Where did the idea of the Trinity come from, according to Janet Soskice on In Our Time?

Janet Soskice traces the Trinity to Jewish practice. Jesus called God his Father, and his earliest followers, mostly Jews, soon prayed to him as though he were God. Jewish writers had long described God acting in the world through his word, wisdom or name, and those titles were transferred to Jesus. She notes the word Trinity is absent from the New Testament and calls it a regulating teaching rather than a foundational one.

• Pliny, a Roman governor in what is now Turkey, reported around 115 that Christians sang hymns to Jesus as a god.
• Paul's hymn in Philippians, written around 50 to 60, echoes a passage of Isaiah spoken by God himself.
• Historians now date the split between Jews and Christians a couple of centuries after Jesus.

▸In their words

“They get together and sing hymns to Jesus as though he were God.” Janet Soskice · at 6:05 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on In Our Time (2026-10-08). Read the whole episode summary →

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