10. The Shema — The Most Important Sentence in History

The Christian Statement

Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad. Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one.

This is the central confession of Judaism. It is recited morning and evening by observant Jews. It is the last thing a Jewish person is supposed to say before dying. It was the confession Jesus quoted when asked about the greatest commandment (Mark 12:29–30). It is the foundation from which any Jewish-Christian theological conversation must begin.

The Trinity is often presented as a violation of the Shema. The disciple must understand why this objection is made, why it is serious, and why the Christian tradition believes that the Shema, read with full attention to the Hebrew, does not exclude Trinitarian monotheism but may in fact require it.

The Hebrew word for "one" in the Shema is echad. This is a composite unity — the same word used in Genesis 2:24 where a man and woman become "one flesh." Two who are one. The Hebrew yachid, meaning an absolute singular unity, is never used of God in the Tanakh. Echad, the word that is used, describes a unity that can contain plurality. This does not prove the Trinity from the Shema — but it demonstrates that the Shema does not require the simple mathematical singularity that the standard Jewish objection assumes.

✶ Jewish Objection: The Shema says God is one. The Trinity says God is three. These are contradictions. Christianity is polytheism.

✔ How to respond: The Shema says Adonai Echad — God is echad. The Hebrew word echad describes a composite unity — it is the same word used when husband and wife become one flesh. It is not the word yachid, which means an absolute singular unity. Neither Christians nor Jews believe God is three separate deities. Christians believe the one God exists in three persons — which is a claim about the nature of the one God, not a multiplication of gods. The question is not whether there is one God — we both confess that there is. The question is whether the one God can exist as a unity of persons. The Shema does not answer that question. It establishes that there is one God. We agree completely.