Welcome to AF, Ketzer. Nice starting thread.
I don't think Bel's "royal we" idea holds up. The Hebrew word used in Genesis 1:1, ’elohîm, is plural. Here is a link to a 7th day Adventist site explaining the noun ’eloah, but I'm not drawing from this site for my information. I've heard a Jewish analysis of the text point out the same thing.
https://www.adventistworld.org/is-it-tru...is-plural/
The standard explanation for the many gods thing from Christians is the Trinity. This really doesn't gel with the rest of their theology, although I'm sure they can't help but be giddy at their beloved Trinity being spoken of all the way back in Gen 1:1.
A better explanation for all of OP's concerns is that Genesis and other texts were compiled from a bunch of different manuscripts... some of this compilation of texts happened as late as 200 BC. Lot's of scholarly work suggests that early Judaism might have had a pantheon of different gods where, historically, one became the favorite over time. Also, the two different tellings of creation of humans can be explained by multiple manuscripts.
Plenty of good theories. Too many to detail here. All of them dispute inerrancy.
I don't think Bel's "royal we" idea holds up. The Hebrew word used in Genesis 1:1, ’elohîm, is plural. Here is a link to a 7th day Adventist site explaining the noun ’eloah, but I'm not drawing from this site for my information. I've heard a Jewish analysis of the text point out the same thing.
https://www.adventistworld.org/is-it-tru...is-plural/
The standard explanation for the many gods thing from Christians is the Trinity. This really doesn't gel with the rest of their theology, although I'm sure they can't help but be giddy at their beloved Trinity being spoken of all the way back in Gen 1:1.
A better explanation for all of OP's concerns is that Genesis and other texts were compiled from a bunch of different manuscripts... some of this compilation of texts happened as late as 200 BC. Lot's of scholarly work suggests that early Judaism might have had a pantheon of different gods where, historically, one became the favorite over time. Also, the two different tellings of creation of humans can be explained by multiple manuscripts.
Plenty of good theories. Too many to detail here. All of them dispute inerrancy.
