There is one God. … There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged. Wherefore there is nothing either created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was non-existent, and at some later period it was introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without change, the same Trinity abides ever — Declaration of Faith, A.D. 265.

Post-Nicene Thought

At this point we go beyond the date of the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325), but I’m including the quotes so you can see how the influence of the previous Church Fathers, and the result of the Council and the Nicene Creed, establish the language of the Trinity more solidly in theological thought.

Sechnall of Ireland (c. 444)

Hymns, with Revelation and the Psalms of God [Patrick] sings, and does expound the same for the edifying of God’s people. This law he holds in the Trinity of the sacred Name and teaches one being in three persons — Hymn in Praise of St. Patrick 22, A.D. 444.

Patrick of Ireland (c. 452)

I bind to myself today the strong power of an invocation of the Trinity — the faith of the Trinity in unity, the Creator of the universe — The Breastplate of St. Patrick 1, A.D. 447.
[T]here is no other God, nor has there been heretofore, nor will there be hereafter, except God the Father unbegotten, without beginning, from whom is all beginning, upholding all things, as we say, and his Son Jesus Christ, whom we likewise to confess to have always been with the Father — before the world’s beginning. . . . Jesus Christ is the Lord and God in whom we believe . . . and who has poured out on us abundantly the Holy Spirit . . . whom we confess and adore as one God in the Trinity of the sacred Name — Confession of St. Patrick 4, A.D. 452.

Augustine (c. 408)

All the Catholic interpreters of the divine books of the Old and New Testaments whom I have been able to read, who wrote before me about the Trinity, which is God, intended to teach in accord with the Scriptures that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are of one and the same substance constituting a divine unity with an inseparable equality; and therefore there are not three gods but one God, although the Father begat the Son, and therefore he who is the Son is not the Father; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son but only the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, himself, too, coequal to the Father and to the Son and belonging to the unity of the Trinity — The Trinity 1:4:7, A.D. 408.

Fulgence of Ruspe (c. 515)

See, in short you have it that the Father is one, the Son another, and the Holy Spirit another; in Person, each is other, but in nature they are not other. In this regard he says: ‘The Father and I, we are one’ (John 10:30). He teaches us that one refers to their nature, and we are to their Persons. In like manner it is said: ‘There are three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit; and these three are one’ (1 John 5:7)” — The Trinity 4:1–2 ~A.D. 515.

The Rule of Faith (c. 523)

But in the one true God and Trinity it is naturally true not only that God is one but also that he is a Trinity, for the reason that the true God himself is a Trinity of Persons and one in nature. Through this natural unity the whole Father is in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, and the whole Holy Spirit, too, is in the Father and in the Son. None of these is outside any of the others; because no one of them precedes any other of them in eternity or exceeds any other in greatness, or is superior to any other in power” — The Rule of Faith 4, ~ A.D. 523.

I hope all of these quotes help to display that the acceptance and belief in the Trinity has been a long established doctrine, reaching back to Apostolic times. Even if the language wasn’t as precise in the earlier times, the theme and understanding of God as three persons in one Godhead unity has always been present, and can clearly be seen that this wasn’t some later invention or innovation in doctrine. This is why the Trinity is such a core and essential doctrine, which gets exemplified in the creeds: it is about the very essence and nature of the God who we worship! If we get the very basics wrong, then everything that follows in our theology and beliefs will also be wrong.

Did the Early Church invent the Trinity?

First use of the word “Trinity”

Quotes From the Early Church

Post-Nicene Thought

Further Reading

Written by Luke J. Wilson