Likewise, the Nestorians also employ this very wording, yet they dispute with the Jacobites and Melkites over the union those two groups affirm. When they are thus united on the phrase but at odds over its meaning, it becomes evident that they first accepted the wording because they believed the revealed law had sanctioned it, and only afterward quarreled over how the Scripture should be interpreted—just as they, together with the followers of other religions, differ over the meaning of certain statements they presume to have been transmitted from the prophets, peace be upon them. From this it is clear that the origin of their formula, “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” was never meant to validate the proposition—already known to them by reason—that God is existent, living, and speaking.

This is further clarified by the third consideration, namely their claim: “Only when we observed the coming‐to‐be of created things did we know that something other than them had brought them into existence.” If those making this claim are merely one particular faction among the Christians, they may be told: “The confession of ‘the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit’ was already current among Christians before you existed, and before your rational inquiry and proofs; therefore your investigation cannot be what compelled Christians to adopt this creed. And if what is meant is that every Christian, from the very moment this formula was first uttered, engaged in reasoning and inference until they pronounced it, that is manifest falsehood, for Christians themselves say that they received this wording from the Gospel, and that the Messiah—peace be upon him—said, ‘Baptize the people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.’”