How Jesus Became God — Season 1, Episode 20: The Birth of the Trinity

Episode synopsis

The doctrine of the Trinity asserts that God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are all individually God. Look into the origins of this mysterious claim, noting that the Trinity appears nowhere in the Bible. Learn about the conception of “modalism”, which proposed that the three are manifestations of one being, and modalism’s opponents.

About How Jesus Became God

In 24 provocative lectures, Professor Ehrman takes you deep into the process by which the divinity of Jesus was first conceived by his followers, demonstrating how this conception was refined over time to become the core of the Christian theology. A distinguished scholar of Christianity and New York Times best-selling author, Professor Ehrman develops the inquiry with meticulous research and in-depth analysis of texts. In these lectures, Ehrman reveals that the theological understanding of Jesus as God came about through a complex series of factors and events, each of which must be understood in order to grasp this most extraordinary and historically pivotal story. In the enthralling inquiry of How Jesus Became God Professor Ehrman lays bare the diverse elements that combined to produce both an astonishing true-life story and one of history’s most significant developments.

More episodes from Season 1

• E1Jesus - The Man Who Became God
• E2Greco-Roman Gods Who Became Human
• E3Humans as Gods in the Greco-Roman World
• E4Gods Who Were Human in Ancient Judaism
• E5Ancient Jews Who Were Gods
• E6The Life and Teachings of Jesus
• E7Did Jesus Think He Was God?
• E8The Death of Jesus - Historical Certainties
• E9Jesus’s Death - What Historians Can’t Know
• E10The Resurrection - What Historians Can’t Know
• E11What History Reveals about the Resurrection
• E12The Disciples’ Visions of Jesus