The Trinity

I found it very interesting how the idea of the trinity comes up in the Wikipedia article on Zohar two separate times. I thought the trinity was specific to the Christen religion and that it was the only faith to believe in it or any thing similar and use it in practice. I thought the father, the sun, and Holy Spirit was unique to the Christen faith for a few reasons and found it surprising to appear in a Jewish document. The part that talked about the trinity in Zohar that was mentioned was "The Ancient of Days has three heads. He reveals himself in three archetypes, all three forming but one. He is thus symbolized by the number Three. They are revealed in one another. ^[[These are:] first, secret, hidden 'Wisdom'; above that the Holy Ancient One; and above Him the Unknowable One. None knows what He contains; He is above all conception. He is therefore called for man 'Non-Existing'

I was mostly surprised about its presence because of the fact that one part of the trinity, the Sun, refers the Jesus. As most know Jewish people don’t believe that Jesus was the sun of god or had any holy powers. On the other hand Catholics believe that Jesus was not only the sun of God but also part of him as the trinity shows. The one of the Jewish archetypes that resembles remarkable well to Jesus is “first”. This may be a stretch but the son Jesus was the first truly living sign of God on earth, the first son of God, and the first part or start of the Catholic faith. Over all Jesus was the first of many things witch leads us to believe he could be the “first” witch is mentioned in the Jewish Archetypes.

The second part of the archetypes was “secret” which can be related to the part of the Catholic trinity called the Holy Spirit. Given, the Holy Spirit is not a secret and all Christians know about it is very similar to a secret. Secrets are told from one person to another and after it has been through a few people it may be completely distorted and not understandable. Just as a secret one can not completely grasp the idea of the Holy Spirit. Another interesting part of this idea is that one definitions of secret is “beyond ordinary human understanding” which is the Holy Spirit. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/secret).

Lastly “wisdom” comes up witch must compare with the father. After the first two comparisons one would think that these two also compare surprising well, which they do. The father in the Catholic trinity refers to God as the father of all things including his son Jesus. Catholics also believe that God the father is all knowing and has all wisdom of the world. This is the most direct comparison of the tree parts of the trinity witch relates wisdom to wisdom.

The article also mentions the trinity in the statement “As the "primeval inner light" spreads throughout the hidden root two other lights are kindled, called or mezuhzah and or zah ("sparkling light"). It is stressed that these three lights constitute one essence and one root.” This was the first thing from the article that struck me as shockingly similar to the Catholic trinity. The trinity is thought of as one being; the father, son, and Holy Spirit are all one called God. This idea that three are one, including three lights as only one light, is hard to grasp and conceptualize for most people including Catholics. This is why when the theory of three in one showed up a second time in a separate document I didn’t think it was just chance, but hade meaning behind it. The similarity in the uncommon belief that three things are truly only one is the last and strongest tying factor that ultimately closely relates the trinity and archetypes of the Jews.