Were the pagans Trinitarians before the Christians were ?

It's somewhat interesting to look at pagan beliefs and to see how they are similar to the trinity.

However, if we're going to treat such an exercise as a basis of conclusion we have to have the right options on the table first.

You see JW's, pagans and others start out with the premise that if a pagan religion is discovered prior to Christianity that has three deities or something of that kind then Christianity must have copied it. That's a huge assumption based on no evidence.

What would prevent the devil from copying the reality of the Godhead he sees in heaven setting up a three deity religion before God revealed the truth of the real trinity? Nothing. Even if the trinity was seemingly an exact replica of a pagan religion (and that's a huge leap anyway) would it prove that the concept of the trinity was a copy of a pagan religion or that the devil copied reality?

It's therefore totally meaningless to study what came first.

Then there's the massive issue that if you want you can find similarities in JW and the Matrix or Mormons and Mork and Mindy or.... you get the picture?

Alexander Hislop Chapter II Section I Trinity in Unity

If there be this general coincidence between the systems of Babylon and Rome, the question arises, Does the coincidence stop here? To this the answer is, Far otherwise. We have only to bring the ancient Babylonian Mysteries to bear on the whole system of Rome, and then it will be seen how immensely the one has borrowed from the other. These Mysteries were long shrouded in darkness, but now the thick darkness begins to pass away. All who have paid the least attention to the literature of Greece, Egypt, Phoenicia, or Rome are aware of the place which the "Mysteries" occupied in these countries, and that, whatever circumstantial diversities there might be, in all essential respects these "Mysteries" in the different countries were the same. Now, as the language of Jeremiah, already quoted, would indicate that Babylon was the primal source from which all these systems of idolatry flowed, so the deductions of the most learned historians, on mere historical grounds have led to the same conclusion. From Zonaras we find that the concurrent testimony of the ancient authors he had consulted was to this effect; for, speaking of arithmetic and astronomy, he says: "It is said that these came from the Chaldees to the Egyptians, and thence to the Greeks." If the Egyptians and Greeks derived their arithmetic and astronomy from Chaldea, seeing these in Chaldea were sacred sciences, and monopolised by the priests, that is sufficient evidence that they must have derived their religion from the same quarter. Both Bunsen and Layard in their researches have come to substantially the same result. The statement of Bunsen is to the effect that the religious system of Egypt was derived from Asia, and "the primitive empire in Babel."

There were pagan trinitarians before Christianity.

No.

The Christian Trinity consists of God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. No pagans believed in that combination before Christianity emerged (obviously, since Jesus hadn't been born yet).

Granted, some pagan cultures believed that certain deities were "linked" to each other in various ways. For example, one or more deities may have been regarded as different manifestations of one and the same spiritual power. The Hindus have a concept called the "Trimurti" which is at least superficially similar to the Christian Trinity, though there's no historical connection and entirely different deities are involved:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimurti

Celts, particularly the Irish, believed in "triple deities" - a single goddess or god who could manifest in three distinct forms, depending on the individual and the circumstances. The most famous examples are the Triple Moon Goddess - whose three faces corresponded with the three phases of the Moon, symbolically represented by a maiden (waxing moon) mature mother (full moon) and old crone (waning moon).

There was also the Morrigan, Goddess of death, nightmare and madness, whose three forms each had a distinct face.

St Patrick famously plucked a shamrock to illustrate the triple nature of the Christian god: Father, son, holy spirit, three distinct personalities, but still one. I suspect he invoked the Trinity to put the Christian religion into a form Irish Celts were already familiar with as an integral part of their own religion - it made sense to them and made Ireland easier to convert.

Interestingly, religion in Arabia revolved around a Triple Moon Goddess prior to Mohammed. The Koran excoriates the Three Sisters with some venom, suggesting Mohammed was also finding it difficult to get Arabs to abandon their old religion.

yes, the trinity was taken from paganism just like most of christianity in order to convert pagans, the trinity was celebrated by pagans long before christianity even existed since paganism is the oldest religion on earth

Yes, there were many trinity Gods.

The Pagans had as much evidence for their trinities as Christians do for theirs.

The trinity doctrine is rooted in only Paganism, not Judaism. In Judaism, God is and can only ever be a singular, not a trinity. It was misinterpreted by Pagans who translated the scripture.

Not as far as appropriately-accredited scholars (historians, archaeologists, anthropologists) have been able to determine.

As far as appropriately-accredited scholars have been able to determine, the oldest known religious doctrine of trinity is the Christian doctrine of trinity. If there was an earlier religious doctrine of trinity, its existence has not yet been discovered by appropriately-accredited scholars.

P.S. Agprov gave a valid example of pre-Christian triple deities - which are definitely not the same as a trinity deity, which is why scholars use the term "triple deity" to describe them. Triple deities are found in many pre-Christian religions - and they consistently do *not* conform to the concept of a trinity deity. The earliest-known trinity deity that is not Christian is Hindu, and (if I remember correctly) the Hindu trinity concept dates to more than 100 years after the Christian doctrine of trinity was formally and officially adopted by Christian officials of the Roman Empire (which happened in the late 4th century).

Yes, here's some research I found for you -

Throughout the ancient world, as far back as Babylonia, the worship of pagan gods grouped in threes, or triads, was common. That influence was also prevalent in Egypt, Greece, and Rome in the centuries before, during, and after Christ. And after the death of the apostles, such pagan beliefs began to invade Christianity.

Historian Will Durant observed: “Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it. . . . From Egypt came the ideas of a divine trinity.” And in the book Egyptian Religion, Siegfried Morenz notes: “The trinity was a major preoccupation of Egyptian theologians . . . Three gods are combined and treated as a single being, addressed in the singular. In this way the spiritual force of Egyptian religion shows a direct link with Christian theology.”

Thus, in Alexandria, Egypt, churchmen of the late third and early fourth centuries, such as Athanasius, reflected this influence as they formulated ideas that led to the Trinity. Their own influence spread, so that Morenz considers “Alexandrian theology as the intermediary between the Egyptian religious heritage and Christianity.”

In the preface to Edward Gibbon’s History of Christianity, we read: “If Paganism was conquered by Christianity, it is equally true that Christianity was corrupted by Paganism. The pure Deism of the first Christians . . . was changed, by the Church of Rome, into the incomprehensible dogma of the trinity. Many of the pagan tenets, invented by the Egyptians and idealized by Plato, were retained as being worthy of belief.”

A Dictionary of Religious Knowledge notes that many say that the Trinity “is a corruption borrowed from the heathen religions, and ingrafted on the Christian faith.” And The Paganism in Our Christianity declares: “The origin of the [Trinity] is entirely pagan.”

That is why, in the Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, James Hastings wrote: “In Indian religion, e.g., we meet with the trinitarian group of Brahmā, Siva, and Viṣṇu; and in Egyptian religion with the trinitarian group of Osiris, Isis, and Horus . . . Nor is it only in historical religions that we find God viewed as a Trinity. One recalls in particular the Neo-Platonic view of the Supreme or Ultimate Reality,” which is “triadically represented.”

Yes,many religious leaders stretched the Bible truth to get more converts.

THE TRINITY IS NOT A NEW TEACHING

In ancient times, gods were worshipped in trinities, that is, in groups of three gods. For example, one of the trinities that the Babylonians worshipped was a moon-god, a sun-god, and a goddess of fertility and war. The Egyptians worshipped families of three gods, with a father, a mother, and a son. Although these gods were a trinity, they were not always viewed as equals. One Egyptian trinity was the god Osiris, the goddess Isis, and their son Horus.

Today, Christendom also teaches that there is a Trinity, or one God made up of the Father, the Son, and the holy spirit. But this belief makes it seem that Jehovah is not almighty. It would mean that he is only part of God. Jehovah’s people have been protected from this false teaching. We have learned that “Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.” (Deuteronomy 6:4) Jesus repeated these words, and true Christians believe what Jesus said.—Mark 12:29.

Jesus told his followers to “make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) This means that a person who wants to be baptized as a true Christian and one of Jehovah’s Witnesses must believe that the Father, Jehovah, has authority over Jesus and that Jesus is God’s Son, who came to earth as a ransom. The person must not believe that the holy spirit is part of a Trinity. Instead, it is God’s active force. (Genesis 1:2) It is part of our special heritage to know that the Trinity teaching dishonors God and is not true.