Thanks for the reply. But... why would God conceal the trinity from all the prophets? isnt that kinda like 'deception', for lack of a better word? :? seems pretty odd that all these prophets would be preaching "God is one" etc and then all of a sudden God is in three persons? :?
Cheese,
I hope you will forgive the long response, but you've asked several questions in one, perhaps without realizing it.
1) One question is about what was the message of the prophets?
2) Another, implied but unasked by the way you put it, is the message of the Christian and the Jewish prophets the same or different?
3) Was the concept of the Trinity delivered as a message of God through the prophets?
Behind all of that is an unasked question that one has to understand before one can talk about these individual questions, and that is what is the Christian understanding of prophecy?
Christians don't view prophecy as any and all speech uttered by a person recognized as a prophet. Prophecy is specifically speaking forth on God's behalf. Thus, it is possbile that even persons who are not prophets can speak prophetically. In fact, the speaker does not even have to be a person -- in Numbers 22 there is the story of a prophet Balaam who has been hired by an enemy of the nation of Israel to curse them, but God sends an angel to stand in his way and oppose him from doing so. Balaam does not seek the angel of God, but the donkey does and speaks of it to Balaam. Thus, anyone or anything speaking forth on God's behalf is speaking prophetically.
1) One question is about what was the message of the prophets?
You are aware that there are many prophets. They all spoke on God's behalf, but they spoke to different people facing different life situations and thus they have many different messages, not just one message. I believe this is a significant difference in understanding from the role of a prophet in Islam. Christians do not believe that each prophet was for just for one group of people and to that group of people delivered the sum total of a single message from God that each succeeding prophet repeated. Rather, Christians believe that each prophet added progressively more and more to God's own self-disclosing revelation of God's self till that self-revelation reached its zenith in Jesus as God manifesting God's self among humankind.
Before Moses, God revealed himself to people and asked them to commit themselves personally to live in relationship with him and made promises of blessings that would be passed on to their children and their children's children.
In Moses, God revealed himself as claiming a whole nation for himself. And he established some principles of how they were to live in order to carry out that relationship. Following Moses, most of the prophets' messages had to do with the people's ability (or lack thereof) to live a life that was truly submissive to God will and the concept of judgment that would come in "the day of the Lord."
Now there are several possible interpretations of the coming "day of the Lord." In some ways, the various exiles that the Jews suffered were seen as this "day of the Lord" in that it pronounced judgment on them for their unfaithfulness. And there was also the concept of a future, apocalyptic "day of the Lord" (many Christians share this view). But Jesus' birth, as the incarnate manifestion of God come in the flesh to dwell among us, is also an inbreaking "day of the Lord". And now subsequent to Jesus making God known by being God personally living among us, there is no need for any subsequent new revelation that does not have to do with Jesus. That doesn't mean that there are no more prophecies (though a few Christians think they have ceased) just that one that purports to speak forth on God's behalf and denying the revelation of Jesus would be understood to be a false prophet by Christians.
2) Another, implied but unasked by the way you put it, is the message of the Christian and the Jewish prophets the same or different?
Not being Jewish, I don't know that I cannot adequately address this question. My first thought is that both Christians and Jews would recognize the messages of those that Christians call the Old Testament prophets, but might have different interpreations as to how those messages are to be applied.
3) Was the concept of the Trinity delivered as a message of God through the prophets?
No.
The concept of the Trinity is not even mentioned by name any place in scripture. It is a concept, an understanding derived from not any single verse saying something akin to "The Lord your God is one, but exists in three persons." That statement, which Christians do affirm, is a very human statement. It comes as an expression of the understanding of the totality of God's self-revelation, not a singular expression.
Think of it as a label, and nothing more. It was, as I am sure you probably know, a formulaic expression developed by the church in places like Nicea and Chalcedon long after the completion of the Bible. It is not revelation. It is not even necessary to recite one of those creeds which make those statements to be Christian. Those creeds, indeed the formulaic expression of the three-in-one God was devised as a teaching tool. As a very wise Christians author, C.S. Lewis once wrote, it is an illustration of the faith, don't mistake the illustration or the explanation for the faith. If the illustration doesn't illuminate things for you, then don't use it, throw it away. Just don't throw away your faith and experience of God who does make himself known to us not only as creator, but who also comes to us in Jesus as redeemer and who sends his own spirit to infuse our lives with his intimate presence.
eace: