Who is the 'us' in Genesis?

Question

Let us create man in our likeness
Where is the scripture that tells who they are.

Answer 1

The gods who were afraid of man taking over after humans gained knowledge of good and evil. These gods believed if humans also ate of the Tree of Life, humans would be immortal and be a threat to them. That is exactly the truth the Serpent told them, and that is exactly why the gods put Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. This is all from a literal interpretation of Genesis.

The story of the Tower of Babylon also suggests more than one god, but this time they are afraid humans will see they can do anything and be a challenge if they complete the tower, so the gods destroy it and confuse mankind's language to keep them from working together cooperatively.

Answer 2

It refers to what was believed to be a divine court composed of different ranks of heavenly beings. The Genesis account comes from The Gilgamesh Epic and similar earlier explanations of life. These truth making myths are found primarily around Ur where Abraham grew up. Within that cultural framework, God had a host of additional assistants such as the cherub for the gate of Eden, the Accuser aka satan, and so forth. Another attractive possibility is the Holy Spirit aka Wisdom as found in the first 7 chapters of Proverbs.
Beyond that, we have not yet been told.
Now-textually. The word "us/we" is plural. The next verse, however, returns to the singular. The Hebrew word for God used here is Elohim, plural. It is possible that God used what we call the "royal plural" to speak of himself.

Answer 3

I'm no religious scholar, but I am a Christian, and here's what I have:

Although the God of Abraham is a single being, He is often portrayed in the Christian religion as a Trinity, with God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the holy Spirit. In the beginning of the book of John in the new testament, the Bible says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God." Some say that the "Word" in this case refers to the holy Spirit, which God sent to be with man after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.

I know very little of Greek (the original language of the Old Testament), but I know that some words are hard to translate into English, especially pronouns and other words that deal with gender and/or number.

I have also heard talk (though not in church) of a group of beings called the Nephilim, which are supposed to be god-like beings, angels, or descendants of God. You might want to look at the Wikipedia article on them.

Genesis is a confusing book for even those well-versed in the Bible. This is one of the most insightful questions I've seen on this section of Yahoo! Answers, though you might pose it on the Religion section if you haven't already.

Answer 4

"Us" is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God who is all three of them is the Creator. If you read John 1:1 - 2, which reads, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning". Who was with God in the beginning? God the Son.

Let me explain verse one, In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God and Jesus was God.

Take note of how "word" is written, with a capital W.
But read John 1:14 reads, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and Truth".
Sorry I cannot remember the exact chapter but Jesus mentions that after He's gone He will send us the Comforter, the one who helps us pray and that Comforter is God the Holy Spirit. If you read thru out the Bible it also talks of the the Holy Fire and that fire is the Holy Spirit. God is a Trinity.

When the Bible says "us" it does not mean one God and the angels because the angels were created just like we were. I hope you understand.

Answer 5

Jehovah is referring to himself and his "master worker," Jesus Christ. See Prov. 8:29 Trinitarians read something into this verse that is not there. They believe that "us" is referring to 3 persons. Is that what the verse says or even implies? Without a qualifier, "us" could be any number of people. It could be 2 or 22 or 222.

Answer 6

This verse is talking about the Divine Trinity.

Genesis 1:26
And God said, Let US make man in our image, after our likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

But "us" is just one thing... God

Genesis 1:27
So God created man in HIS own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Answer 7

The extraterrestrials who seeded the planet with life. They were called the Elohim, and their leader, Jehovah, ruled over the planet with an iron fist, demanding that he be worshipped as a god.

These stories later got mixed up with the spiritual philosophies of a wandering hippie named Jesus, causing a lot of people to think the Old Testament and the New Testament are actually referring to the same deity.

Answer 8

Please do not be entangled in the semantics. There is a popular saying "Lost in Translation". The first major attempt to completely translate the Bible into English is commonly attributed to King James (henceforth, the King James Bible).

I am in no way trying to insult your intelligence, but "us" is the objective form of "we". In British literature and correspondence, this usage is referred to as the royal we (you'll find it all the time in Shakespeare as well as speeches given by British monarchs). The reference is actually singular. So us is really referring to its singular objective counterpart, me. So the "me" in Genesis is God himself...."Let me create man in my likeness". Hope that clears it up.


N.B. --- Okay, I just read your answers to questions posed by others. Since you are feigning sincerity, I hope my answer will genuinely help someone who really wants some clarification on this matter.

Answer 9

I've heard it was like Angels or Heavenly Hosts, but to tell you the truth, I'm a Christian and study different verses in the Bible everyday and I really don't know for positive what that phrase means. There is a lot of wording like that all through the Bible, nobody can say for sure what it means because they didn't write the Bible or translate it, guess we won't find out till we die.

Answer 10

'Us' is the Elohim, a collective reference for the pantheon of ancient Hebrew deities. You have to remember the ancient Hebrews were polytheistic. They did worship more then one God (YHVH) in the beginning, later their cultural beliefs changed and they became monotheists.