and this does not entail a plurality of lords or gods. For that very reason, if the term were repeated twice or four times, it would not oblige us to posit two or four deities. Likewise, when it is uttered three times, it still does not mean that the lords are three. They themselves do not profess belief in three lords or three gods; had such repetition really indicated three lords and three gods, it would undermine their own position. Instead, they claim that they are affirming only one God, yet they contradict themselves by explicitly speaking of three gods and then insisting that these three are one.

The Scriptures, in no way whatsoever, support their self-contradictory doctrine. As for what they quote about the Jews acknowledging the wording of these prophecies and alleging that the Jews do not know how to interpret them: if by “interpretation” they mean explaining the text and bringing out what the words themselves indicate, that meaning is plain—so plain that even Jewish children, and others besides, understand it. Rather, it is the Christians who have asserted something the wording does not convey. And if by “interpretation” they intend a sense that contradicts the apparent wording, then this is merely