One and Many in Both God and Human Beings

READING THE GENESIS seven days of creation from a human perspective, the Friday afternoon is really where the action is. This is when God makes the first earthling. The Hebrew word for it is adam, which comes from the word adamah, and means “earth.” God makes an earth creature. And the way it's described is downright strange: “Then God said, ‘Let us make an earthling in our image, according to our likeness.'” Us?! To whom is God referring? And if there's more than one, why is it “image” and “likeness” instead of “images” and “likenesses?” There has been something suspiciously plural-ish about this God from the start. The Hebrew name for God used throughout this story is Elohim. “Im” is a plural ending, analogous to adding an –s to the end of an English word. But when Elohim is the subject of a verb in this story, the verb is always in the singular. And now the plot thickens and we have the very first time that Elohim refers to itself. And Elohim calls itself, “us.” Perhaps this is the author's way of expressing through creative grammar a God that is both many and one.