(BA) Genesis 1:26, our image

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31 July 2022 Navigate 'up' to the Genesis index: index-genesis.

Although the word "God" is singular throughout Genesis 1, there is an interesting use of plurals in 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.

Why does God say let us and our image and our likeness?

Rashi's explanation, in part, is as follows: "From here we learn the humility of the Holy One, blessed be He. Since man was created in the likeness of the angels, and they would envy him, He consulted them."  (The translation is from chabad.org.)

Leaving aside the charming language about humility and envy, Rashi's core idea is reasonable: there are plenty of biblical passages which picture God as surrounding by a retinue of lesser heavenly beings, whether you call them "angels" or "sons of God" or even "gods".

Another suggestion, which strikes me as unnecessary, is that God is referring only to himself, using something like the "royal we" you might encounter with the kings of England. But as God generally refers to himself in the singular in the Bible, and as the Bible has plenty of references to divine beings other than God, as the "sons of God" in Genesis 6, so Rashi's basic approach seems to work.

On the other hand, notice how verse 27, where it is the narrative speaking, moves straight back to the singular:

And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.