The Birth of the Trinity: Jesus, God, and Spirit in New Testament and Early Christian Interpretation of the Old Testament

Abstract

When the author ofHebrews takes up the lyrics of the psalmist, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me,” the author forthrightly identifies the Christ as the speaker of the poetic lines that he has recited. But how? Why? The Christ does not appear as an overt or obvious character in the psalm itself in the Old Testament—indeed, he is not men- tioned at all.