It is sometimes said that the Trinity is the main teaching of the scriptures. During a crucial time for God’s people, before and after the destruction of Jerusalem, and thereafter God’s people taken off into exile to the world power of Babylon, God raised up and mightily used his prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel as major prophets for his people then, and for us now. Their recorded prophecies are in books bearing their names in the Bible’s Hebrew-Aramaic Scriptures, the Old Testament, and comprise a total 112 chapters. Naturally, we would expect to see the Trinity doctrine in these very important Bible books if the doctrine is true. No one can rightly say Trinitarians are not very imaginative and creative in their trying to find something in the Bible to support their doctrine. For example: “It has been said that Ezekiel is the prophet of the Spirit, as Isaiah is the prophet of the Son, and Jeremiah the prophet of the Father”  (brothersoftheson.com).” In the light of such glowing claims, we do well to ask, “Is the Trinity in Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel?”

Jeremiah 10:10 – “Yahweh is the true God; He is the true God and the everlasting King” (LSB). This key scripture in Jeremiah identifies Yahweh as the true God, which is mentioned twice for emphasis. Jesus, at Matthew 22:41-46, indicated he is not Yahweh. 

In this article, we will examine the books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, and consider how: (1) Yahweh or God is embedded in some Hebrew names, (2) Yahweh embedded within place-names, (3) scriptures sometimes asserted to be proof of the Trinity, and (4) prophecies concerning Jesus that indicate he’s not God. 

So, “Is the Trinity in Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel?” 

YAHWEH OR GOD EMBEDDED WITHIN PERSONAL NAMES

Trinitarians claim that Jesus being given the title-name “Emmanuel”, meaning “God is with us”, means that Jesus is Almighty God (Matthew 1:23). God’s angel said the child Jesus that was to be born would be called “Emmanuel” – meaning, “God is with us”, but that does not mean Jesus is God. Why? The meanings of many Jewish names include “Yahweh” or “God.”  The following scriptures from the book of Jeremiah and Daniel help us to see that Yahweh or God embedded within a Hebrew name doesn’t mean that person or angel is God.:

• Jeremiah 1:1 – Jeremiah – Yahweh Loosens or Exalts
• Jeremiah 1:1 – Hilkiah – My Portion is Yahweh

• Jeremiah 1:3 – Zedekiah – Yahweh is Our Righteousness
• Jeremiah 36:10 – Gemariah – Yahweh has Perfected
• Jeremiah 36:11 – Micaiah – Who is Like Yahweh?
• Jeremiah 36:12 – Shemaiah – Yahweh has Heard
• Jeremiah 36:12 – Hananiah – Yahweh has Shown Favor/Been Gracious
• Jeremiah 36:14 – Nethaniah – Yahweh has Given
• Jeremiah 36:14 – Shelemiah – Yahweh is Recompense, or Communion Sacrifice of Yahweh
• Jeremiah 36:14 – Neriah – My Lamp is Yahweh
• Jeremiah 38:1 – Gedaliah – Great is Yahweh
• Jeremiah 38:6 – Malchijah – My King is Yahweh
• Daniel 12:1 – Michael – Who is like God?

YAHWEH EMBEDDED WITHIN PLACE-NAMES

Jeremiah 23:6 – “In his days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely; And this is the name by which he will be called, Yahweh our righteousness” (LSB). Yahweh is embedded within some Biblical place-names, but the place is obviously not “Yahweh”. Judah and Israel are not Yahweh.

Jeremiah 33:16 – “in those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell in security, and this is the name by which she will be called: Yahweh our righteousness” (LSB). Judah and Jerusalem are not Yahweh.

Ezekiel 48:35 – “The perimeter of that city will be six miles, and the name of the city from that day will be: ‘Yahweh Is There'” (HCSB). This foretold symbolic “city” is not Yahweh.

As we can easily see, the name of Yahweh embedded within a place-name, obviously doesn’t mean that place is Yahweh. This helps us to understand that one of Jesus’ title names, Immanuel, or Emmanuel (Matthew 1:23), doesn’t mean he’s God.

SCRIPTURES SOMETIMES ASSERTED TO BE PROOF OF THE TRINITY

Jeremiah 33:2 – “Thus says Yahweh who made the earth, Yahweh who formed it to establish it; Yahweh is His name” (LSB). 

Daniel 9:19 – “O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, give heed, and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name” (LSB). The mention of the Lord Yahweh three times in each of these two verses has been asserted by some Trinitarians to be proof of their doctrine, which shows the lengths they will go to in trying to find something to support their 3-in-1 dogma. Trinitarians count, 1, 2, 3, and  “voila!”, “There’s the Trinity!” However, three Christian men are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 16:17, for example, but that certainly doesn’t make them a Trinity.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 – ““Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bringthem out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.“For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD: “I will put My law within them and write it on their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their wrongdoing, and their sin I will no longer remember.” (NASB). Some Trinitarians have imagined the Trinity into this text, by asserting that “God the Father” initiated the New Covenant, “God the Son” ratified it with his blood, and “God the Holy Spirit” infused Christians in the New Covenant”. However much we analyze this text, in all honesty, the only divine being mentioned is the Lord Yahweh God. There is no reference, or evidence of or to a Trinity of any sort.

Ezekiel 37:14,24,26,28 – “‘I will put My Spirit within you, and you will come to life . . . Then you will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken and done it,’ declares Yahweh . . . ‘My servant David will be king over them . . . and I will cut a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them . . . And the nations will know that I am Yahweh'”(LSB). There is no doubt that Yahweh God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and the holy Spirit are mentioned in this important prophecy. Trinitarians seem to miss no opportunity to seize on any such mention to imagine their dogma into the text. Here is an example:“In Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones, we see the sovereignty of our Triune God in (i.)the Spirit bringing dead men to life in vv. 1-14, (ii.)the Father’s elective decree to make a people for Himself by the working of His Spirit and the kingship of His Son, the great David, Jesus Christ in vv. 15-23, and (iii.)the Son’s divine kingship over the people of God under the New Covenant in vv. 24-28. In this passage, it is the Father who elects a people to Himself, the Son who rules over them, and the Spirit who brings the dead men to life who will inhabit the Lord’s kingdom once they are regenerated”. However, there is not one single aspect of the Trinity doctrine mentioned here – No equality, no Almightiness, no mention of anyone existing from eternity, no evidence of the holy Spirit being a person, no mention of three divine persons in one “being”, “nature”, “substance”, or “essence”. The fact is this text provides no evidence of the existence of any sort of Trinity

Ezekiel 37:21-23 – “Thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘ . . . I will gather them . . . and I will make them one nation . . . and one king will be king for all of them . . . and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God'” (LSB). Trinitarians have claimed that, since Yahweh said he will cleanse his people, here in Ezekiel, and in Titus 2:14, Jesus is said, “to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession” (CSB), this means that Jesus Christ is Yahweh. In order to make such an assertion, Trinitarians have to ignore the context. “This phrase points to the messianic expectation of a single, divinely appointed ruler . . .  the prophecy envisions a future where one king, often interpreted as the Messiah, will reign . . . This is seen as a type of Christ, who is the ultimate King and Shepherd of His people (John 10:16, Revelation 19:16)” (Bible Hub Study Bible). Yahweh foretells that he will give his people “one king”, Jesus Christ, “a single, divinely appointed ruler”, whom he will use to “cleanse” his people. In no way can Ezekiel 37:23 honestly be used to “prove” the “divinely appointed” Jesus is Yahweh.

PROPHECIES CONCERNING JESUS THAT INDICATE HE’S NOT GOD

Jeremiah 23:5 – “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ declares Yahweh, ‘When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and prosper And do justice and righteousness in the land'” (LSB). “This prophecy points to the Messiah, who Christians believe is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, as He is seen as the ultimate righteous descendant of David” (Bible Hub Study Bible). Yahweh foretells that he will raise up one of David’s descendants to be the Messiah. Yahweh’s Messiah is obviously not Yahweh God.

Ezekiel 37:24,25 – “My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd . . . and David my servant will be their prince forever” (NIV). This cryptic prophecy in Ezekiel presents Jesus ruling under the cryptic name “David”, mentioned twice, and he is also twice called “my servant”, and once “their prince”. The two prophetic references to Jesus as Yahweh’s servant can be cross checked with four references in the book of Acts to Jesus Christ as Almighty God Yahweh’s “servant” (Acts 3:13,26; 4:27,30). “Prince” indicates a high, but not the highest position, which is reserved for Almighty God Yahweh. Ezekiel’s prophecy presents clear evidence that there is no equality between Yahweh God, and his king-Son, Jesus Christ. Thus, the equality aspect of the Trinity doctrine is eliminated by Ezekiel’s prophecy.

Daniel 7:13,14 – “And I saw One like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was escorted before Him. He was given authority to rule, and glory, and a kingdom; so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.” (HCSB) In Daniel, Almighty God is portrayed as “the Ancient of Days” and Jesus as “a son of man,” who receives a kingdom. “The ‘Ancient of Days’ represents God the Father, emphasizing His eternal nature and sovereign authority. This scene depicts the Son of Man’s access to divine authority, paralleling the relationship between Jesus and the Father in John 17:5.’and was led into His presence’. This indicates a formal introduction or presentation, suggesting the conferral of authority and honor. It reflects the heavenly enthronement of Christ, as described in Philippians 2:9-11, where Jesus is exalted and given a name above every name”. (Bible Hub Study Bible). Since Jesus had to be ‘led into God the Father’s presence and formally introduced or presented’, he and his Father are obviously not of the same “being”, “substance”, “essence”, etc., as Trinitarians like to claim. There can be no question of the superiority of the “Ancient of Days” over this “son of man.” The title “Son of Man,” in fact, was Jesus’ favorite self-description when he was on earth (Matthew 8:20). Obviously, Jesus was not equating himself with God by using this expression and applying it to himself. How about later, when he returned to heaven? Wouldn’t he then be equal to God, as Trinitarians claim? No! Jesus said he wouldn’t be, when he was at his Sanhedrin trial, and he said: “‘You have said it,’ Jesus told him. ‘But I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.'” (Matthew 26:64 HCSB). The Christian disciple Stephen described the heavenly vision he had, by saying, “I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56 NIV). Therefore, both Jesus and Stephen’s vision made clear, that even after Jesus’ resurrection to heaven, he would still not be God, or be equal to God.

We’ve objectively considered the major Bible prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. After very careful analysis, we not only do not find any evidence of the Trinity in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, but we find very powerful evidence against the Trinity.