Genesis 1:26

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Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’” Genesis 3:22 states, “And the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us…’”

What is the traditional interpretation of God referring to Himself as us and our? Is it Trinitarian in nature and if so, how did the Jews interpret the use of us and our in the context of this verse?

Thank you to anyone who can shine some light on this!
Greg
 
gregw74 said:
Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’” Genesis 3:22 states, “And the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us…’”

What is the traditional interpretation of God referring to Himself as us and our? Is it Trinitarian in nature and if so, how did the Jews interpret the use of us and our in the context of this verse?

Thank you to anyone who can shine some light on this!
Greg
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from the Haydock Bible Commentary

Ver. 26. Let us make man to our image. This image of God in man, is not in the body, but in the soul; which is a spiritual substance, endued with understanding and free-will. God speaketh here in the plural number, to insinuate the plurality of persons in the Deity. (Challoner) — Some of the ancient Jews maintained that God here addressed his council, the Angels; but is it probable that he should communicate to them the title of Creator, and a perfect similitude with himself? (Calmet) — Man is possessed of many prerogatives above all other creatures of this visible world: his soul gives him a sort of equality with the Angels; and though his body be taken from the earth, like the brutes, yet even here the beautiful construction, the head erect and looking towards heaven, &c. makes St. Augustine observe, an air of majesty in the human body, which raises man above all terrestrial animals, and brings him in some measure near to the Divinity. As Jesus assumed our human nature, we may assert, that we bear a resemblance to God both in soul and body. Tertullian (de Resur. 5.) says, “Thus that slime, putting on already the image of Christ, who would come in the flesh, was not only the work of God, but also a pledge.” (Haydock) See St. Bernard on Psalm xcix. (Worthington)
 
gregw74 said:
Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’” Genesis 3:22 states, “And the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us…’”

What is the traditional interpretation of God referring to Himself as us and our? Is it Trinitarian in nature and if so, how did the Jews interpret the use of us and our in the context of this verse?

Thank you to anyone who can shine some light on this!
Greg
Click to expand...
Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”

Before the foundations of the earth, there was the Lamb which was slaughtered, and resurected. This was Christ, this was when He became the BEGOTTEN son. As He had to die first in order to become begotten. When the LORD is speaking in plural in this verse, He is not conversing with the angels, or with the powers and principalities, as these were all CREATIONS of the One Living God.

The only being to create, would be God. The only being God created in His likeness was Man, not angeles, not powers and principalities, but man. The Us, and the Our in the verse would be the trinitary form of God’s being. All three are distinct, yet all three are still God. God is refering to the Us and Our as God the Father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit. Even before we knew the complete power of God, it still would not change the fact that God is from everlasting to everlasting. The three personalities of God are already established. And sense man is made in Gods likeness, He would be refereing to only Him as the creator. God is three distinct singular entities. So the Us, and Our, is referencing Himself.
 
Greg,
Is it a Trinitarian sneak peak?
Is it a polytheistic residue?
No. The answer is grammatical.

Rabbi and biblical scholar Umberto Cassuto claimed this to be a case of the plural of exhortation. He states when a person exhorts himself to do a given task he uses the plural: ‘Let us go!’ "Let us rise up!’ ‘Let us sit!’ and the like. This can be seen in 2Sam24.14: ‘Let us fall [nippela] into the hand of the Lord . . . but into the hand of man not let me fall [eppola]’; at the end of the verse, since a negation is expressed, the self-exhortation no longer obtains, and consequently the singular form appears again.

Contextually this fits because only here in the creation narrative with the creation of man are we given the Divine thought that occurs before the creative act. This is a remarkably unique and singularly intimate moment within the entire creation narrative - the very thought of God!

Also, the verse literally begins with: "And *he *said God, “Let us…” ‘he’ is singular. The Hebrew verb for *‘said’ *is masculine singular. English translations ignore conjugation and simple write ‘God said…’.

The paramount distinguishing feature of the Hebrew religion in the face of the polytheistic ancient near east civilizations was that it was unabashedly monotheistic. With this in mind it is hard to believe any reference, even a subtle one, to ‘many God’s’ would have been casually allowed to stand. God is One. This is why Cassuto’s explanation suit me best.

Hope this helped.

PeterK
 
BibleAnswer said:
Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”

Before the foundations of the earth, there was the Lamb which was slaughtered, and resurected. This was Christ, this was when He became the BEGOTTEN son. As He had to die first in order to become begotten. When the LORD is speaking in plural in this verse, He is not conversing with the angels, or with the powers and principalities, as these were all CREATIONS of the One Living God.

The only being to create, would be God. The only being God created in His likeness was Man, not angeles, not powers and principalities, but man. The Us, and the Our in the verse would be the trinitary form of God’s being. All three are distinct, yet all three are still God. God is refering to the Us and Our as God the Father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit. Even before we knew the complete power of God, it still would not change the fact that God is from everlasting to everlasting. The three personalities of God are already established. And sense man is made in Gods likeness, He would be refereing to only Him as the creator. God is three distinct singular entities. So the Us, and Our, is referencing Himself.
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Christ was the sacrifice to redeem mankind after Adam and Eve’s sin. He was sacrificed on the cross 2000 years ago and rose from the dead 3 days afterward

Christ never BECAME begotten sometime in the beginning, he is ETERNALLY begotten

St. Thomas Aquinas described it this way: think of the Father as fire and the Son as light. The fire produces the light, yet one does not exist without the other.
 
To us as Trinitarians, it confirms what we already believe. It is impossible for us to remove the Revelation of the Logos from the Revelation of the written Word, but it was also impossible for those who came before to understand as though they had it. (Jesus on the road to Emmaus explicated the Scriptures to the disciples.) This doesn’t mean the written word was meaningless until the Incarnation - it was still God’s communication with His people. It was the Royal “we” or it was God’s discourse with the Angelic host. . . we are too simplistic and reductionist when we feel as if somehow the written word is static and can have only one “real” meaning. The Word is alive and active . . . Hebrews 4:12
 
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