The Holy Scriptures bear witness that the God who created mankind in his image and likeness is in some sense a plural Creator-Maker:

“Then God said, ‘Let US make man in OUR image, according to OUR likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in HIS OWN image; in the image of God HE created him; male and female HE created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” Genesis 1:26-28 New King James Version (NKJV)

NO SPIRIT CREATURE WAS INVOLVED

The sacred writings emphatically affirm that no spirit creature was consulted or employed in producing or fashioning any part of the creation. The Holy Bible expressly attests that God alone created all things:  

“Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, And taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding?” Isaiah 40:13-14 NKJV

“God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered? He removes the mountains, and they do not know When He overturns them in His anger; He shakes the earth out of its place, And its pillars tremble; He commands the sun, and it does not rise; He seals off the stars; He ALONE spreads out the heavens, And treads on the waves of the sea; He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, And the chambers of the south; He does great things past finding out, Yes, wonders without number.” Job 9:4-10 NKJV

“Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: ‘I am the LORD, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens ALL ALONE, Who spreads abroad the earth BY MYSELF;’” Isaiah 44:24 NKJV

The angelic host were merely passive observers who rejoiced when they beheld God creating the earth all by himself:

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, WHEN the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Job 38:4-7 NKJV

This is why mankind is said to be created God’s own the image, and after his own likeness,

“This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that GOD created man, HE made him in the likeness of God. HE created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.” Genesis 5:1-2 NKJV

Since God alone fashioned the male from the dust of the ground, and then produced the female from the side of the male whom he animated by breathing the breath of life into his nostrils:

“This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed… Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’ And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.’… And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.’” Genesis 2:4-7, 15-18, 21-23 NKJV

A CASE OF THE PLURAL OF MAJESTY?

A further attempt of getting around the implications of God’s use of the plural, is to appeal to a linguistic feature known as the plural of majesty/royal plural/majestic plural, typically known as a nosism. The majestic plural is employed by monarchs or those in positions of sovereignty. And seeing that God is the ultimate Sovereign he therefore has every right to refer to himself in the plural.

The late reformed apologist and author Dr. Robert A. Morey explained why the appeal to the plural of majesty simply doesn’t work:  

Fourth, some anti-Trinitarians have attempted to dismiss the passage as an example of the plural of majesty (pluralis majestaticus), much like Queen Victoria of England who is reported to have said, “We are not amused.”

The only problem with this argument is that there was no plural of majesty in the Hebrew language during biblical times. Rabbi Tzvi Nassi, a lecturer in Hebrew at Oxford University, explains:

Every one who is acquainted with the rudiments of the Hebrew and Chaldee languages, must know that God, in the holy Writings, very often spoke of Himself in the plural. The passages are numerous, in which, instead of a grammatical agreement between the subject and predicate, we meet with a construction, which some modern grammarians, who possess more of the so-called philosophical than of the real knowledge of the Oriental languages, call a pluralis excellentiae. This helps them out of every apparent difficulty. Such a pluralis excellentiae was, however, a thing unknown to Moses and the prophets. Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, David, and all the other kings, throughout TaNaKh (the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa) speak in the singular, and not as modern kings in the plural. They do not say we, but I, command; as in Gen. xli. 41; Dan. iii. 29; Ezra i. 2, etc.⁵ (Trinity: Evidence and Issues [Word Publishing; Grand Rapids, MI 1996], pp. 94-95; bold emphasis mine)

5. Tzvi Nassi, The Great Mystery (Jerusalem: Yanetz, 1970), 6. (Ibid., p. 104)

Morey wasn’t the only one to debunk this unitarian appeal to the plural of majesty.

Classical and Biblical scholar Professor Tayler Lewis wrote this in relation to the plural of majesty:

“Of all these views the pluralis majestaticus has the least support. It is foreign to the usus loquendi of the earliest language; it is degrading instead of honoring to Deity, and Aben Ezra shows that the few seeming examples brought from the Hebrew Scriptures, such as Num. xxii. 6; Dan. ii. 36, do not bear it out – the latter, moreover, being an Aramaic mode of speech. If we depart at all from the patristic view of an allusion to a plurality of idea in the Deity [i.e. the Trinity], the next best is that of Maimonides…” (John Peter Lange, Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal and Homiletical, translated from the German and edited, with additions, by Philip Schaff [Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI], Volume I. Genesis, p. 173; bold emphasis mine)

Emil Rödiger, a professor of oriental languages at the University of Halle and the student of the well-known German Orientalist and Biblical Critic, H. F. W. Gesenius, stated:

“Jewish grammarians call such plurals… plur. virium or virtutum; later grammarians call them plur. excellentiae, magnitudinis, or plur. maiestaticus. This last name may have been suggested by the “we” used by kings when speaking of themselves (cf. already I Macc. 10:19, 11:31); and the plural used by God in Genesis 1:26, and 11:7, Isaiah 6:8 has been incorrectly explained in this way. It is, however, either communicative… or according to others, an indication of the fullness of power and might… but it is best explained as a plural of self-deliberation. The use of the plural as a form of respectful address is quite foreign to Hebrew.” (Hebrew Grammar, eds. E. Kautzsch and A. E. Cowley, p. 418; bold emphasis mine)

Renowned Old Testament scholar and professor at the University of Heidelberg (ca. 1958-1978), Claus Westermann claimed:

“The plural of majesty does not occur in Hebrew… so this older explanation has been completely abandoned today…” (Genesis 1-11: A Commentary [Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1994], p. 145; bold emphasis mine)

Gerhard F. Hasel, professor of the Old Testament at Andrews University, is another reputable author that agrees:

“…there are no certain examples of plurals of majesty with either verbs or pronouns… the verb used in Gn 1:26 (‘āśāh) is never used with a plural of majesty. There is no linguistic or grammatical basis upon which the ‘us’ can be considered to be a plural of majesty.” (“The Meaning of ‘Let Us’ in Gn 1:26” [Andrews University Seminary Studies 13, 1975], pp. 63-64; bold emphasis mine)

Another problem with classifying these plurals as a nosism is that monarchs/kings/sovereigns do not speak only for themselves. Rather, they are speaking on behalf of the members of their court/government and/or people whom they represent. Therefore, a nosism actually confirms that the person employing the plural is referred to or addressing to others with whom he deliberates and/or represents.

THE TRIUNE CREATOR AND SUSTAINER

The inspired Scriptures testify that the one true God who created all things is not a singular Person, but a multi-Personal Being since it attributes the work of creation to more than one divine Person.

The Holy Spirit as Creator

For instance, according to God’s Word the Spirit of God was hovering over the earth in its prebiotic state, obviously for the purpose of animating it in order to make it a habitable place for life to flourish and exist:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Genesis 1:1-2 NKJV

God’s Spirit is also said to have made man and fashioned the heavens along with all their constellations:

“The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” Job 33:4 NKJV

“By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.” Job 26:13 NKJV

“You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth.” Psalm 104:29-30 NKJV

The Word of God as Creator

Not only did God use his Spirit to create all things he also employed his eternal Word:

“By the word of Yahweh, the heavens were made, and, by the spirit of his mouth, all their host:” Psalm 33:6 Joseph Bryant Rotherham Translation

According to the Christian Scriptures, this all-powerful creative Word took on human flesh and became the Man Christ Jesus. This explains why these inspired writings affirm that Jesus is the One who in his prehuman existence created and gives life to all creation:  

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men… He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-4, 10, 14 NKJV

“yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.” 1 Corinthians 8:6 NKJV

“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and FOR HIM. And He IS before all things, and IN HIM all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” Colossians 1:13-18 NKJV

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high… But to the Son He says: ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.’… And: ‘You, Lord [the Son], IN THE BEGINNING laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of YOUR hands. They will perish, but You remain; And they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will fold them up, And they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not fail.’” Hebrews 1:1-3, 8, 10-12 NKJV

Hence, the God who brought the entire creation into being from nothing, the God who made humanity in his very own image, is the Triune God of Father, Son/Word and Holy Spirit. As such, the plural of Genesis 1:26 is an obvious reference to the Triune God deliberating with himself in expressing his desire to create mankind in the image of the Trinity.

OTHER CASES OF DIVINE PLURALS

The following is another example of Jehovah referring to himself in the plural:

“Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.Then they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’ But the Lord CAME DOWN to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.COME, LET US GO DOWN (neradah) and there CONFUSE (wa’nabalah) their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” Genesis 11:1-9 NKJV

The words employed by Jehovah, neradah and nabalah,are first person plural verbs.

It is clearthatthe terms “come, let us male/build” are meant to highlight the fact that the nations which settled in Shinar consisted of a multiplicity of distinct individuals. It is equally clear that Jehovah’s employment of plural verbs is intended to mimic the speech of these people who refused to spread throughout the earth.  

This means that the plural is intended to show that Jehovah also exists as a multiplicity of divine Persons who work together as a perfect unity. It cannot be Jehovah speaking to the angelic host since the context makes it clear that Jehovah came down all alone, by himself.  

And here’s the other case of a plural usage that is rather remarkable:

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!’ And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For MY EYES HAVE SEEN the King, The Lord of hosts.’ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.’ Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I SEND, And who will go FOR US?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.’ And He said, ‘Go, and tell this people: “Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.” Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.’” Isaiah 6:1-10 NKJV

The prophet not only physically beheld Jehovah in visible form, he even heard the Voice of Jehovah employing the plural preposition lanu (“for Us”) in commissioning him to be his envoy.

There can be no doubt that the plural here is also intended to demonstrate a plurality within the Godhead since elsewhere Isaiah mentions Jehovah sending forth his inspired agents with the Holy Spirit:

“Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.” Isaiah 42:1 NKJV

“Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit Have sent Me.” Isaiah 48:16 NKJV

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;” Isaiah 61:1 NKJV

Moreover, the NT writers claim that it was the preincarnate Son and the Holy Spirit whom Isaiah saw and heard from:

“Jesus had done many miraculous signs before the people, but they didn’t believe in him. This was to fulfill the word of the prophet Isaiah: Lord, who has believed through our message? To whom is the arm of the Lord fully revealed? Isaiah explains why they couldn’t believe: He made their eyes blind and closed their minds so that they might not see with their eyes, understand with their minds, and turn their lives around—and I would heal them. Isaiah said these things because he saw Jesus’ glory; he spoke about Jesus. Even so, many leaders believed in him, but they wouldn’t acknowledge their faith because they feared that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue.” John 12:37-42 Common English Bible (CEB)

“So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word: ‘The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, “Go to this people and say: ‘Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; And seeing you will see, and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’”’” Acts 28:25-27 NKJV

CASES WHERE THE SINGULAR ENCOMPASSES PLURALITY

In the following examples, singular pronouns, verbs, participles etc., are employed in reference to whole nations such as Israel and Babylon, whom no one would argue are made up of a single individual. I will highlight all the cases of the singulars within these texts by placing them in bold, capital letters:

“But THOU, Israel, art my servant, Jacob WHOM I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. THOU WHOM I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called THEE from the chief men thereof, and said unto THEE, THOU art my servant; I have chosen THEE, and not cast THEE away. Fear THOU not; for I am with THEE: be not dismayed; for I am THY God: I will strengthen THEE; yea, I will help THEE; yea, I will uphold THEE with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed against THEE shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with THEE shall perish. THOU shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with THEE: they that war against THEE shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. For I the Lord THY God will hold THY right hand, saying unto THEE, Fear not; I will help THEE. Fear not, THOU worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help THEE, saith the Lord, and THY redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make THEE a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: THOU shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. THOU shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and THOU shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 41:8-16 Authorized King James Version (AV)

“But now thus saith the Lord that created THEE, O Jacob, and he that formed THEE, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed THEE, I have called THEE by THY name; THOU art mine. When THOU passest through the waters, I will be with THEE; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow THEE: when THOU walkest through the fire, THOU shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon THEE. For I am the Lord THY God, the Holy One of Israel, THY Saviour: I gave Egypt for THY ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for THEE. Since THOU wast precious in my sight, THOU hast been honourable, and I have loved THEE: therefore will I give men for THEE, and people for THY life. Fear not: for I am with THEE: I will bring THY seed from the east, and gather THEE from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name: for I have created HIM for my glory, I have formed HIM; yea, I have made HIM… But THOU hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but THOU hast been weary of me, O Israel. THOU hast not brought me the small cattle of THY burnt offerings; neither hast THOU honoured me with THY sacrifices. I have not caused THEE to serve with an offering, nor wearied THEE with incense. THOU hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast THOU filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but THOU hast made me to serve with THY sins, THOU hast wearied me with THINE iniquities. I, even I, am he that blotteth out THY transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember THYsins. Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare THOU, that THOU mayest be justified. THY first father hath sinned, and THY teachers have transgressed against me. Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.” Isaiah 43:1-7, 22-28 AV

“Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen: thus saith the Lord that made THEE, and formed THEE from the womb, which will help THEE; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and THOU, Jesurun, WHOM I have chosen… Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for THOU art my servant: I have formed THEE; THOU art my servant: O Israel, THOU shalt not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, THY transgressions, and, as a cloud, THY sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed THEE.” Isaiah 44:1-2, 21-22 AV

“Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for THOU shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover THY locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. THY nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, THY shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet THEE as a man. As for our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for THOU shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms. I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into THINE hand: THOU didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid THY yoke. And THOU saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that THOU didst not lay these things to THY heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it. Therefore hear now this, THOU that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in THINE heart, I am, and none else beside ME; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children: but these two things shall come to THEE in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon THEE in their perfection for the multitude of THY sorceries, and for the great abundance of THINE enchantments. For THOU hast trusted in THY wickedness: THOU hast said, None seeth me. THY wisdom and THY knowledge, it hath perverted THEE; and THOU hast said in THINE heart, I am, and none else beside me. Therefore shall evil come upon THEE; THOU shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon THEE; THOU shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon THEE suddenly, which THOU shalt not know. Stand now with THINE enchantments, and with the multitude of THY sorceries, wherein THOU hast laboured from THY youth; if so be THOU shalt be able to profit, if so be THOU mayest prevail. THOU art wearied in the multitude of THY counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save THEE from these things that shall come upon THEE. Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto THEE with whom THOU hast laboured, even THY merchants, from THY youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save THEE.” Isaiah 47:1-15 AV

“Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness. For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; the Lord of hosts is his name. I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. Because I knew that THOU art obstinate, and THY neck is an iron sinew, and THY brow brass; I have even from the beginning declared it to THEE; before it came to pass I shewed it THEE: lest THOU shouldest say, MINE idol hath done them, and MY graven image, and MY molten image, hath commanded them. THOU hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed THEE new things from this time, even hidden things, and THOU didst not know them. They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when THOU heardest them not; lest THOU shouldest say, Behold, I knew them. Yea, THOU heardest not; yea, THOU knewest not; yea, from that time that THINE ear was not opened: for I knew that THOU wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb. For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for THEE, that I cut THEE not off. Behold, I have refined THEE, but not with silver; I have chosen THEE in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another. HEARKEN UNTO me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.” Isaiah 48:1-12

The foregoing sufficiently refutes the oft-repeated assertion that the use of the singular in reference to Jehovah proves that the one true God is a singular Person. On the contrary, all that the employment of the singular proves is that Jehovah is a singular Being., in fact, one eternal, infinite, uncaused Triune Being who alone is worthy of unconditional love, adoration and worship.

FURTHER READING

The Trinity: The Old Testament Evidence: A Multi-Personal God

The OT Evidence for God’s Uni-Plurality

Does the word Elohim in Genesis 1 point to God’s Triunity?

Anti-Trinitarians agree that the reason why God in the OT referred to Himself in the plural is because He was speaking with his Divine Son!

Evangelical Scholarship’s Struggle With OT Proofs For the Trinity

GOD THE SON IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

JEWISHNESS AND THE TRINITY

A Look at the Trinity From a Messianic Jewish Perspective

Don’t Christians Believe in Three Gods?

Jesus and the Mysteries of Kabbalah

by Jews for Jesus February 09 2010

God as a trinity? No way!”

“We Jews don’t believe in the idea of a divine incarnation!”

“And we don’t believe in vicarious atonement!”

“A New Testament?! Are you meshugge?!“

For many Jewish people, these statements are givens. Or are they?

Kabbalah’s Intersection with Yeshua

Over the last several decades, the Jewish spiritual scene has witnessed a resurgence of popularity in the mystical tradition of secret wisdom known as kabbalah. Hidden away in corners of the tradition and ignored by contemporary popularizations are stunning parallels to a number of doctrines that most religious Jewish people consider anathema, doctrines that are analogous to New Testament teachings. Though we don’t endorse or accept Kabbalah as Scripture, it’s hard to escape the fact that there are passages in that literature which clearly point to Jesus. Even more amazing is the fact that God has used this non-biblical literature to bring Jewish sages to a correct understanding of Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel! The parallels were seen at a time when more Jewish people were well versed in Kabbalah.

In 1696, one mystical rabbi (Aharon ben Moshe Ha-Kohen of Krakow) became a believer in Yeshua (Jesus) based on his study of kabbalah. He wrote three Hebrew manuscript volumes detailing the numerous parallels he found between the New Testament and the Zohar (the classic core text of Jewish mysticism). Yochannan Rittangel (d. 1652), the first translator of the Jewish mystical work Sefer Yetzirah, was one of several Jewish believers in Yeshua to disseminate Jewish mystical wisdom to a wider audience.

In the early twentieth century, Feivel Levertoff (d. 1954) was one of the translators of what is still the premier English version of the Zohar (published by the highly-respected Jewish press, Soncino). A yeshiva-trained Hassidic Jew and a third-generation descendent of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liada (the founder of Chabad Lubavitch), Levertoff came to believe in Yeshua as the Messiah through parallels he found between the New Testament and his Jewish mystical faith.

There is no knowledge that proves the Divinity of the Messiah better than . . . kabbalah.

The Los Angeles-based Kabbalah Centre, one of the best-known popularizers of kabbalah today, frequently makes admiring mention of a non-Jewish scholar of kabbalistic wisdom, Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494). However, the Centre’s spokespersons, books and presentations never mention his ultimate conclusion based on years of exploring the mysterious secrets of kabbalistic wisdom: “There is no knowledge that proves the Divinity of the Messiah better than . . . kabbalah.”1

A Compound Unity

The keystone of traditional Judaism is that God is One. A belief in a multiplicity in the Godhead seems to be beyond the pale for many Jews. Yet kabbalah teaches that God is indeed a compound unity.

The over-arching narrative of Jewish mysticism is that the infinite, radically transcendent Ein Sof (“Endless” One) is revealed through the Sefirot.2 Sefirot are vessels or spheres related to the Creator only through resemblance,3 and are the ten most common names for the varying aspects of Divinity. Though they are one with the Creator, they are also the Creator’s garments and the “beams of light which it sends out”.4 The singular, Sefirah, shares a root with the word sippur; “communication” or “telling”.5 The Sefirot are thus seen as the aspects or attributes of the Creator by means of which Deity communicates with creation.6

Knowledge of the lowest seven of the Sefirot is derived from King David’s address to God in 1 Chronicles 29:11: “Yours, O God, are the Greatness (Gedulah), the Power (Gevurah), and the Glory (Tiferet), the Victory (Netzach), and the Splendor (Hod), for all that is in heaven and earth (Yesod), Yours O God is the Kingdom (Malkuth).” Two of the remaining three Sefirot, Chokhmah and Binah (Wisdom and Understanding), are one of the most frequent pairings of attributes of God found throughout the Hebrew Bible. The highest Sefirah, Keter, or Crown, signifies God’s rule and authority as King of Kings.

As Levertoff, Rabbi Aharon, and many others have found, this is not such a far cry from the metaphors used in the New Testament. Both kabbalah and the New Testament hold that God communicates the sublime interrelationships of his various components to limited human beings in terms they can understand from their own experience—concepts like the Sefirot, or like the New Testament’s Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Not unlike the New Testament (which speaks of One God in three “persons”), kabbalists recognize multiple “grades,” “degrees” or “beings” in the Godhead. Expressions of multiplicitous unity (of God, humans, and other entities) are frequent in kabbalistic literature and seemingly pose no theological obstacle to orthodox Jewish mystics:

Said R. Eleazar: “As the four sections of the walnut are united at one side and separated at the other, so are all the parts of the Celestial Chariot united in perfect union, and yet each part fulfils a special purpose . . . “7

Now the tree of life ramifies into various degrees, all differing from one another, although forming a unity, in the shape of branches, leaves . . . and roots.”8

Mystical Logic

This kind of mystical logic not only prevails in medieval documents like the Zohar, but also persists to the present. The Tanya, the fundamental text of modern Chabad Hassidic philosophy by Rabbi Shneur Zalman, states:

He and His vivications are one, He and His causations are one. . . . They are all Divinity“9

He and His Name are One . 10

Such thinking has been current in Judaism for a long time. Orthodox Jewish scholar Raphael Patai notes that the Holy Spirit, identified by the rabbis with the Shekhinah (the “dwelling” or “abode” of the glory of God), was seen as a second person in the Godhead even in the early Talmudic period.11

To the kabbalists, God’s ultimate nature is a three-in-oneness.

But the mystics went beyond merely recognizing a two-in-oneness, stating that the Sefirot are actually organized into three “pillars.” To the kabbalists, God’s ultimate nature is a three-in-oneness:

“Hear, O Israel, Adonai12 Eloheinu Adonai is one.” These three are one…. The mystery of the audible voice is similar to this, for though it is one yet it consists of three elements—fire, air, and water…. Even so it is with the mystery of the threefold Divine manifestations designated by Adonai Eloheinu Adonai—three modes which yet form one unity.13

Kabbalah’s Concept of the Metatron

Would a Jewish person ever embrace the idea of God incarnate? Many kabbalists do!

Kabbalah teaches that the human body is an outward expression of the indwelling soul, and that all material things are manifestations of spiritual realities extruding into our universe.14 However, God has a special way of revealing himself in our world:

R. Jose said: “How are we to understand the words, ‘and they saw the God of Israel” (Ex. 24:10)?… They saw the light of the Shekinah, namely him who is called ‘the Youth’ (Metatron…), and who ministers to the Shekinah in the heavenly Sanctuary.”15

The Shekhinah can mitgashem (incarnate) in an anthropomorphic shape.

Nachmanides (1194-1270) holds that the Shekhinah can mitgashem (incarnate) in an anthropomorphic shape. As an Ashkenazic tradition has it, “Know that… ‘An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire out of a bush’ (Exod. 3:2)… refers to God Himself .”16 Sometimes, the title malakh ha-kavod (Angel of the Glory) is applied to the Shekhinah in kabbalistic texts.17

The term Metatron, described as “the Youth,” “the Angel of the Glory” and “the body of the Shekhinah,” is a Latin title translating the Greek Praecursor, or Forerunner—the same word used of Yeshua in Hebrews 6:20. It means lord, leader, guide, one who shows the way, or goes in advance.

The explanation of “They saw the glory of God” (Exodus 24:10) given by Rabbi Jose is evocative of the New Testament passages describing Yeshua as “the radiance of the Shekhinah” (Hebrews 1:3), and as the “Forerunner” ministering high priest in the heavenly tabernacle upon which Moses modeled the sanctuary (Hebrews 6:20-8:5).

Kabbalah and the New Testament

Several kabbalistic texts reveal that Metatron is not merely an angel, but a manifestation of the Shekhinah in human form; in other words, God himself. For example:

And R. Tam commented that the Holy One blessed be He is himself called Metatron, as is said in the Pesiqta [Exod 23:13] “and the Lord walked before them all the day.” The Holy One said, “I was the guide [Heb. Metatron] for my children,” that is, their guard.18

Metatron is also spoken of as “the voice of God” in a reference of Midrash Tehillim19 to the passage penned by King David: “The voice of the Lord was over the waters” (Psalm 29:3). Keeping in mind that Metatron is held by kabbalists to be the embodiment of the Shekhinah, note the following observation by Chabad founder Rabbi Zalman:

[It] has been stated in the Zohar and Etz Chayim, that the Shechinah… is called the “word of God”… as in the case of human beings, by way of example, speech reveals to the hearers the speaker’s secret and hidden thought.20

This passage uncannily reminds one of the opening lines of the Gospel of John’s description of Yeshua: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. . . . The Word became a human being and lived with us, and we saw his Shekhinah.”21

So, for both the traditional kabbalists and the New Testament, the Forerunner is identical with the Angel of the Glory, the Name of God, and is the Word of God incarnate. What does the following passage from the Zohar indicate about the identity of this Forerunner?: “The ‘spirit of God which hovered over the face of the waters’ is the spirit of the Messiah.”22

Could these kabbalists actually be saying that the Godhead is somehow mysteriously composed of three personalities which are, in fact, really One—one of whom is the Word of God in human form, Messiah, the Forerunner-High Priest serving in heaven and embodying the Holy Spirit? Aren’t these the same things the New Testament says about Yeshua? Consider further the following, from R. Yitchaq of Acre:

It is MoSheH [Messiah] the High Priest, anointed by the oil, the supernal holy unction, the true Messiah, who will come today, if we listen to the voice of his Master, whose Name is found in him, he will redeem us. . . . . “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of His face saved them” [Isa. 63:19] and “And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him” [Isa. 11:2]. Those [verses] and all similar to them hint at Metatron [the Forerunner], the Prince of the Face . . . . [The] sheep, which is the innocent lamb is—in its entirety—good, and it is MoSheH, the Prince of Mercy.”23

Kabbalah, the Metatron, and Yeshua

Do the mystics ever give a name to the Metatron, this Forerunner, the Prince of the Face, High Priest, Word of God incarnate, Lamb who is afflicted in all their affliction, Messiah? A medieval Rosh Hashanah prayer says:

May it be Thy will that the sounding of the shofar may be embroidered in Thy Heavenly Curtain by the Angel who is appointed for it, as Thou has accepted the prayers by the hand of Elijah of blessed memory and through Yeshua the Prince of the Face. 24

Yehudah Liebes, Professor of Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalah in the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, traces references to Yeshua in traditional Jewish liturgy to Jewish believers in Jesus in the first century A.D.! 25 Daniel Abrams of Bar-Ilan University writes of Liebes’s observations, “Yehuda Liebes has brought to our attention the striking identification of Metatron with Jesus in the liturgy.” 26

Many Jewish people today reject the idea of a go-between to make us right with God. The kabbalists, however, have a different view.

Kabbalists see the angelic Prince of the Face as intermediary between God and his people.

Kabbalists see the angelic Prince of the Face as intermediary between God and his people. Recalling R. Yitzhaq of Acre’s equating of the afflicted Forerunner with the Messiah who saves Israel, the following passage from the Zohar almost sounds like an epitome of the New Testament’s assertions about Yeshua’s mediating, vicarious atonement:

When the Messiah hears of the great suffering of Israel in their dispersion, and of the wicked amongst them who seek not to know their Master, he weeps aloud . . . as it is written: “But he was wounded because of our transgression, he was crushed because of our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5). . . . The Messiah . . . calls for all the diseases and pains and sufferings of Israel, bidding them settle on himself, which they do. . . . As long as Israel were in the Holy Land, by means of the Temple service and sacrifices they averted all evil diseases and afflictions from the world. Now it is the Messiah who is the means of averting them from mankind.27

Exploring The Nuances of Kabbalah for Yourself

Do these passages from the mystics prove the New Testament is correct, that Yeshua is Messiah of Israel, God in the flesh, who makes atonement for our sins? No. But they do demonstrate that there have been Jews (many, famous kabbalists), whose orthodoxy no one would question, who held beliefs startlingly like those that Jewish believers in Yeshua affirm.

If this exploration of kabbalah has piqued your curiosity, why not explore what the New Testament has to say about these things? In the Hebrew Bible, God states that he will establish a New Covenant: “See, a time is coming—declares the Lord—when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31). The Hebrew word brit, translated here as ‘covenant,’ may also be translated ‘Testament.’ The kabbalistic text Otiot de’Rabbi Akiba says regarding this passage: “And the Holy One . . . will expound to them the meanings of a new Tora which He will give them through the Messiah.”28

Jewish mystics for Jesus, kabbalists who actually believe in a Triune God, a bodily incarnation of the Deity, and a vicariously atoning Messiah—Who knew?! Feeling like you’ve been let in on a pretty well-kept secret? Could Yeshua, the Prince of the Face who sits on God’s throne, the Messiah, be the biggest mystery you’ve yet to unriddle?

Endnotes

1. Pico Della Mirandola, Opera Omnia (Basle, 1572), I, p. 105, no. 9, quoted in Charles B. Schmitt, et. al., The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 270.

2. Daniel C. Matt, The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1996), pp. 7-10 and Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York: Schoken Books, 1954), p. 206.

3. Aryeh Kaplan, The Bahir (Boston: Weiser Books, 1989), p. 88.

4. Scholem, op. cit., p. 214.

5. Aryeh Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation (San Francisco: Weiser Books, 1997), p. 21.

6. Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah, p. 21.

7. Soncino Zohar, Shemoth, Section 2, Page 15b.

8. Soncino Zohar, Bereshith, Section 1, Page 193a.

9. Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liada, Likutei Amarim – Tanya (Brooklyn, NY: Kehot Publication Society, 1996),Igeret Hakodesh, Ch. 20.

10. Ibid., Igeret Hakodesh, Ch. 7.

11. Raphael Patai “The Shekhinah”(in The Journal of Religion 44:4, 1964, p.286).

12. The spelling TETRAGRAMMATON has been modified to Adonai in these passages to reflect current usage.

13. Soncino Zohar, Shemoth, Raya Mehemna, Page 43b.

14. Soncino Zohar, Bereshith, Section 1, Page 65b; Tanya, Shaar Hayichud Chapter 1.

15. Soncino Zohar, Shemoth, Section 2, page 82a.

16. Elliot R. Wolfson Through a Speculum That Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994) p. 256, italics added

17. Wolfson, op. cit., p. 262

18. Daniel Abrams “The Boundaries of Divine Ontology: The Inclusion and Exclusion of Metatron in the Godhead” (in The Harvard Theological Review, 87:3, 1994), pp. 299, 300.

19. George F. Moore “Intermediaries in Jewish Thought” (in The Harvard Theological Review, 15:1, 1922), p. 63.

20. Zalman, Likutei Amarim, Ch. 52

21. John 1:1,2,14, Stern’s Jewish New Testament.

22. Soncino Zohar, Bereshith, Section 1, Page 240a

23. Sefer ‘Otzar Hayyim, in Moshe Idel, Messianic Mystics (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000), pp. 303, 304.

24. Machzor Rosh Hashanah v’Yom Kippurim k’Minhag Sefarad (New York: Hebrew Publishing Company), prayer translated by Rachmiel Frydland. (Editor’s note: You can view one version of this prayer in Hebrew at http://www.afii.org/OJB.pdf, page 1227.)

25. Yehudah Liebes, “Who Makes the Horn of Jesus to Flourish,” Immanuel 21 (Summer 1987), footnote 28, p. 67.

26. Daniel Abrams, ”The Boundaries of Divine Ontology: The Inclusion and Exclusion of Metatron in the Godhead,” Harvard Theological Review 87.3 (1994): 317.

27. Soncino Zohar, Shemoth, Section 2, Page 212a.

28. Midrash Otiot de ‘Rabbi Akiba, Beit ha-Midrash 3.27-29, quoted by Raphael Patai in The Messiah Texts (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1979), p. 252.

by Jews for Jesus July 03 1996

The Question

To Whom it May Concern:

Thank you for sending me ISSUES. I find it interesting to read other people’s viewpoints. I would like to continue my free subscription as long as you realize that I have no intention of believing in Jesus.

I cannot understand how you claim to be Jews and yet your belief that Jesus is somehow God is just the opposite of what Judaism teaches.

I used to think that you believed that Jesus became so holy that he became a god. Now I understand that Christians teach that God became a man instead of a man becoming a god, which is nevertheless inaccurate.

No matter how you slice it, the idea of a Trinity” doesn’t make sense which you ought to know since the watchword of our faith is the sh’ma: “Hear O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one.”

One God or monotheism is the cornerstone of Judaism. That is why it irritates me to think that you are spreading the belief that a Jew can think that somehow God is more than one.

However, I am an open-minded person and I do find some points of interest in ISSUES. I will continue to read your articles as long as you respect my position and don’t try to convert me.

Sincerely,

M.M.

The Explanation

We do not ordinarily print letters to the editor, but if enough people express interest in a particular issue, we try to address it. This is a composite letter of several we’ve received on the subject of the Trinity. – Editor

“Hear, O Israel, Adonai Eloheinu Adonai is one. These three are one. How can the three Names be one? Only through the perception of faith; in the vision of the Holy Spirit, in the beholding of the hidden eye alone.…So it is with the mystery of the threefold Divine manifestations designated by Adonai Eloheinu Adonai—three modes which yet form one unity.”1

A Christian quote? Hardly. The above is taken from the Zohar, an ancient book of Jewish mysticism. The Zohar is somewhat esoteric and most contemporary Jewish people don’t study it, but there are other Jewish books that refer to God’s plurality as well.

A taboo subject

Why then won’t our people discuss these things? Could it be that to do so might lead a person to consider Yeshua (Jesus) as who and what he claimed to be?2 Rabbis denounce the idea that God would come to us in human flesh as utterly pagan and contrary to what Judaism teaches.

What can we actually say that Judaism teaches? Some people see Judaism as a monolith of religion, with all its teachings resting upon the narrow foundation of the Shema. The Shema certainly is a point of unity that all who ascribe to the Jewish faith must affirm. But it does not state, imply, or even support many of the interpretations and opinions that are labeled “what Judaism teaches.” What Judaism teaches is neither static nor monolithic! Phrases such as “Judaism teaches” or “according to our tradition” are relative. They do not mean “this was, is, and always will be the one and only Jewish viewpoint.”

Ancient sages struggled with several portions of the Hebrew Scriptures and their implications vis-a-vis God’s plurality. Deuteronomy 6:4 (the Shema) is but one such passage. Isaiah 6:8 is another: “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” However, the first “proof” passage on God as more than one appears in the first chapter of the Hebrew Scriptures: “And God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26).3

Rabbis who believed that each word of the Hebrew Scriptures, each letter, is God’s revelation had to admit that God spoke to himself and referred to himself in the plural. How can that be, when we know there is only one God?

A complex unity

Much in Genesis 1:26 seems to confirm the idea that there is one God whose oneness is complex. The idea of God’s nature being three-in-one is mind-boggling. Contemplation of the infinite is always confusing to finite beings. Nevertheless, certain illustrations can help people grapple with the issue of a complex unity. C. S. Lewis, a talented philologist, writer and debater put it this way:

We must remind ourselves that Christian theology does not believe God to be a person. It believes Him to be such that in Him a trinity of persons is consistent with a unity of Deity. In that sense it believes Him to be something very different from a person, just as a cube, in which six squares are consistent with unity of the body, is different from a square. (Flatlanders, attempting to imagine a cube, would either imagine the six squares coinciding, and thus destroy their distinctness, or else imagine them set out side by side, and thus destroy the unity. Our difficulties about the Trinity are of much the same kind.)4

Christians consider themselves monotheists, while Jewish tradition maintains that believers in a triunity of God reject monotheism. Yet the Hebrew Scriptures do imply some kind of plurality in the Divinity. Why else would Jewish sages offer various alternatives to explain those implications, particularly in Genesis 1:26? Evaluate the following methods our ancestors used to deal with the text.

Wrestling with plural pronouns

1. Change the text or translate it differently

According to Jewish tradition, scholars who worked on the Septuagint5 translation of the Hebrew Scriptures for King Ptolemy were embarrassed by the plural pronouns in Genesis 1:26. They took the liberty of changing the text from “let us” to “let me.”6 Such “liberty” violates the sacredness of Scripture.

Other rabbinical commentators also took liberties with the text. The medieval rabbi, Ibn Ezra, described those commentators as “absurd” for attempting to translate the active “let us make” (na’a’seh) into a passive “there is made” (niphal). These commentators added that the phrase “in our image, after our likeness” was not said by God, but added as a postscript by Moses.7

2. The text describes God speaking to creation

Medieval commentators David Kimchi and Moses Maimonides accepted the Talmudic interpretation of Rabbi Joshua b. Levi. Rabbi Levi explained that God was speaking to creation.

AND GOD SAID: LET US MAKE MAN, ETC. With whom did He take counsel? R. Joshua b. Levi said: He took counsel with the works of heaven and earth, like a king who had two advisers without whose knowledge he did nothing whatsoever.8

Levi knew that the plural implied that God was speaking to someone and concluded that the Lord was seeking advice and approval from other beings.

According to Rabbi Nachmanides, the plural reference denotes God speaking to the earth because “man’s body would come from the earth and his spirit (soul) from God.”9 But the separation of a person into distinct parts owes more to the Greek influence of Aristotle’s philosophy than to a careful and accurate reading of the text. The biblical view of humankind indicates that physical, spiritual, and psychic aspects are held together in a composite and indivisible unity. Rabbi Abarbanel explained that God was capable of making all the lesser works of creation but needed assistance when it came to human beings. That position denies God’s omnipotence.

3. God is addressing the angels around his throne

Rashi explains that God chose to demonstrate humility by consulting his inferiors:

The meekness of the Holy One, blessed be He, they [the rabbis] learned from here: because man is in the likeness of the angels and they might envy him, therefore he took counsel with them.…Although they did not assist Him in forming him [the man] and although this use of the plural may give the heretics an occasion to rebel [i.e., to argue in favor of their own views], yet the verse does not refrain from teaching proper conduct and the virtue of humbleness, namely, that the greater should consult, and take permission from the smaller; for had it been written, “I shall make man,” we could not, then, have learned that He spoke to His judicial council but to Himself.10

According to Rashi, if God had used the singular (“I” and “my”) we could not have known he was addressing the angels. True—we would never have guessed that God was addressing angels, since there is no mention of angels in the text. But even with the plural, there is still no mention of angels in the text!

The text does not support the concept of God consulting angels in creation, and Rashi’s argument became a source of confusion and disagreement among various rabbis.

Grasping at straws?

4. God was speaking to the souls of the righteous unborn

One Jewish tradition states that the souls of the righteous existed before God created the world (and were present at Mount Sinai for the receiving of the law). Those who believe this tradition link Genesis 1:26 with the phrase “there they dwelt with the king in his work” from 1 Chronicles 4:23.

R. Joshua of Siknin said in Rabbi Levi’s name: “[W]ith the supreme King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, sat the souls of the righteous with whom He took counsel before the creation of the world.”11

A later commentator rebutted the suggestion that God had partners in creation. He insisted that since no other beings are mentioned in the passage, it is not valid to invent them; in fact, it is best to maintain the solitude of God in creation: “Why was man created last? So that the heretics might not say there was a companion [i.e., Yeshua] with Him in the work.”12

5. God was keeping his own counsel

Some Jewish scholars believe that the mystery of Genesis 1:26 can be solved grammatically. They suggest a “plural of deliberation,” whereby the plural expresses God’s pondering within himself, concentrating his thoughts and meditating over his decision.

Rabbi Ammi said: “He took counsel with His own heart. It may be compared to a king who had a palace built by an architect, but when he saw it, it did not please him: with whom is he to be indignant? Surely with the architect! Similarly, ‘And it grieved Him at His heart.'” (Genesis 6:6)13

Several passages in Scripture describe a person deliberating by “consulting” some part of himself. In Psalm 42:6, the psalmist addresses his soul: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why moanest thou within me?” Yet unlike Genesis 1:26, the psalmist uses the words “O my soul,” and it is clear that he is deliberating within himself.

The royal “we”?

6. The royal “we”—plural of majesty

Just as Queen Victoria referred to herself in the plural (“We are not amused”), some say that God, as a majestic being, referred to himself the same way. This is a popular contemporary explanation. It does not raise the question of other beings. It rules out the possibility of God having a plural nature. It seems to be based on good linguistic evidence and analysis.

The Hertz Commentary on Genesis sees this explanation as one of two possibilities and points out that the first person plural is used for royalty in the Book of Ezra.14 “The letter which ye sent unto us hath been plainly read before me” (Ezra 4:18) is the sole example of a “plural of majesty” construction in Scripture. It also happens to be one of the few portions of Scripture in Aramaic, a language similar to Hebrew.

It would be poor scholarship to build a case for a grammatical construction in Hebrew on the grounds of this Aramaic text. Even so, the Ezra passage does not necessarily contain a singular royal subject linked to a plural verb-form. If the plural of majesty were a regular Hebrew idiom, why is the singular “me” in the same line?

Rabbinical commentators and linguists recognize that the Hebrew language provides no real basis for such an explanation.15 Ibn Ezra quotes the Gaon,…who suggests that the plural of Genesis 1:26 is the plural of majesty. He refuted that view in favor of God having consulted the angels.16 However, we have already mentioned the difficulties of using angels to solve the mystery.

7. There are different aspects within God’s being

Some rabbis acknowledge different aspects within God’s nature. There is no consensus as to what these aspects are or how to distinguish one from another. For example, the Zohar describes God as being both male and female.17

The Memra

8. The Word: wisdom or messenger of God

Another way to explain Genesis 1:26 is to use the Memra, or “Word” of God. The Targum Neofiti (an early Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew text) translates verse 27: “And the Memra of the Lord created the man in his (own) likeness.”18

The Targum Onkelos on Deuteronomy 33:27 translates the Hebrew “underneath are the everlasting arms” as “And by His ‘Memra’ was the world created.”

Like the personification of wisdom in Proverbs 8:22-31, the Word is often personified and assigned divine attributes, implying divine status.19 Memra is used to describe God Himself, especially when he is revealing himself to human beings. Rabbinical thought also links the Memra to the Messiah. The New Covenant portion of the Bible reveals a similar understanding of the role of the Word in creation.

The Book of Genesis records that God’s dynamic act of creation was through his spoken word: “And God said, Let there be light…,” etc.20The New Covenant Gospel of John begins this way:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.21

Jewish believers in Jesus believe in the Word of creation in Genesis. Therefore he is not only the Messiah, but God in human form.

Why the Rabbis Won’t Regard the Plurality of God with Credibility

Some rabbis agreed that the Genesis 1:26 passage gives weight to the case for God’s plurality. Their position has not shaped the current position or practice of Jewish religious leaders:

Rabbi Samuel ben Nahman said in Rabbi Jonathan’s name: “When Moses was engaged in writing the Torah, he had to write the work of each day. When he came to the verse, AND GOD SAID; LET US MAKE MAN, etc., he said: ‘Sovereign of the Universe! Why dost Thou furnish an excuse to heretics?’ (for maintaining a plurality of deity). ‘Write,’ replied He; ‘whoever wishes to err may err.'”22

Some rabbis believe that to take the Scriptures at face value is to err. And yes, some out of concern to protect those who are deemed susceptible to such error, have set aside normative interpretations of the Scriptures. Rashi provided a clear example of this with the “suffering servant” passages of Isaiah 52 and 53.

The contemporary interpretation of Israel as the suffering servant was held by few of the early Jewish authorities. Nearly all believed it pointed to an individual and personal Messiah who would suffer and die for Israel’s sin. But Rashi popularized the “national view” in the Middle Ages to refute the obvious messianic interpretation. Neither grammar, context nor logic supports this view, yet it is considered superior to the previously held (Jewish) view.

Similarly, in discussion of the Genesis 1 passage, various cases are presented in order to refute Jewish belief in Yeshua. Rabbis understood that a passage wherein God speaks and acts in the plural is significant evidence of diversity within his nature. They also knew that the New Covenant describes Yeshua as the eternal Word of God, the instrument of creation and the fullness of God in human form. They realized that people might make a connection between the two and designed their interpretations for the sake of countering “the heretics.”23

Rabbi Simlai said: “Wherever you find a point supporting the heretics, you find the refutation at its side. They [the heretics] asked him again: ‘What is meant by, AND GOD SAID: LET US MAKE MAN?’ ‘Read what follows,’ replied he: ‘not, “And gods created [Hebrew: wa-yibre’u—the plural of the verb] man” is written here, but “And God created [Hebrew: wa-yibra—in the singular]”‘ (Genesis 1:27). When they [the heretics] went out his disciples said to him: ‘Them you have dismissed with a mere makeshift, but how will you answer us?”24

Rabbi Simlai dealt with Jewish believers in Jesus by sidestepping the question. His own disciples recognized that he had done so and expressed the need for a more satisfying reply.

Some of the ancients admitted that certain Scriptures seemed to pose a threat to their understanding of God. They sought ways to direct others away from disturbing conclusions, and, in the case of Rashi, they openly explained that they made choices based on the need to refute Christians.

The Conclusion?

Reverence for the text prevented the ancient rabbis from ignoring or altering the text. Nevertheless, for all their creative solutions to the mystery of this passage, they could not agree on an answer that would satisfy them all.

Today, however, Jewish thinkers are in danger of simply excising clues from Scripture, and from history, that the rabbis were hard pressed to explain. These clues point to ideas many Jewish people wish to avoid.

How many contemporary rabbis will say that some of their interpretations and translations are strongly weighted to help people avoid “unacceptable” beliefs? How many would admit that their answers to these complex issues might direct people away from the Bible?

Sherlock Holmes once observed that when you have eliminated all possible explanations, the only remaining solution is the truth, no matter how impossible it seems.

Endnotes

1. Zohar II:43b (vol. 3, p. 134 in the Soncino Press edition).

2. John 10:30.

3. Jewish Publication Society of America (Philadelphia, 1917). All quotations from Hebrew Scriptures are from this translation, unless otherwise stated.

4. Wayne Martindale and Jerry Root, eds., The Quotable Lewis (Tyndale House Publishers: Wheaton, IL, 1989), p. 587.

5. A Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures written some two hundred years before Yeshua.

6. As stated in “The Image of God in Man,” D.J.A. Clines, Tyndale Bulletin (1968), p. 62, referring to J. Jervell, “Imago Dei…,” Gottingen (1960), p. 75.

7. Ibn Ezra’s Commentary on the Pentateuch: Genesis (Bereshit), H. Norman Strickman and Arthur M. Silver, trans. (New York: Menorah Publishing Co., 1988), p. 43.

8. Genesis Rabbah VIII.3 (Soncino Midrash Rabbah, p. 56).

9. Referred to in Soncino Chumash (Soncino Press: London, 1956), p. 6.

10. Pentateuch with the commentary of Rashi, Silberman edition, Jerusalem 5733, pp. 6-7.

11. Genesis Rabbah, VIII.7, p. 59.

12. Tosephta on Sanhedrin 8:7.

13. Genesis Rabbah, VIII.3, p. 57.

14. J. H. Hertz, ed., The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, (Oxford Univ. Press, 1940), p. 11.

15. Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar (A. E. Cowley, ed., Oxford, 1976) says on the “plural of majesty”: “Jewish grammarians call such plurals…plur. virium or virtutum; later grammarians call them plur. excellentiae, magnitudinis, or plur. maiestaticus. This last name may have been suggested by the we used by kings when speaking of themselves (cf. already 1 Macc. 10:19 NRSV, 1 Macc. 11:31 NRSV); and the plural used by God in Genesis 1:26, and 11:7, Isaiah 6:8 has been incorrectly explained in this way.…It is best explained as a plural of self-deliberation. The use of the plural as a form of respectful address is quite foreign to Hebrew,” p. 398.

16. Ibid., Soncino Chumash, p. 6.

17. Zohar 22a-b (vol. 1, pp. 91-93 in the Soncino Press edition).

18. Targum Neofiti 1: Genesis, Martin McNamara, tr. (The Aramaic Bible, vol. 1A; Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1992), p. 55.

19. Compare Colossians 1:5, Hebrews 1:3, Revelation 3:14 with Proverbs 30:2-6. By His Memra was the world created corresponds to John 1:10.

20. Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26.

21. John 1:1-4.

22. Genesis Rabbah, VIII.8, p. 59.

23. Hebrew minim literally “sectarians” but generally assumed to be a reference to Jewish Christians. See R. T. Herford, Christianity in Talmud and Midrash, (London, 1903), p. 361ff.

24. Genesis Rabbah, VIII.9, p. 60.

Glossary of Names

Ibn Ezra

12th c. Spanish poet and biblical scholar.

David Kimchi

12th-13th c. Hebrew grammarian and Bible commentator.

Maimonides

Moses ben Maimon, 12th c. Spanish-born philosopher and codifier of Jewish law.

R. Joshua b. Levia

3rd c. amora.* Known as a peacemaker, he refused to attack Christian teaching.

Nachmanides

Moses ben Nachman, 13th c. Spanish biblical commentator and leader of Spanish Jewry in his day.

Abarbanel

15th-16th c. Spanish biblical commentator and philosopher.

Rashi

Rabbi Solomon b. Yitzchak, an 11th. c. French biblical and Talmudic scholar; his commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures remains standard to this day.

Joshua of Siknina

3rd c. amora* in Eretz Israel.

Ammi

Ammi bar Nathan. A 3rd c. amora* in Eretz Israel, closely associated with R. Assi.

Jonathan

Jonathan b. Eleazer, a 3rd. c. amora* born in Babylonia but who lived in Eretz Israel.

Simlaia

3rd c. amora* in Eretz Israel, the first to reduce 613 commandments to one (Habakkuk 2:4).

by Jews for Jesus April 20 2018

Three Gods? The Trinity? What do Christians believe?

It’s a very common misrepresentation that while Jews believe in one God, Christians believe in three. The fact is that Christianity is as firmly monotheistic as Judaism.

What Christians believe is that this one God exists, in a way finite man can never fully understand, in three persons or personalities. This belief is not based upon philosophical arguments, but on the Scriptures–both Old and New Testaments.

We affirm that the Hebrew Bible teaches the oneness of God.

The cardinal affirmation of the Jewish people has always been the Sh’ma: Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” But along with the emphasis on the oneness of God are a number of hints that He is at the same time somehow more than one.

A plethora of names for God

One such hint is the number of times plural forms of names and words are used in reference to God. The common Hebrew word for God, Elohim, is itself plural in form. The singular counterpart of Elohim, namely Eloah, is used ten times less than is the plural form. Plural verbs are sometimes employed with the name Elohim, as in Genesis 20:13.1 Plural pronouns are at times used by God when referring to Himself, as in Genesis 1:26.2 Other descriptions of God are sometimes found in the plural, which is not always evident in our English translations (for instance, Ecclesiastes 12:13 or Isaiah 54:54).

The plurality of God in Judaism

Even more striking is the very word used in the Sh’ma to proclaim the oneness of God, echad. This word allows for a plurality or diversity within unity. This can be seen especially clearly in several passages. In Genesis 1:55, 2:246, Ezra 2:647 and Ezekiel 37:178, the oneness is the result of combining evening and morning, man and wife, the individual members of an assembly, and two sticks, respectively. There is however, another word in Hebrew to describe an indivisible unity, namely yachid. It so happens that the scholar Maimonides9, when composing his famous Thirteen Articles of Faith, substituted yachid for echad in describing the nature of God. Ever since, the notion of an indivisible unity of God has been fostered in Judaism; nevertheless, the Bible gives ample instances to show that there is a diversity within God’s unity.

The Zohar, the foundation book of Jewish mysticism, recognized that the idea of a plurality-in-unity is not foreign to Jewish thinking. While the medieval mystics’ idea is different from the Christian idea of the Trinity, the basic idea of a plurality within the one God still holds. The passage from the Zohar, commenting on the Sh’ma, reads as follows:

“Hear, O Israel, YHVH Elohenu YHVH is one.” These three are one. How can the three Names be one? Only through the perception of Faith: in the vision of the Holy Spirit, in the beholding of the hidden eyes alone. The mystery of the audible voice is similar to this, for though it is one yet it consists of three elements–fire, air, and water, which have, however, become one in the mystery of the voice. Even so it is with the mystery of the threefold Divine manifestations designated by YHVH Elohenu YHVH–three modes which yet form one unity.10

Portrayals of God from Hebrew Scripture

In fact, beside God Himself, there are two other personalities in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures who are portrayed as distinct from, yet somehow the same as God. These other two are the angel of the Lord, and the Spirit of God or Holy Spirit.

The angel of the Lord is mentioned a number of times but is also identified with God Himself. For instance, in Genesis 16:711 and 16:1312 He is called respectively the angel of the Lord and then the Lord. Another example would be Genesis 22:11 and 22:1213. This particular individual is both distinct from and identified with God Himself.

Then there is the Spirit of God. God’s Spirit is spoken of in the Scriptures as a personality of His own, yet identified as God. Such passages include Genesis 1:214, Psalm 51:1315, or Isaiah 11:2.16

Israel and the nations

Because Israel was surrounded by polytheists in ancient times and tended to absorb the idolatry of those nations, the Hebrew Scriptures emphasized God’s oneness more than His “tri-unity.” But by the days of the New Testament, when idolatry was no longer a problem in Israel, the idea of God’s “tri-unity” was more clearly articulated in the Scriptures. The three personalities just mentioned are portrayed in the New Testament as God the Father, God the Son (the Messiah, Jesus) and God the Spirit–yet all without compromising the fundamental affirmation of the Sh’ma: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One,” an affirmation which Jesus himself termed “the most important commandment.”17

You might protest, “But don’t Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God? But if Jesus is God, how can he be the Son of God? Look, you’re making a man into God, and on top of that, God doesn’t have a son!”

Again, not true! In Exodus 4:22-23, Israel is called God’s “son.”18 The King of Israel is referred to as God’s “son” in I Chronicles 17:13.19 That the Messiah would also be God’s son is stated in the Talmud:

Our Rabbis taught, The Holy One, blessed be He, will say to the Messiah, the son of David (May he reveal himself speedily in our days), ‘Ask of me anything and I will give it to thee, as it is said [Ps. 2:7,8]. I will tell of the decree: [The Lord hath said unto me, “Thou art my son;] l this day have I begotten thee, ask of me and I will give the nations for thy inheritance.”20

Messiah as a form of God’s presence

The idea in the Scriptures is not that a man became God–God forbid—but that the Messiah would himself be God coming as a man. Isaiah 9:6 portrays the coming of the Messiah in these terms: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” But if God is indeed a “tri-unity,” then it is possible for the Messiah both to be called God and also to exist in a relationship characterized as “son of God.” This is the conclusion we Jews who believe in Jesus are driven to as we study the Scriptures. With our fellow Jews, we affirm that “the Lord our God, the Lord is one”–a oneness characterized by a “tri-unity.”

Endnotes

1. “And when God had me wander from my father’s household…” The verb “had me wander” is plural in the Hebrew.

2. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness….”

3. “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth…” In the Hebrew, “Creator” is a plural form.

4. “For your Maker is your husband–the Lord Almighty is his name…” Again, “Maker” and “husband” are plural forms.

5. Genesis 1:5: “God called the light ‘day’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ And there was evening, and there was morning–the first day.”

6. Genesis 2:24: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

7. Ezra 2:64: “The whole company numbered 42,360…

8. Ezekiel 37:15-17: “…take a stick of wood…then take another stick of wood…Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand.”

9. Maimonides is one of the greatest figures in Jewish history. Born in Spain in 1135, he was known as a rabbinic scholar, a philosopher, and even a physician.Maimonides is known among rabbinic students as “Rambam,” an acronym for his Hebrew name “Rabbi Moses ben Maimon.” His Thirteen Articles of Faith are accepted by Orthodox Jews today as a binding statement of belief. Maimonides died in 1204.

10. Zohar, III: Exodus 43b, Soncino translation.

11. Genesis 16:7: “The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.”

12. Genesis 16:13: “She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me.'”

13. Genesis 22:11-12: “But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham!’ ‘Here I am.’ he replied. ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.'”

14. Genesis 1:2: “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water.”

15. Psalm 51:13 (in the Hebrew Bible; verse 11 in the English versions): “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”

16. Isaiah 11:2: “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him–the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord…”

17. Mark 12:28-30: “One of the teachers of the law…asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: Hear. O Israel. the Lord our God, The Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'” Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4-5.

18. “Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says. Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, ‘Let my son go, so he may worship me.’ But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”

19. “I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor. I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever.”

20. Sukkah 52a, Soncino translation.