Genesis 1 Footnotes

1:1 The Hebrew word for “God,” Elohim, is grammatically plural but does not indicate a numerical plural (i.e., “gods”). Hebrew uses the plural form to indicate honor or intensity, sometimes called the “plural of majesty.” The pairing of a singular adjective (Ps 7:9) or verb (Gn 20:6) with Elohim shows that the one God is intended. From the Israelite standpoint the oneness of the true Deity is never in question. In Dt 6:4 “The LORD,” that is, Yahweh the God of Israel, is called “our Elohim,” and declared to be “one.”

1:14-18 The lights were “signs” that mark off time periods. They were not to be heeded as astrological signs, correlating heavenly movements with events on earth. The worship of heavenly bodies is condemned (Dt 4:19).

1:26-27 “Let us make . . .” (3:22; 11:7; Is 6:8) does not indicate multiple gods. Such a view would be inconsistent with the singular “his own image” (Gn 1:27; see 5:1-2). Ancient theories of the universe’s origin typically explained creation as the outcome of sexual cohabitation between male and female deities or of a battle between a deity and a hostile entity. The Bible uniformly affirms that God is asexual with no corresponding female consort. God made the universe by his authoritative speech, not by battling deities. Gn 1 was written in part to show that the view of the physical world current at that time (i.e., that physical objects represented the work of various deities) was wrong. The cosmos is inanimate and entirely under the control of the one God. Plural and singular forms are combined in 1:26-27 (see “the Spirit of God,” v. 2), reflecting God’s unity and yet his fullness. Subsequent scriptural revelation develops this further.

Although humans are created in the “image” and “likeness” of God (the terms are essentially synonyms; see 5:3), it does not follow that God has a body. “Image” or “likeness” often refers to a physical representation of something that may be non-material. Humans were created to serve as God’s representative to govern the earth.