The Meaning of “Third of Three”

Is “third of three” (thālith thalātha) the same as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as some have said;(34) or is the meaning God, Christ, and Mary: “And when God said: ‘O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God?’ He said: ‘Glory be to You! It is not for me to say what I have no right to say….”(35) In this verse, God asks Jesus son of Mary whether he told people to take him and his mother (Mary) as two other gods besides God. That is, did he speak of his own divinity and his mother’s divinity in addition to the divinity of God? Jesus answers that he told people only what God commanded him and called them only to worship the God who is his Lord and their Lord.

In any case, both forms of trinitarianism are impossible and false, whether the Trinity is in the form of belief in the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or in the form of belief in the divinity of God, Christ, and Mary.(36)