Gen 18:1-2
1 The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.
2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
At first, this verses seems to be a valid reference to the trinity. There seems to be a connection between The LORD and the three men, the men representing the appearance of God.
However, as the story unfolds, the real nature of the men is revealed. As the men are about to leave for Sodom, one of them stays behind with Abraham, as read in verse 22:
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.
Masoretic Text; an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition, "but the LORD remained standing before Abraham."
Up to this point in the story, we have the following scenario: Three men came to visit, two of them left for Sodom, and one remains with Abraham. Abraham goes on to request mercy from the man that stayed behind. Verse 19:1 goes on reveal the true nature of the men:
1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.
In this verse, 34 verses after Gen 18:1, the real nature of the men revealed. The men were angels. God appeared to Abraham through three angels. The concept of God appearing or talking to people through angels is not a rarity in the Old Testament. It happens in quite a different number of places.
To conclude, it is obvious that the three men in 18:1 were angels, leaving behind any possibility that the men who appeared to Abraham were the three persons of the trinity.
How can Gen 18:1&2 prove the trinity ?
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