Abstract
The divine plural ‘we’ in Genesis 1:26 has a long history of interpretation among both its ancient and modern readers. Since the author of Genesis does not clarify who he has in his mind when he speaks of ‘we’, the readers are left wondering about their identity. So far, six interpretative options have been suggested as its answers: (1) memory of pluralistic myth, (2) the created world, (3) the plural of majesty, (4) self-summons, or self-deliberation, (5) the heavenly council or court, and (6) the plurality or duality of God. Among them, the first four options are considered minor due to their various interpretative weaknesses. Only the last two options of the heavenly council/court and God’s plurality/duality are considered rather convincing by the readers of Genesis. In this article, we would like to examine various ancient interpretations of the divine plural ‘we’ in Genesis 1:26, especially focusing on the last two interpretative options. First, Philo seems to prone to the heavenly concil/court option by including angels in the divine plural. For Philo, human soul has two different parts, one part of which is being good, while the other being evil. Since Philo wants to argue that God is only responsible for the creation of the good part, he ascribes the creation of evil parts to angels. Likewise, later rabbis also argue that the divine plural consists of God and his angels. But rabbis claim for angles’ minimal involvement in the creation of human beings as they only serve God’s will. For the rabbis, God is the one who is solely responsible for the creation of human beings. While agreeing upon the heavenly council option, ancient gnostics ascribe the creation of humanity to the evil creator Demiurge and his angels. Thereby, the gnostics completely separate the Good Father from the creation of the evil world. Unlike all these ancient interpreters, Paul interprets the divine plural in Genesis Chrstologically. For Paul, Jesus is the sole cocreator of God who shares the heavenly image with God. According to the divine image found in Jesus, God and the Son created Adam together.
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