Trinity. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity holds that God is one God, but three coeternal consubstantial persons or hypostases, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as one God in three Divine persons. The three persons are distinct, yet are one substance, essence or nature. In this context, a nature is what one is, whereas a person is who one is. Sometimes differing views are referred to as nontrinitarian. Trinitarianism contrasts with positions such as Binitarianism and Monarchianism, of which Modalistic Monarchianism and Unitarianism are subsets. While the developed doctrine of the Trinity is not explicit in the books that constitute the New Testament, the New Testament possesses a triadic understanding of God and contains a number of Trinitarian formulas. The doctrine of the Trinity was first formulated among the fathers of the Church as early Christians attempted to understand the relationship between Jesus and God in their scriptural documents and prior traditions. The word trinity is derived from Latin trinitas, meaning the number three, a triad, tri. This abstract noun is formed from the adjective trinus, as the word unitas is the abstract noun formed from unus. The corresponding word in Greek is, meaning a set of three or the number three. The first recorded use of this Greek word in Christian theology was by Theophilus of Antioch in about the year 170. He wrote: In like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of the Trinity, of God, and His Word, and His wisdom. And the fourth is the type of man, who needs light, that so there may be God, the Word, wisdom, man. Further information: Trinitarianism in the Church Fathers While the developed doctrine of the Trinity is not explicit in the books that constitute the New Testament, it was first formulated as early Christians attempted to understand the relationship between Jesus and God in their scriptural documents and prior traditions. The New Testament possesses a triadic understanding of God and contains a number of Trinitarian formulas. The Ante-Nicene Fathers asserted Christ's deity and spoke of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, even though their language is not that of the traditional doctrine as formalized in the fourth century. Trinitarians view these as elements of the codified doctrine. An early Trinitarian formula appears towards the end of the first century, where Clement of Rome rhetorically asks in his epistle as to why corruption exists among some in the Christian community; Do we not have one God, and one Christ, and one gracious Spirit that has been poured out upon us, and one calling in Christ? Ignatius of Antioch provides early support for the Trinity around 110, exhorting obedience to Christ, and to the Father, and to the Spirit. The pseudonymous Ascension of Isaiah, written sometime between the end of the first century and the beginning of the third century, possesses a proto-trinitarian view, such as in its narrative of how the inhabitants of the sixth heaven sing praises to the primal Father and his Beloved Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Justin Martyr also writes, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. The first of the early church fathers to be recorded using the word Trinity was Theophilus of Antioch writing in the late 2nd century. He defines the Trinity as God, His Word and His Wisdom in the context of a discussion of the first three days of creation, following the early Christian practice of identifying the Holy Spirit as the Wisdom of God. The first defense of the doctrine of the Trinity was in the early 3rd century by the early church father Tertullian. He explicitly defined the Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and defended his theology against Praxeas, though he noted that the majority of the believers in his day found issue with his doctrine. St. Justin and Clement of Alexandria used the Trinity in their doxologies and St. Basil likewise, in the evening lighting of lamps. Origen of Alexandria has often been interpreted as Subordinationist, but some modern researchers have argued that Origen might have actually been anti-Subordinationist.