One In The Greek

[Michael The Disciple]

Help needed.

Can someone tell me if there is any difference in Greek between these words "one" in Greek from our English Bibles?

Mark 12:29

29And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

1 Tim. 2:5

5For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

John 10:30

I and my Father are one.

1 John 5:7-8

7For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

Appreciate the help!

[Scott Pitta]

One means one. It is best translated as one. But one could paraphrase it as one. The literal translation is one.

In Spanish, it is translated as uno. Not to be confused with the popular card game bearing the same name.

[Costeon]

Originally Posted by Michael The Disciple

Help needed.

Can someone tell me if there is any difference in Greek between these words "one" in Greek from our English Bibles?

Mark 12:29

29And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

1 Tim. 2:5

5For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

John 10:30

I and my Father are one.

1 John 5:7-8

7For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

Appreciate the help!

All these examples have the same Greek word for one. The difference between the Greek word one and the English word one is that the Greek word is inflected, that is, it has different forms depending on if it's modifying a masculine, feminine, or neuter word and depending on its grammatical case (nominative, genitive, dative, or accusative).

In all your examples, "one" is in the nominative case. The different forms for the Greek word in the nominative case are heis (masc), mia (fem), hen (neut).

In your first two examples, the Greek form of one is masculine heis because the word it is modifying is a masculine noun.

In your last two examples, the Greek form of one is neuter hen. There is debate about the significance of it being in the neuter. I have heard people argue that if the Father and Son are one person, John would have used "heis." And since he uses "hen," he is not saying they are one person but something like one in agreement or one in being or something like that.

Nowadays I don't generally hear people debating 1 John 5.7, but I suppose that Trinitarians would make a similar argument that if all three refer to one person, John would have used heis not hen.

[Michael The Disciple]

I use this a lot.

1 Tim 2:5

5For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

Can I confidently say both of these words mean one in the ONLY one sense?

[Scott Pitta]

Yes.

[Michael The Disciple]

Mark 12:29

29And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

According to the Greek word for one here can we confidently say the Kurios our Theos is ONE?

[Scott Pitta]

Yes. The Greek is the same as English.

Gotta go.

[Esaias]

Depends on what the meaning of "is" is.

[Michael The Disciple]

1 John 5:7 still comes up a lot in discussions I have had. It came up a few days ago.

7For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

I am aware of the controversy around it. I can say that it was used by my cousin many years ago to spark my curiosity about Oneness.

When the Trins use it for themselves I point out that the blood, water, and spirit AGREE in one.

But the Father, Word, and Holy Ghost ARE one.

I assume these are not 2 different Greek words for one in the verses and that the context points out the truth that to AGREE in one is different than to BE one.

[rdp]

*The gender of the Greek adjectives in conjunction w. the verbs used is very instructive. Indeed, the masculine pronominal/predicative adjective used in Mark 12.29 demands a sole person—and is never used for more than one person in the GNT.

*I am hoping to write a booklet using both diachronic and synchronic analyses on this topic in the next year or so (was actually just looking up the various usages of this masculine adjective the other night). In the meantime, if interested, here’s some blog articles I have written on this subject: https://apostolicacademics.com/?s=heis&submit=Search

*At the risk of appearing self-promoting, I have also done several public debates on this very topic replete w. lexical quotes if interested (cf. Bruce Reeves debates online). God bless.