Let Us

Trinitarians . . . sometimes advance the statement in Genesis 1:26 as proof (in contradiction of the evidence of thousands of singular pronouns denoting the One God) that a plurality of persons in the Godhead was responsible for the creation. “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.’” This argument is precarious. Modern scholars no longer take the Hebrew phrase, “Let Us” or the word elohim (God) to mean a plurality of God persons as creator. It is most likely that the plural pronoun “us” contains a reference to the One God’s attendant council of angels,1 who themselves had been created in the image of God and had been witnesses to the creation of the universe (Job 38:7). It is fanciful to imagine that this verse supports the idea that God was speaking to the Son and the Holy Spirit. Where in Scripture does God ever speak to His own Spirit? The text says nothing at all about an eternal Son of God, the second member of a coequal Trinity. Moreover, the “us” of the text gives no indication of two other equal partners in the Godhead. If God is a single person, His use of the word “us” means that He is addressing someone other than Himself, i.e., other than God . ..

We must respect the fact that the Jews’ familiarity with their own language had never led them to conclude that a plurality of persons in the Godhead was remotely hinted at in this creation chapter of Genesis. In the event that we might feel the Jews missed something from their own Bible, we should note in the succeeding verses (vv. 27-31) that the singular pronoun is always used with the word God: “in His [not Their] own image, in the image of God He [not They] created them” (v. 27). One would be hard-pressed to conclude from this verse, where the personal pronoun describing God (His) is singular, that a plurality of beings was intended. Note further: “Look, I [not We] have given you every plant yielding seed . . . for food . . . and God saw all that He [not They] had made, and it was very good” (vv. 29-31).2

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Author: Anthony Buzzard

Keywords: Let us, elohim, Like one of us, In our image, After our likeness, Trinity, Tri-unity, Jesus is God, God the Son, Three in one, God in three persons, Deity of Jesus, Deity of Christ, plural pronoun, royal we, angels creation, angels participated in creation, creation of the earth, creation of the world

Bible reference(s): Genesis 1:26, Gen 3:22, Job 38:7

Source: Anthony F. Buzzard & Charles F. Hunting, The Doctrine of the Trinity (Lanham, MD: International Scholars Publications, 1998), pp. 21-23, 230.

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