Genesis 1:26, who was God talking to?
According to the Genesis 1 account, there are both singular and plural expressions used by Moses in relation to God. The Hebrew word for God is Elohim, the plural form of Eloha. In 1:26 we read: “then God [singular] said, let us [plural] make man in our [plural] image, according to our [plural] likeness.” This expresses a plurality in the Godhead.
The same expressions are used in Genesis 3: 22 And the LORD God , [singular] said “The man has now become like one of us [plural], knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
The same situation is found in the account of the Tower of Babel: Genesis 11: 6 The LORD [singular] said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
7 Come, let us [plural] go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
There is one other text that expresses this singular/plural concept which is found outside of Genesis, is in Isaiah 6:8
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord [singular] saying, “Whom shall I [singular] send? And who will go for us [plural]?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
So here we see that Isaiah uses the same concept as Moses did in Genesis, that God is one, yet the Godhead has plurality of beings.
One of the problems that we face is in the Western thought, that when speaking about God the“ Father” and Jesus “Son” (John 10:30), “I and my Father are one”, carries the ideas of origin, dependence, and subordination. Not so in the Semetic or Oriental mind, they emphasise sameness of nature. So when it speaks of The Son of God, it asserts his divinity.
This is why the Jews on more than one occasion tried to stone Jesus when He claimed to be God’s Son. One of the classic texts which expresses the Semetic thought is in John 10: 33 “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
And another verse: John 5: 18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal (in nature) with God.
So who was God speaking to in Genesis 1:26? It was to the other members of the Godhead.
I pray that this may shed some light on your question. Jesus is Lord. Gazzamor
