Is that true?
Is the word Trinity in the Bible?
It's complicatedIt is complicated. The word Trinity never appears in the Bible. The Latin term trinitas was coined later, by the theologian Tertullian around AD 200. Yet the underlying idea, one God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is drawn from Scripture itself, as when Jesus commands baptism in all three names.
The history
The specific term Trinity is not found in any biblical manuscript in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. Tertullian of Carthage used the Latin trinitas around AD 200 to describe the relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit. The doctrine was formally articulated at the Councils of Nicaea in 325 and Constantinople in 381, drawing together language already present across the New Testament.
What Scripture says
Jesus names the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit together as the single name into which disciples are baptized.
Where this points
The question points beyond a single word to a Person. Christians came to speak of the Trinity because they encountered Jesus as God with us, yet distinct from the Father who sent him and the Spirit he poured out. The word came later; the encounter came first.
People also ask
Who first used the word Trinity?
The Latin term trinitas is first clearly attested in the writings of Tertullian of Carthage around AD 200, though he was describing an idea already present in earlier Christian worship and Scripture.
If the word is not in the Bible, is the doctrine unbiblical?
Not according to mainstream Christian scholarship. Many biblical teachings use later vocabulary to summarize scriptural data. The threefold naming of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit appears throughout the New Testament, even though the summarizing word came afterward.