Continued from Chapter 1
(Genesis 1:26, 11:7)
God said: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26) and “Come, let us go down, and there confound their language” (Genesis 11:7). Trinitarians maintain that these verses are prooftexts of an alleged triune deity, but this claim is erroneous.
1.The inference that “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” refers to a plurality in God’s essence is refuted by the subsequent verse, which relates the creation of man to a singular God, “And God created man in His image” (Genesis 1:27). In this verse, the Hebrew verb “created” appears in the singular form. If “let us make man” indicates a numerical plurality, it would be followed in the next verse by, “And they created man in their image.”
2. Although God often acts without assistance, He makes His intentions known to His servants. Thus, we find, “Shall I conceal from Abraham that which I am doing” (Genesis 18:17); “He made known His ways to Moses, His doings to the children of Israel” (Psalms 103:7); “For the Lord God will do nothing without revealing His counsel to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). Obviously, the plural form is used in the same way as in the divine appellation ’Elohim, to indicate the all-inclusiveness of God’s attributes of authority and power, the plurality of majesty. As Isaiah relates: “I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’” (Isaiah 6:8). It is customary for one in authority to speak of himself as if he were a plurality. Hence, Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give your counsel what we shall do” (2 Samuel 16:20). The context shows that he was seeking advice for himself ’ yet he refers to himself as “we.”
In the Book of Ezra we find that “Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king” (Ezra 4:8). In the king’s answer, he says, “Peace, and now the letter which you sent to us has been plainly read before me” (Ezra 4:18). There we see that although the letter is sent specifically to the king, the king’s reply speaks of “the letter which you sent to us.”
3 A misconception similar to that concerning Genesis 1:27 is held by trinitarian Christians with reference to the verse, “Come, let us go down, and there confound their language” (Genesis 11:7). Here, too, the confounding of the language is related in verse 9 to God alone, “because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth.”
In this verse, the Hebrew verb balal, “he confounded,” appears in the singular form. Also, the descent is credited in verse 5 to the Lord, alone, “And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower.” In this verse, the Hebrew verb, va-yeired, “and He came down,” appears in the singular form. If a doctrine of plurality of persons is to be based on the grammatical form of words, the frequent interchanging of the singular and the plural would vitiate such an attempt as being without merit. We may safely conclude that the Jewish Scriptures most emphatically refute every opinion, which deviates from the concept of an indivisible unity of God.
Chapter 45 of Isaiah, using, Y-H-V-H, unequivocally asserts that He alone is the creator and ruler of all things in the universe. The six uses of ’Elohim in this chapter (verses 3, 5, 14, 15, 18, 21) show that the term ’Elohim is used synonymously with Y-H-V-H, and that both epithets refer to the absolutely indivisible one-and-only God. The singularity of God, expressed in the first-person singular in verse 12, clearly shows who is meant by the phrase, “Let us create man in our image, in our likeness”: “I, even I, have made the earth, and created man upon it; I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.” The prophet states further: “Y-H-V-H, your Maker, that spread out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth” (Isaiah 51:13).
1 When the sages originally made the translation of the Torah for King Ptolemy II Philadelphus (283-245 B.C.E.) they made ten emendations to the text. Instead of “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” they emended the text to read, “I will make man in the image and the likeness” (Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 1:22).
2 Genesis 1:26-27. “And God said: ‘Let us make Adam [here Adam does not refer to a specific male being, but to humankind generally] in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion … [the human collectivity throughout history is to have ascendancy over creation].’ And God created Adam in His own image, in the image of God created He him [the first human]; male and female created He them [this refers to God’s original statement—humankind is to consist of male and female made in the image and likeness of God].” Genesis 5:1-2.
“This is the book of the generations of Adam [his descendants]. In the day that God created Adam, in the likeness of God made He him [the first human]; male and female created He them [humankind is to consist of male and female made in the image and likeness of God], and blessed them, and called their name Adam [here Adam does not refer to a specific male being, but to humankind generally], in the day when they were created [male and female were created on the same day].”
3 A midrash finds a lesson in interpersonal relations in “Let us make man in our image.” It says: “Now if a great man comes to obtain permission [for a proposed action] from one that is less than he, he may say, ‘Why should I ask permission from my inferior!’ Then they will say to him, ‘Learn from Creator, who created all that is above and below, yet when He came to create man He took counsel with the ministering angels’” (Bereshit Rabbah 8:8). According to this midrash, God addresses Himself to the angels and says to them, “Let us make man in our image.” It is not that He invites their help, but that it is the conventional manner of speech to express oneself in this way and not necessarily that God sought angelic help in the creation of man.
Continued in Chapter 3...