Joint Heirs with the King: Thrones, Inheritance, and Shared Authority

Chapter Four

He Was Named in the Will, Not the One Who Sealed It

The Inheritance of Yahushua and the Father It Proves He Has

The Two Roles Most Christians Never See

Most believers have read Romans 8:17 many times. They know they are “heirs.” They know they are promised something good. But almost nobody stops to ask the question that the verse itself is begging: who is the owner, and who is the heir?

Inheritance requires two separate identities. There must be someone who holds the estate, and someone who receives a portion of it. A father cannot inherit from himself. A son cannot be the source of his own portion. The moment you use the word “heir,” you have created a separation between the one who owns and the one who is given.

Paul writes that believers are “heirs of Yahuah and joint-heirs with Messiah” (Romans 8:17). Read those two prepositions carefully. “Of Yahuah” tells you the source—Yahuah is the owner. “With Messiah” tells you the relationship—we share in what the Messiah receives. The Father distributes. The Son receives. We share in what the Son received. That is not a Trinity. That is a household with a Father at the head.

Why Inheritance Language Exposes Two Identities

If the Son is co-equal, co-eternal, and the same in essence with the Father—as Trinitarian theology teaches—then every inheritance text in Scripture becomes nonsense. You cannot appoint someone who already owns everything. You cannot give a kingdom to someone who already has it. You cannot hand something back to yourself. But the Bible says all three of those things happen.

The Father gives the Son a kingdom (Daniel 7:13–14). The Son reigns until all enemies are defeated (1 Corinthians 15:25). Then the Son hands the kingdom back to the Father so that Yahuah may be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). That is the behavior of two distinct persons in a household where the Father owns everything and the Son manages what he has been given. To see this clearly, we need to go back to the Hebrew roots.

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The Hebrew Roots of Inheritance

Nachalah — The Assigned Portion

נַחֲלָה Nachalah — a portion assigned by the head of the household. Not “something left behind after death” but “a position given by a higher authority.” It is covenant-placement language.

This word appears over 220 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and it carries a meaning that English completely flattens. The root idea is a portion assigned by someone above you. When Joshua divided the land of Canaan among the twelve tribes (Joshua 13–21), each tribe received its nachalah. They did not earn it or buy it. The land belonged to Yahuah. He assigned each family its share through His appointed leader.

Leviticus 25:23 makes the ownership explicit: “The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine.” Yahuah never gives away ownership. He assigns stewardship. The tribes hold their nachalah as placed members of the Father’s household.

Here is where it gets deeper. Yahuah uses this same word to describe His relationship to Israel. Deuteronomy 32:9 says: “For Yahuah’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His nachalah.” The inheritance runs both directions. Israel inherits a portion of land in Yahuah’s world. Yahuah inherits a people as His own portion. The relationship is mutual—but the ownership is not.

And this is exactly where the Jubilee Year comes in. The year of yovel (יוֹבֵל) in Leviticus 25 is the ultimate proof that nachalah can never be permanently lost. Every fifty years, all land returns to its original family. All debts are cancelled. All slaves go free. Why? Because the land belongs to Yahuah (Leviticus 25:23), and the people belong to Yahuah (Leviticus 25:55)—“For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt.” The Jubilee says: whatever has been lost, whatever has been sold, whatever bondage has occurred—it all resets. The Father’s assignment stands. You may lose access to your nachalah for a season, but it always comes back, because the owner never changed.

Think about what that means for the bigger picture. Israel went into exile. They lost the land. They lost their standing. But the Jubilee principle says: what belongs to Yahuah returns to Yahuah. His people are His nachalah. They may wander. They may be scattered among the nations. But the Father’s claim on them does not expire. The inheritance resets. The sons come home.

And there is something else worth considering. Psalm 119:111 says: “Your testimonies I have taken as a nachalah forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.” The psalmist calls Yahuah’s Torah his inheritance. The Father’s instructions—His truth, His law, His way of living—are themselves a portion given to His children. The inheritance is not just land or a kingdom in the abstract. It includes the Father’s own teaching, handed down to His household.

Yerushah — Taking Hold of What Was Given

יְרֻשָּה Yerushah — a possession. From the root yarash — to take hold of, to enter into, to occupy. Where nachalah is the portion assigned, yerushah is the act of stepping into it.

If nachalah is about the Father assigning the portion, yerushah is about the heir actually taking hold of it. Deuteronomy 1:8 captures it: “See, I have set the land before you. Go in and yarash the land which Yahuah swore unto your fathers.” The land was promised. It was sworn by oath. But the generation still had to cross the Jordan and enter it. The assignment was certain. The timing was future.

This matters enormously for the New Testament. Paul describes believers as heirs who have a guarantee but who do not yet possess the full inheritance. He is not inventing new ideas. He is applying nachalah (assigned portion) and yerushah (the act of possessing) to the Messiah’s household.

Bechor — The Appointed Firstborn

בְּכוֹר Bechor — the firstborn. The one holding the right of the principal inheritance—a double portion and headship of the household. This status could be appointed by the Father, not merely inherited by birth order.

The bechor in Israel held a legal status: the double portion (Deuteronomy 21:17), headship of the family after the father, and the primary role in carrying the family name forward. This was not just about who arrived first. It was about who the Father designated as the lead heir.

Deuteronomy 21:15–17 actually protects the natural firstborn’s rights—a father could not reassign the double portion based on favoritism between wives. The Torah builds the bechor right into the law. But Yahuah acts as the ultimate Father, above even the earthly rules He gave. First Chronicles 5:1–2 states plainly that Reuben was Israel’s firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s bed, “his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph,” and “the chief ruler came from Judah.” Yahuah separated the inheritance rights from the natural birth order and reassigned them. Isaac over Ishmael. Jacob over Esau. Ephraim over Manasseh. David over all his older brothers. In every case, the Father chose.

Psalm 89:27 makes this explicit with the Messianic king: “Also I will make him my bechor, the highest of the kings of the earth.” (Psalm 89:27) The word “make” (natan, to give or set) is right there. The Father makes the king the firstborn. He gives him that status. This is appointment, not biology.

So what was passed over so that Yahushua could be appointed? Think about Israel itself. Israel was called Yahuah’s “son, my firstborn” (Exodus 4:22). The nation held the bechor status. But Israel failed in its role—repeatedly. The prophets record the broken covenant, the exile, the loss of standing. And then Yahuah raises up one man out of Israel to carry the firstborn rights that the nation could not hold. Hebrews 1:6 says: “When he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of Yahuah worship him.” The Messiah is the faithful Israel—the appointed bechor who carries what the nation dropped.

The Two Verses That End the Argument

Two Old Testament passages form the backbone of everything the New Testament says about the Messiah’s inheritance. Both describe someone receiving authority from Yahuah. Both make the direction of transfer unmistakable.

I will declare the decree: Yahuah hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. (Psalm 2:7–8)

The Father gives. The Son asks and receives. The nations are the nachalah. Nobody reading this cold would conclude that the one receiving is the same person as the one giving.

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom. (Daniel 7:13–14)

Two figures. The Ancient of Days is seated. The Son of Man approaches. Dominion, glory, and a kingdom are given to the Son of Man. The Aramaic verb is yehiv—“was given,” passive voice. He does not take it. He receives it. And then Daniel 7:27 extends the chain: “And the kingdom and dominion shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High.” Father → Son of Man → saints. One direction. Three positions.

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The Greek Words That Prove the Structure

Klēronomos — The Heir

κληρονόμος Klēronomos — an heir. From klēros (lot, assigned portion) and nomos (law, established order). The one who receives a legally assigned share.

When the Septuagint translators needed a Greek word for the Hebrew inheritance concept, they chose klēronomos. The word literally means “the one who receives a portion by established order.” That matches nachalah almost exactly. The inheritance is assigned by the head of the household according to his will and his law.

There is also something worth thinking about with this word. The nomos root in klēronomos ties the inheritance directly to the Father’s established order. And Psalm 119:111 already showed us that the Torah itself is a nachalah. So perhaps the most important thing the Father hands to His sons is not just a kingdom or land—it is His teaching, His truth, His way of living. The law is the inheritance. And the inheritance comes through the law. Both ideas live inside this one word.

Synklēronomos — The Joint-Heir

συγκληρονόμος Synklēronomos — a joint-heir. From syn (together with) and klēronomos (heir). One who shares in the inheritance alongside the principal heir.

This is the word Paul uses in Romans 8:17. The prefix syn- means “together with.” Now, someone could argue that “together with” means “as equals.” And in isolation, that would be a fair point. The prefix alone does not tell you who is greater. But Paul does not use this word in isolation. He places it inside a structure that answers the question for us.

Look at what Hebrews 1:2 says: the Son was “appointed heir of all things.” He is the principal heir. He holds the lead position. Now look at Romans 8:17: we are joint-heirs with him. We share in the portion of the one who was appointed over everything. The word syn- tells us we participate. The context tells us who holds the higher position.

Here is the proof. Revelation 3:21 lays out three levels: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” (Revelation 3:21) The Father has a throne. The Son sits in the Father’s throne. We sit in the Son’s throne. Three levels. Each granted by the one above. That is what synklēronomos looks like in practice—shared inheritance under a head, not equal co-ownership.

And 1 Corinthians 15:24–28 seals it. If we were co-equal joint-heirs with the Messiah, and the Messiah were co-equal with the Father, then nobody would be handing anything back to anybody. But the Son hands the kingdom back to the Father. The chain moves in one direction, and it ends with the Father on top. That is not what co-equal looks like.

Huiothesia — The Placement of Sons

υἱοθεσία Huiothesia — the placement of a son. From huios (son) and thesis (a placing). A legal act of establishing someone in the full standing and rights of a son within a household.

English Bibles translate this word as “adoption,” and that translation has caused more confusion than almost any other. A clearer translation would be “son-placement” or “the placing of a son.” It describes a legal act where someone is formally established in the rights and standing of a son—not brought in from outside, but confirmed in their position.

Think of it this way. In Roman law, a father could formally declare his son to be the recognized heir. The son’s debts were cancelled. Any previous master’s claims were dissolved. He was placed into full legal standing. That is huiothesia. It is not about where you came from. It is about where the Father places you.

The Old Testament proves that Israel was already Yahuah’s son before the exodus. Exodus 4:22: “Israel is my son, even my firstborn.” Hosea 11:1: “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” They were not strangers being brought in. They were sons in bondage whose standing needed to be restored. The ga’al—the kinsman-redeemer—recovers a family member who was sold into slavery. That family member was already family. They lost their legal standing, not their identity. Huiothesia is Yahuah restoring people who were always His, and placing them back into the full rights of sons.

Once the Father places you as a son, you are an heir. Your identity determines your portion. Romans 8:15–17 builds this exact chain: you received the Spirit of son-placement, therefore you are a child, therefore you are an heir. Placement first. Inheritance second.

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The Stories That Prove the Pattern

The Prodigal Who Never Stopped Being a Son

If you want to see huiothesia and nachalah played out in a story, look no further than the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11–32. Everything we have been studying is sitting in that parable.

The younger son demands his inheritance early. He takes his nachalah and leaves the Father’s household. He wastes it. He ends up in bondage—feeding pigs, starving, stripped of everything that made him a son in practice. But here is the key: he never stopped being the father’s son. He lost his standing, not his identity. When he comes home, he expects to be made a hired servant. He says: “I am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants” (Luke 15:19). He thinks his status is gone for good.

But the father does not make him a servant. The father runs to him, puts a robe on him (covering), a ring on his hand (authority), and sandals on his feet (status as a free son, not a barefoot slave). Then the father says: “This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:24). That is huiothesia. The son was already the father’s son. He lost his standing. The father restored it. Not adoption. Restoration. Placement back into the full rights of sonship.

Now look at the older brother. He stayed home. He served faithfully. But when the younger brother returns and the father celebrates, the older brother is furious. He says: “These many years I served you, and you never gave me a young goat to celebrate with my friends” (Luke 15:29). The father’s answer is stunning: “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine” (Luke 15:31). The older son had the entire inheritance available to him all along and did not understand it.

If you know the prophets, you can see the pattern. The House of Israel (the northern ten tribes) is the younger son. They took their inheritance, went into the nations, lost their identity, and ended up in spiritual bondage among pagan peoples. The House of Judah is the older brother—they stayed in the land, kept the Torah, maintained the temple, but became resentful and legalistic, failing to recognize what the Father was doing when He brought the lost tribes home.

And the Jubilee principle is underneath all of it. The younger son lost everything. But the nachalah resets. What belongs to the Father returns to the Father. The son who wandered comes home. His standing is restored. That is not a new theology. That is the Torah’s inheritance system played out on the stage of human history.

Where the Gentiles Fit in the Father’s House

If huiothesia is about restoring sons who were already family, then what about the Gentiles? They were never part of Israel. They were never in covenant. How can they be “placed as sons” if they were not sons to begin with?

The answer is in one of the most overlooked statements in all of Scripture. When John the Baptizer saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said: “Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that Yahuah is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Matthew 3:9). Read that carefully. Yahuah does not adopt outsiders into Abraham’s family as second-class members. He raises up actual children. The stones become sons. Not guests. Not stepchildren. Not adopted foreigners with a lesser standing. Actual children of Abraham, with the same rights and the same inheritance as those born into the line.

This is exactly what Paul teaches in Galatians 3:7–9: “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that Yahuah would justify the nations through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” The Gentile who comes to faith is not a guest in someone else’s house. They are a child of Abraham. Period. Not by blood. By the same faith Abraham had. And because they are children, they are heirs (Galatians 3:29).

So huiothesia does not work differently for Gentiles than for Israelites. The Father does not have two classes of sons. He has one household. Those who were always in the family but lost their standing are restored. Those who were outside are raised up as actual children—stones made into sons. In both cases, the Father does the placing. In both cases, the result is the same: once placed, you are a son, and once a son, you are an heir.

Paul uses the olive tree picture in Romans 11:17–24 to show that Gentile believers are grafted into Israel’s tree, not starting a new one. But notice: a grafted branch does not remain a wild branch. It bears the fruit of the tree it was grafted into. The Gentile does not stay an outsider who was given a seat. They become part of the tree itself. And Paul’s warning—“Thou bearest not the root, but the root thee” (Romans 11:18)—is not about status. It is about humility. The root is Abraham. The promises were his. The Gentile enters an existing story, not a new one.

And there is a deeper layer worth thinking about. When the northern kingdom of Israel was scattered among the nations (2 Kings 17), those Israelites lost their identity over centuries. They intermarried. Their descendants became, for all practical purposes, Gentiles. Hosea prophesied this: “Ye are not my people” (lo-ammi, Hosea 1:9). But then the promise: “In the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living Elohim” (Hosea 1:10). Paul quotes this exact passage in Romans 9:25–26 and applies it to the Gentiles coming in. Is it possible that many of the “Gentiles” being raised up as children of Abraham are actually the scattered children of Israel coming home without knowing it? If so, then even that raising up is a kind of Jubilee—the lost nachalah resetting, the sons who forgot their Father being placed back into the household they came from.

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The Chain That Only Flows One Direction

Romans 8:14–17 — Link by Link

For as many as are led by the Spirit of Elohim, they are the sons of Elohim. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of son-placement, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of Elohim: and if children, then heirs; heirs of Elohim, and joint-heirs with Messiah; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:14–17)

Every link in Paul’s chain tightens the argument. The Spirit confirms you are a son. Sonship makes you an heir. The inheritance comes from Yahuah (He is the source). You share it with the Messiah (He is the lead heir). And there is a timeline: suffer with him first, then be glorified together. The full inheritance is not yet.

The direction never reverses. Yahuah (source, owner, distributor) → Messiah (principal heir, firstborn, head of household) → believers (sons-by-placement, joint-heirs in the Messiah). Not once does Paul suggest that the Messiah is the source. The Father owns. The Son receives. We share in what the Son receives.

What the Messiah Inherits — And What We Share

Hebrews 1:2 says the Son was appointed heir of all things. The Greek word is ethēken, from tithēmi—to set, to place, to appoint. You appoint someone who is under your authority. That single verb separates the Father from the Son.

Here is what the principal heir receives, and what the joint-heirs share. Kingdom and reign: the Messiah is given dominion and a kingdom (Daniel 7:14). The saints receive the kingdom under the whole heaven (Daniel 7:27). Yahushua tells his disciples: “I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me” (Luke 22:29). The Father appoints to the Son. The Son appoints to the disciples. The chain flows downward. Glory: we will be “glorified together” with the Messiah (Romans 8:17). The glory was given to the Son by the Father (John 17:22). Father → Son → believers. Resurrection life: the Messiah was raised from the dead by the Father (Acts 2:24, Galatians 1:1). Believers share in that resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20–23): “Messiah the firstfruits; afterward they that are Messiah’s at his coming.” He is the bechor—the firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1:18). And this is what Colossians 1:15 means by “firstborn of all creation.” He is the first to be raised into the new creation—the beginning of everything Yahuah is making new. We follow in his path.

Deposit Now, Possession Later

The Hebrew framework has a built-in timing structure. The nachalah is assigned by the Father. The yerushah is possessed when the heir enters. Israel was told the land was theirs before they crossed the Jordan. The assignment was certain. The possession was future.

And yes—the concept of a deposit or guarantee is in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word ’eravon (עֵרָבוֹן) appears in Genesis 38:17–20 when Judah gives Tamar his seal, cord, and staff as a pledge—a guarantee that he will fulfill his promise. That Hebrew word is the direct root of the Greek arrabōn that Paul uses in Ephesians 1:13–14: “Sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the arrabōn of our inheritance.” The Spirit is the deposit, the down payment, the proof that the full inheritance is coming. The concept goes all the way back to Genesis.

So what do believers have right now? They have the Spirit as a guarantee. They have the legal status of sons. They have the placement (huiothesia). But the full possession is future. Romans 8:23 says believers are “waiting for the son-placement, the redemption of our body.” The legal standing is now. The bodily resurrection is not yet. First Corinthians 15:50 makes the timing explicit: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of Yahuah.” The physical resurrection—the transformation from mortal to immortal—is the crossing-the-Jordan moment. That is when nachalah becomes yerushah.

This timing fits what Scripture teaches about the two sides of salvation. The wine and the bread of communion picture it perfectly. The wine represents the blood—the grace of sins forgiven, the entrance into covenant, the moment you are sealed as a son and given the deposit. The bread represents the Word of Yahuah, His law, His Torah—the sustenance for the journey, the daily food that keeps you walking in the way He established. The Passover lamb’s blood marked the doorframe and saved the firstborn. But it was the unleavened bread that sustained Israel through the wilderness. One begins salvation. The other carries it to completion. The wine is the entering in. The bread is the living. The inheritance is promised at the blood. It is possessed when the journey is finished and the mortal body is raised.

The Handoff the Trinity Cannot Explain

Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to Elohim, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. (1 Corinthians 15:24–26)

And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that Elohim may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:28)

Here is the inheritance chain in its full arc. The Father grants the Son a kingdom (Psalm 2, Daniel 7, Hebrews 1:2). The Son reigns until all enemies are subdued—this is the bechor managing the household. Then the Son delivers (paradidōmi—to hand over, to entrust to another) the kingdom back to the Father. You cannot hand something to yourself. And then the Son himself becomes subject (hypotagēsetai) to the Father, “that Yahuah may be all in all.”

This is the death blow to co-equality. The Son receives the kingdom. The Son administers it. The Son hands it back. The Son becomes subject to the Father. Every step is the behavior of an heir in a Father’s household. You do not hand back what you co-own. You do not become subject to your equal.

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The Will Was Never the Son’s to Write

The biblical concept of inheritance is a household structure with two distinct roles that cannot be collapsed. Yahuah is the owner and source. He assigns the inheritance. The Messiah is the appointed heir—the bechor, the firstborn from the dead, the first of the new creation, given the kingdom, dominion, glory, and the nations by the Father’s decree. Believers are sons-by-placement (huiothesia) who share in the Messiah’s inheritance as joint-heirs (synklēronomoi). The inheritance is assigned now (sealed by the Spirit as a deposit—the same ’eravon concept from Genesis), but fully possessed at the resurrection. The Messiah reigns until all enemies are subdued, then hands the kingdom back to the Father so that Yahuah may be all in all.

The Jubilee principle guarantees it all. What belongs to the Father always returns to the Father. The sons who wandered come home. The nachalah resets. The Gentiles are grafted into Israel’s tree. The lost tribes come home through the nations. The prodigal son receives his robe and ring. The direction of the chain never reverses. Father → Son → saints. From Genesis through Revelation.

To maintain co-equal, co-eternal persons sharing one divine essence, the Trinitarian reading must assume that “appointed heir” in Hebrews 1:2 does not actually mean the Son was appointed by a higher authority, even though tithēmi means exactly that everywhere else. It must assume that “given dominion” in Daniel 7:14 does not mean the Son of Man actually received something he did not have. It must assume the Father giving the Son the nations as his nachalah in Psalm 2:8 is a relational expression between equals, despite the word carrying the same meaning it has in every tribal land allotment.

It must assume that when the Son “delivers the kingdom to the Father” in 1 Corinthians 15:24, this is voluntary deference between equals rather than an heir returning the administration to the owner. It must assume that when the Son “becomes subject to” the Father in 1 Corinthians 15:28, “subject” does not mean subject. And it must assume that “that Yahuah may be all in all” means something other than what it says: that at the end of everything, it is the Father—not a triune Godhead—who fills all things.

The inheritance chain is the skeleton of the entire biblical story. Yahuah promised Abraham a land and a seed. He distributed that land to the tribes by lot. He appointed a king as His firstborn. He sent the Messiah as the appointed heir of all things. He placed believers as sons and joint-heirs in the Messiah’s household. He sealed them with the Spirit as a deposit. He will raise them at the last day to possess the full inheritance. And then the Son will hand the kingdom back to the Father, and Yahuah will be all in all.

Every link requires a giver and a receiver. Every transfer moves in one direction. The Father owns. The Son receives. We share in what the Son received. That is not a Trinity. That is a Father and a Son.

“Hear, O Israel: Yahuah our Elohim, Yahuah is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). One Father. One inheritance. One direction.

You cannot be the estate holder and the heir, the one who appoints and the one appointed, the source of the inheritance and the one who hands it back—the inheritance chain requires two persons, and every text in Scripture puts the Father above and the Son below, receiving.