The Rule of Threes

I thought about this the other day; and then again this morning.  Not really a Lenten meditation, but a meditation for Lent anyway.

First, so we all have the same story before us:

And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;

2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,

3 And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:

4 Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:

5 And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.

6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.

7 And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it.

8 And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.

9 And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent.

10 And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.

11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.

12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?

13 And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?

14 Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.

15 Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh.

Genesis 18:1-15, KJV (and again, I don't favor the KJV so much as prefer it to anything else I can find on-line.)

When God appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mambre, God appeared as three persons walking by.  Three becomes a significant number in Christianity, and a significant number in mysticism and numerology and generally in Western culture.  There's the "Rule of 3's," there's the "I tell you 3 times."  The rule of 3, for example, is the recognition that three is the basic minimum needed in units of some things.  My favorite example, when I teach the rule to composition students, is the footstool.  A one legged stool is not terribly useful.  A two legged stool is little more useful than the one-legged stool.  But a three legged stool stands on its own, supports weight, has function.  One more leg is all it took. Four legs don't really add anything, and beyond four the legs become problems just for the builder (how to maintain symmetry, for one).  Three is a fine functional minimum, and so I tell them an essay needs at least 3 body paragraphs (I try to get them to write at least 5 paragraphs in an essay.  It's community college, after all), and three ideas (the famous structure of sermons, where the pastor has three points to make).  Threes also play a major role in folklore. The study of folklore has contribued much to Biblical exegesis in the late 19th and 20th centuries, down to the present day.  But now I digress.

So three is a significant idea beyond the Christian notion of the Trinity.  But that doesn't get us to the three persons walking by Abraham's tent; or rather, it doesn't explain why there are three.  The simple answer, I think, is both in the "rule of threes," and in the very Hebraic desire not to identify God with any image or person.

When God appears to Elijah, God is present as a wind; but not in the wind; as fire, but not in the fire; as an earthquake, but not in the earthquake.  God appears to Moses as a burning bush; but the bush does not burn, and God is not the fire in the bush.  God appears again to Moses on Sinai, but the Israelites see only the theophany of God:  the thunder, the lightning.  Even in John's Gospel, when God speaks to respond to Jesus at his baptism, some hear God's voice, some hear thunder, some hear nothing.  But God is not the voice, the thunder, or the nothing (and notice again the rule of 3's in John's account).  So when God appears to Abraham, which of the three speaks?  Which of them accepts Abraham's hospitality, and rewards it with a promise (again!) of a son?   Which one asks why Sarah laughed, and insists she did over Sarah's denial?  Which one of the three is God?

All of them.  One of them.  None of them.  And why three?  Consider, again, the stool:  four legs are fine, but unnecessary.  Three persons appearing to Abraham are enough to disguise God, but make God present.  God is not represented, but God is still there.  If only two appeared, would they speak in unison? And one of them would have to be God; but which one? It’s a 50/50 split, and God is no longer present but not present. With only two before Abraham, God is either/or. The narrative can’t allow for that; but it doesn't identify any one of the three with the one true God.  God is there, but God is not them; and the narrative doesn't allow us to identify God with any of the three individually.  The story of Elijah has to be more explicit:  God is in the theophany (the fire, the wind, the earthquake), but God is not the theophany (the fire, the wind, the earthquake).*  God is present to Abraham as three strangers; but God is not the three strangers, or any one of them.  And there are three because that's enough to sustain the theological point the narrative needs to make.

It's worth noting the story of Abraham and God-in-literally-three-persons doesn't end at Mamre.  The other story in Genesis 18 is the story of Abraham bargaining for Sodom and Gomorrah, which is an even more interesting story about the nature of God and the relationship of Creator to created.  It's also another story entirely.

The rule of threes is is the rule of minimal efficiency. If I give you one example in support of an argument, I prove nothing. One example is individual, maybe even unique; it stands for itself and probably nothing more. Two examples is just twice one; I am still at the same bare starting point. But with three examples I’ve suddenly tipped over into proof; or at least a sound foundation for my argument. Four examples, and I’m starting to oversell. Even now you see I can stop at three.

We learn the rule of threes early on, and learn to accept it. When God appears as three strangers to Abraham, it is enough persons to prove God is in the strangers, but God is not the strangers. And, of course, it’s important that they are strangers. Abraham knows God, but Abraham does not know God. God is imminent; but God is transcendent. God is both/and; but also neither. God is all of the three before Abraham; God is none of the three. And the very choice of three, emphasizes that deep mystery.

*which, yes, is where Oz gets his noise and thunder, but Oz is not in the spectacle, he is hiding behind it.