Many sayings and proverbs are based on the number three, even folklore includes it: three trials for a hero, three roads at a fork, or three wishes for a fisherman. And in Orthodox culture, the Day of the Holy Trinity is placed on a par with Christmas or Easter.
Three is mentioned everywhere, this number has a special meaning in every culture on the planet. Great people have long been interested in this number. For example, the ancient Greek mathematician Nicromachus said that three is a perfect true number, because it has a base, middle and end.
But the most familiar and closest expression with the troika is “God loves the Trinity,” because literally every Russian person has heard or used it. Of course, most Russian people can guess what it means, but today we will dot the i's.
The meaning of the expression: “God loves the Trinity” where it came from
People are accustomed to using the phrase “God loves the Trinity” as a proverb or saying, but it originated from Orthodox beliefs. In Christian culture, God is three persons, in other words, a trinity:
- father (a thought that was not born from anyone and does not come from anyone);
- son (a word born from a thought);
- holy spirit (an act that eternally emanates from thought).
It is worth noting that the word “Trinity” is not in the Bible or in the Old Testament, although it was mentioned in some places, but Theophilus of Antioch introduced the full doctrine of the “Trinity” into Christian culture in the 2nd century. The troika is mentioned quite often in Orthodox culture: three miracles after the death of Christ, these three - Faith, Hope and Love, three gifts of the Magi to the infant Christ...
Shamanism
Even in shamanism there is the number three - a trinity of worlds, namely: the Upper, inhabited by spirits and deities, the Middle, inhabited by people and the Lower, the world where lower beings and spirits live, in other words, hell.
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Trinity and the Bible
God is one absolutely perfect divine Being in three Persons. We call the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Persons because they have personal properties. There is a personal relationship between them.
| As we know from history, Theophilus, the sixth bishop of Antioch in Syria, was the first to use the word “Trinity” in his work “Against Autolycus” (168 AD). |
When Christians speak of their belief in one God in three Persons (the Trinity), they do not mean one God in three Gods, or one Person in three Gods.
They believe in one God, known in three Persons.
The Father is God, the first Person of the Trinity; The Son is God, the second Person of the Trinity; The Holy Spirit is God, the third Person of the Trinity.
Why do they say: “God loves the Trinity”
“God loves the Trinity” is a saying used when asking someone to do something a third time after two unsuccessful attempts. There is also a proverb that means the same thing: everything, one way or another, comes three times, and any business is completed the third time. The people came up with the phrase, because according to Orthodox laws it is impossible to pronounce the name of God in vain. The expression is based on superstitious ideas and mystical meaning that our ancient ancestors gave to the number “3”, considering it sacred.
The meanings of the phrase “God loves the Trinity” that first come to mind are “God loves three people” or “God loves himself,” however, they are not true. The real meaning of the word “trinity” in this sentence is: the number three, three of any objects. That is, this proverb means “God loves the number three itself.” There are similar sayings in the Russian language: “God is not a beggar, he loves a thousand” and “God is not a fool, he loves a nickel.”
✍ Examples
Stephen King
“The Green Mile” (1996), translation - Victor Weber, Dmitry Weber, part 2, ch. 7:
“My dad used to say that God loves a trinity .”
“The appearance of John Coffey ended with another skirmish, and Wild Bill just caused a terrible fight. So three is truly God’s favorite number .”
Ivanov Alexey Viktorovich (b. 1969)
“The geographer drank the globe away” (2000):
“Well, let’s glide one more time...” whined Sluzhkin. “Well, the last one... God loves a trinity...”
Hasek Yaroslav (1883 – 1923)
“The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik” (1923, translation by P.G. Bogatyrev (1893 – 1971)):
“She married the forester again for the third time and said: “ God loves the trinity . If I’m unlucky now, I don’t know what to do.”
Schweik, before throwing out the visitor for the third time (Part 1, Chapter 13):
“Come on, sir,” Schweik invited, grabbing the uninvited guest by the shoulder. “God loves the trinity .”
Chekhov Anton Pavlovich (1860 – 1904)
“The Daughter of a Commerce Advisor” (1883) - the owner offers to drink more alcohol:
“Should we have a third drink? - suggested Mechanizmov. - God loves the trinity and that... tres faciunt consilium (Latin) - three make up a council.)... Latin, brothers! Yashka, give me your pig's face, a herring from that table! Gentlemen of the nobility, come on! No ceremony! Mitriy Petrych, wow, ala masher! (I beg you, start, dear! (distorted French - je vous prie allez, ma chère).)"
Snegirev Ivan Mikhailovich (1793 – 1868)
Russians in their proverbs:
“In the ancient church of the holy martyrs Florus and Laurus (at the Myasnitsky Gate), on both choirs of the main altar Hermias, Solon, Plato, Thucydides, Stoic (?) and Aristotle are depicted with charters in their hands. In Thucydides: Phycytides also says: one is three and three is one, the incorporeal figuratively is the trinity .”
