The Nature of God–Part Two: Created in the Image of the One God (Resources & Notes)
[Note: Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance: el-o-heem’, Plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative: – angels, X exceeding, God (gods) (-dess, -ly), X (very) great, judges, X mighty.] [Note: The Septuagint (LXX) translates the transliterated Hebrew word Elohim (plural) into the transliterated Greek word theos (singular), which is translated into the Anglo-Saxon word “God” (singular) in the Authorized Version, with the understanding that the word “god” means “deity,” and it is not used as a personal name for God. Elohim then is a designation and not a personal name, and we see this distinction in the first of the Ten Commandments: “I am the Lord [YHWH] thy God [your Elohim], which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods [elohim] before me” (Ex. 20:2-3).] [Note: The “oneness” of God is at times challenged by the claim that “Elohim” is to be understood as a uni-plural or collective noun, and therefore it is incorrectly assumed that the word “God” may be reinterpreted as “Gods” when referring to the one God.] [Note: The Hebrew word אלהים, which is transliterated as ‘ĕlôhı̂ym, is a third person masculine plural noun that is by its grammatical structure plural in form, but when it is used with a singular verb it grammatically signals that Elohim is understood in the singular sense, as it is when God (Elohim) said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” noting also that the context reverts to the use of the singular pronouns respective to the creation of Adam and Eve (Gen. 1:26-27; 5:1-2).] [Note: The statement, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” is sometimes interpreted to mean that the one speaking is God, and God is speaking to an unknown number of beings who are assumed to be God. Leaving those who accept this interpretive conclusion with a contradictory position, and an impassable statement spoken by Jesus, the son of God, who referred to God his father as the “only true God” (Jn. 17:3). Thus by Jesus’ statement the God of the “New Testament” would then be the one who resurrected Jesus from the dead (Acts 5:30-32).] [Note: A reasonable context for explaining why humankind would be created in the image of God may be understood in the phrase: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion,” which would appear to establish a reasonable purpose for creating Adam and Eve in the image of God (Gen. 1:6).] [Note: “[Let us make] LXX ποιήσωμεν, Lat. faciamus. The use of the 1st pers. plur. is a well-known crux of interpretation. How are we to explain its occurrence in the utterance of the Almighty? The only other passages in which it is found are (1) Gen_3:22, “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us”; (2) Gen_11:7, “Go to, and let us go down, and there confound their language”; (3) Isa_6:8, “And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Very different explanations have been given. Until recently, the traditional Christian interpretation has seen in the 1st pers. plur. a reference to the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. The requirements of a sound historical exegesis render this view untenable: for it would read into the Book of Genesis the religious teaching which is based upon the Revelation of the New Testament. [Note: The term Elohim is also applied to people of power and political influence and even despots who ruled in the pre-Flood world: “when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God [Elohim] saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose” (Gen. 6:1-2). (See also, Gen. 3:5; Ex. 15:11.)] [Note: The Hebrew word transliterated as echad (meaning “one”) can, in some cases—a very few cases—be understood to mean “unity,” such as when echad is used to explain the unifying of two people in the fundamental and biblically ascribed structure of the marriage relationship: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). However, even though echad can mean “unity” in some cases, it is not so with the Shema, because in the Shema we do not have the unifying of two or more Gods, which is apparent in what is said: “Hear [shama], O Israel: The Lord [YHWH] our God [our Elohim] is one [echad] Lord [YHWH]” (Deut. 6:4). Therefore echad, respective to the Shema, is not used to express a unity of beings, but rather God (YHWH) was singled out for worship among all those who were perceived as gods by the people of ancient Israel. (See also, Ex. 12:49; Neh. 8:1; Isa. 5:24).] [Note: Some translate the Shema to read that Yahweh is “God alone,” which is understood to loosely mean that God can still be understood as one among other gods, which leaves the door open for the belief that there can still be more than one person representing the Godhead. However, such an exposition of Scripture may reflect some slight-of-hand interpretation that diminishes or slants the meaning of the Shema for the purpose of supporting the Binitarian or Trinitarian doctrines, which are paradigms that go beyond the reach of what is stated in Scripture. Noting that the Apostle Paul gives us a context for explaining how the creator God is “one” in relationship to the those called gods or who are thought to be gods: “For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But