And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:?

Question

When god says "us" and "our" who is he talking about?

Answer 1

The Trinity (God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are the "us" and the "our".

Answer 2

Image can mean either an actual physical likeness or model, or a thought process in which something is seen in the mind, or imagined. One is entirely physical, while the other is purely psychological, although there can also be a combination of both e.g. your image in a mirror exists only in your mind (mirrors only "turn on" when there are eyes to receive the reflections that they produce), while at the same time you physically exist. Depending on where in The Bible you encounter it, the term "image of God" is also used in two different ways, not just physical and psychological, but physical and spiritual, and also sometimes in combination.
The Image Of God

God is Spirit (i.e. Genesis 1:2, John 4:24), however whenever He appeared to humans He did so in human form (e.g. Genesis 3:8, Exodus 24:10-11), not because He looks like a human, but because humans were created as an image of Him.

The passage you are talking about is,

26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (NASB) Genesis 1:26

"Us." The words "us" and "our" in this conversation are plural in verse 26. Then in verse 27, the words "in His own image" (BESALMO) and "in the image of " (BESELEM) are all singular. How can we explain a plural conversation and a singular God? The answer to this question is that the Trinity is talking. It is common in scripture to find a conversation within the Trinity (Ps. 2:7; Ps. 45:7; Ps. 110:1; Isa. 48:16; Matt. 11:27; John 8:42; and John 17:24).

God desired that man would be like Him. And so He gave us will, emotion, intelligence and moral character. We were made for His glory (Isa. 43:7).

It is also interesting to note that "Elohim," one of the primary titles of God in the Old Testament (occurring over 2500 times), is in the plural.

Scriptures that tell us that God is one and that there is only one God. A second possible explanation is that God was referring to the angels by saying "us" and "our." We do not believe this is correct as the Bible nowhere states that angels have the same "image" or "likeness" as God (see Genesis 1:26). That description is given to humanity alone.



Since the Bible, and the New Testament especially, presents God as a Trinity (three Persons but only one God), Genesis 1:26 and 3:22 likely represent a conversation within the Trinity. God the Father is having a "conversation" with God the Son and/or God the Holy Spirit.


"Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? Ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? Yea, there is no God; I know not any" Isaiah 44:8).

Answer 3

The Trinity of God in His three forms, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Answer 4

Jesus was with God and also the angels were there, that is where the us and our image comes from. God is not talking about our physical body but our spirit (soul if you will).

Answer 5

Genesis 1:26
Click here:
http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/versions.pl?book=Gen&chapter=1&verse=26&version=KJV#26

Click on the box marked "C" - Concordance
The first two words "And God" is Strong's Reference 0430
Click on the "0430"

- "Elohiym" all with plural or plural intensive definitions.


Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Three in one.
The Trinity.

Answer 6

Christians believe in three Gods: the father, the son, and the holy spirit.

Answer 7

The trinity: the father, the son, the HOly Spirit.

Answer 8

The Trinity.

Answer 9

He is talking to his first creations, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Angels.

Answer 10

Language has its imprecise moments, particularly when translated, and especially when translated long, long after the writing and its context are past.

First, figure the history. Abraham came from Mesopotamia, by way of what would later be part of Assyria, and settled in a land commonly called Canaan. The language of his descendents, as are most languages even today (English is an excellent example of borrowing far and wide for its words and phrases), was a mix of assumed things. Over time the dialect became distinct and the nation that grew first from Abraham, then Isaac, and then Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel) then had a pretty standardized and fairly uniform language in its own right. This was the language that Moses wrote in. As Moses told the story of creation, Hebrew was the language he used. In Hebrew there is a common name for God--El. But El was also just one of several gods in the pantheon of Canaan, yet, to some, he was the top deity. Mohammad did something similar a couple millennia later, there were numerous gods in his community but Allah was the one he tagged as top. Even today, in Islamic areas, Allah is not only THE deity, but a generalized term for THE deity just as El was borrowed by Israel. El, however, was a singular personage. The Hebrew word here is Elohim, which is plural.

When you construct a sentence, particularly the more rigid classical languages, there is agreement in number for nouns, verbs, and pronouns. The "us" and "our" are appropriate for a plural noun--Elohim, but there is more to the story. Moses introduces us to Yahweh, 'He who is", the singular personage of Hebrew deity. From the German schools, their transliteration scale is a tad bit different, so the same four consonants are also transliterated JHVH, where we get Jehovah. Same word, just translation from a different context.

Moses also made something clear. The people of Israel are not polytheistic--they do not serve multiple gods. Just as Moslems have their basic creedal statement, "Allah is great, and Mohammed is his prophet", Israel has one too:

Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord:
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

"Hear" this, get it into your heads, the words are saying something. "Yahweh, our God, Yahweh is one" or "He who is, our deity, He who is, is united". Every Jew, and more than a few though definitely not all Christians, know that they do NOT serve several gods. There may be a paradox or mystery of the language in places, but this is crystal clear--ONE God.

As for the multiplicity of personages that make up that union, we see an expression of the Holy Spirit first (Genesis 1:2), the ruwach elohim, wind or spirit of God. Abraham spoke to who at first was but a man visiting in the company of two other men, but as the story proceeds, the two others were angels with business to destroy the city of Sodom, while the main man was addressed by Abraham as God (Genesis 18, particularly vs 27, 30)--here we introduce still another word, Adonoy or Adonai. This is "lord" and is used as a polite way of addressing the name of God without saying the name of God. The respectful coutesy was not to use the name of someone important casually and this was the polite and proper expression. The people of Israel would use that rather than inappropriately speak the name of God in their language.

Moses was the next to have such a very full experience and understanding of God as God revealed himself in direct fashion, other important but smaller moments between to be sure. In Numbers 11, Yahweh told Moses to assemble and prepare 70 "elders" of Israel and the ruwach (wind or spirit) that was on Moses would be put on those men too. It gets complicated but the account shows God at work in and through others by way of this wind or spirit.

In the New Testament we see these things at work as well. Jesus refers to His Father and to the Holy Spirit. In John 14 Jesus says "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father" (v. 9) and then speaks of the Holy Spirit by saying in verse 26, "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things," which purposely gives masculine (he) not femine (she) or neuter (it) personal pronouns. The Holy Spirit is a he, the Holy Spirit is a personage of his own, but works in conjunction with the Father to promote the actions of the Son.

Some people are really flippant and dismissive, but this is an intricate, even elegant, story. Go to the sciences and see if they are as simplistic as we would like--the story of God is not simple fairy tales. But even though there are multiple personages in the accounts, they work in unison--"He is one."