(August 12, 2025 at 12:27 pm)GrandizerII Wrote: Genesis 1
Genesis 1:26 Wrote:Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
As you can see in the above verse, the plural pronoun "us" is used as the model that human beings are based on. Christians then latch on to this to argue that it is referring to the Trinity. But as always, that interpretation is forced, especially since the Old Testament doesn't outright state (or even imply) that God is a trinity.
What we do see in various passages in the OT are mentions of "sons of God". Not just in Genesis but elsewhere, such as in Psalms and Job. These are the ones God is very likely speaking to in Genesis 1:26.
Of course, Christian apologists are a clever bunch and have some stock responses to this latter interpretation. So one point to keep in mind:
Genesis 1 is not about the creation of the heavenly beings but the creation of the heavens (skies) and earth (land) and everything in them (and in the waters), so Christians who argue it doesn't make sense that God would speak to his creation about creation misunderstand the point of Genesis 1.
Now if any Christian is reading this and would like to share one or more counters to this, I'm all ears.
Apparently it's a special case in the Hebrew.
The word Elohim there (אֱלֹהִים) when used for the God of the Jews, is a plural word that takes a singular verb and adjective. There are various theories as to how the grammar evolved.
When used for other people's gods (e.g. the Egyptian gods in Exodus) the same word is used with plural verbs and adjectives.
No doubt the translators of the King James Bible and others were comfortable with the "royal we," so they wouldn't necessarily interpret this word to refer to multiple gods.
