`There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts or passions: of infinite power, wisdom and

goodness, the Maker and Preserver of all things visible and invisible. And in the unity of the Godhead there be

three Persons, of one substance, power and eternity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost'.

The Athanasian Creed goes to great lengths to insist that there are not three eternals, not three

incomprehensibles, not three uncreated, not three almighties, not three Gods, not three Lords. Yet with the

statement before the mind that at the same time there are three Persons in the Godhead, this reiteration in the creed

sounds much like a consciousness that, left to itself, the creed does and will in fact breed the concept that there are

three Gods, however the idea be denied. An examination of the defence of the creed through the centuries only

deepens the problem, and the earnest inquirer generally finds that he is taken away from the realm of Revealed Truth

to the intricacies of metaphysics, leading him either to throw aside his intelligence and `believe' upon the authority

of the Church and tradition, or to take the opposite step, deny the Deity of Christ, become a Unitarian as a protest,

and ultimately a deist or an agnostic.

We believe a true understanding of the word `person' would prevent the idea of `three Gods' forcing itself upon

the mind in spite of all the protests of the creed itself, and would recognize the gracious condescension of the `one

Lord' on behalf of us men and for our salvation. To the consideration of this most important term let us address

Modern usage equates `person' with `individual' but how such a `person' can at the same time be `without body,

parts or passions' passes our comprehension. Turning first of all to the usage of the word `person' in the A.V. we

discover that it translates the Hebrew word adam (Jonah 4:11); ish man, a male (2 Kings 10:7); enosh mortal

(Judges 9:4); methim men (Psa. 26:4); nephesh soul (Gen. 14:21); nephesh adam soul of man (Num. 31:35). In no

conceivable way can any of these terms be used of God. The word baal Lord (Prov. 24:8) is the only term that

approaches the subject. The only other word employed in the Hebrew, that is translated person, is panim `face', and

this, we shall discover, approaches nearer to the intention of the word `Person' in the creed than any other word used

in the Old Testament. Eighteen of the twenty occurrences of panim which are translated `person' employ it in the

phrase `regard' or `accept persons', and it is evident that the term here does not think so much of an individual, but as

of estate, whether such be `high' or `low', `rich' or `poor'.

In the New Testament the Greek prosopon `face' is translated `person' six times, four of which read `regard' or

`accept' a man's person; one speaks of forgiving `in the person of Christ' (2 Cor. 2:10). Other places where `respect

of persons' are found, the Greek words are prosopoleteo tes lepsia, all being derived from prosopon `face'. We

discover from Liddle and Scott that prosopeion meant `a mask' and hence `a dramatic part, character, and so the

Latin persona'. A mask is not an individual, neither is a character or dramatic part in a play a `person' in the present

acceptation of the term. The shorter Oxford Dictionary is not a theological work and has no axe to grind, but gives

this definition of the word `person':

`Person. Latin persona a mask used by a player, a character acted; in later use, a human being; connected by

some with the Latin personare "to sound through". A part played in a drama, or in life; hence, function, office,

capacity; guise, semblance; character in a play or story'.

If we therefore speak the Queen's English, we shall mean by `Three Persons in the Godhead' offices, functions,

guises and characters assumed in grace and love by the One True, Infinite and Invisible God for the purpose of

Creation, Redemption and the ultimate consummation of the ages, `that God may be all in all'.  Lloyd's

Encyclopaedic Dictionary puts the definition `an individual' seventh in the list, the earlier definitions agreeing with

those of the Oxford Dictionary. Here is the first definition:

(1) That part in life which one plays:

`no man can put on a person and act a part; but his evil manners will peep through the corners of his white robe'

(Jeremy Taylor).

Archbishop Trench points out that when this old sense of the word is remembered, greatly increased force is

given to the statement that God is no respecter of `persons'. The signification is that God cares not, what part in life

a person plays, in other words what office he fills, but how he plays it. Archbishop Whately in his book The