Godhead in Christianity

Wycliffe College Chapel, Toronto (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Divinity (Photo credit: Eye - the world through my I)

Divinity (Photo credit: inkelv1122)

Godhead is a Middle English variant of the word godhood, and denotes the Divine Nature or Substance (Ousia) of the Christian God, or the Trinity. Within some traditions such as Mormonism, the term is used as a nontrinitarian substitute for the term Trinity, denoting the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit not as a Trinity, but as a unified council of separate beings in full harmony.

John Wycliffe introduced the term godhede into English Bible versions in two places, and, though somewhat archaic, the term survives in modern English because of its use in three places of the Tyndale New Testament (1525) and into the Authorized King James Version of the Bible (1611). In that translation, the word was used to translate three different Greek words:

Verse	Greek	Romanization	Type	Translation	Reference	Vulgate 405	Wycliffe 1395	Tyndale 1525	ESV 2001
Acts 17:29	θεῖον	theion	adjective	"divine, godly"	[1]	divinum (adjective)	that godli thing	godhed	the divine being
Romans 1:20	θειότης	theiotēs	noun	"divinity, divine nature"	[2]	divinitas	godhed	godhed	divine nature
Colossians 2:9	θεότης	theotēs	noun	"deity"	[3]	divinitas	the Godhed	the godheed	deity

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