Is the Trinity really in the Bible? (VIDEO)

Is the Trinity Really in the Bible? (vIDEO)

Welcome to the home of Episode 186 of the Misquoting Jesus Podcast with Bart Ehrman. Below, you can watch the entire episode, read its description, and see links to related resources.

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episode description

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Episode 186 explores one of Christianity’s most foundational and controversial doctrines: the Trinity. Bart Ehrman and Megan Lewis examine whether the doctrine—that God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all equally divine yet still one God—is actually taught in the Bible or developed later through theological interpretation.

The discussion begins by distinguishing between simply finding references to the Father, Son, and Spirit in the New Testament versus finding the formal doctrine of the Trinity itself. Ehrman explains that while the New Testament contains all three figures, it never explicitly states the later orthodox formulation established in the fourth century. The episode walks through competing early Christian views, including modalism and Arianism, and explains why theologians struggled to reconcile Jesus’ divinity with strict monotheism.

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A major focus is the Gospel of John, where Jesus speaks far more openly about his divine identity than in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Ehrman argues that the historical Jesus likely did not teach the doctrine of the Trinity or claim to be God in the later orthodox sense. The conversation also examines the famous passage in 1 John 5:7–8, often cited as the clearest biblical proof of the Trinity, and explains why most scholars believe the key Trinitarian wording was added centuries later.

The bonus Q&A covers the Holy Spirit in early Christianity, James the brother of Jesus, Aramaic phrases in Mark’s Gospel, and modern evangelical end-times beliefs connected to Revelation and 2 Thessalonians.