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Bogdan G. Bucur 1. SCHOLARSHIP ON THE OLD TESTAMENT ROOTS OF TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY Blind Spots and Blurred Vision Introduction In what follows, I offer two critical observations on scholarly treatments of the emergence of Trinitarian theology in early Christianity. I discuss, first, the hypothesis that the early Christian appropriation of the Old Testament, especially of biblical theophanies, led, in a first stage, to the formation of “binitarian monotheism,” followed later by the full-blown Trinitarianism that would constitute the classic position of the church. It seems to me that this ac count is emblematic for the type of problems associated with the entire proj ect of giving a scholarly account of early Trinitarian doctrine. The second part of the essay will examine some of the biblical texts that have played an import ant role in the articulation of early Trinitarian theology—namely. Genesis i8, Isaiah 6, and Habakkuk 3:2 (LXX). My thesis is that the exegetical, doctrinal, hymnographic, and iconographie productions that illustrate the reception history of these texts offer a variety of exegetical approaches, which, however, are not adequately distinguished by the current scholarly concepts. 30 BOGDAN G. BUCUR Is Binitarian Monotheism a First Step toward Trinitarian Theology? Scholars of early Christianity such as Gilles Quispel, Jarl Possum, Alan Se gal, Larry Hurtado, Daniel Boyarin, and Richard Bauckham often note that Christian worship and theological reflection in the early centuries are character ized by a “binitarian” pattern.’ Although the terms vary in scholarship—“relative dualism,” “binitarian dualism,” “complementary dualism,” “Jewish ‘two-power’ traditions,” “heterodox Jewish binitarianism,” or, more recendy, “dyadic devo tional pattern”—the point is to conceptualize the early Christian worship of Je sus as Lord and God within the context of continued exclusive devotion to the Lord God of Israel.
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