Expert: Brian Thompson - 1/18/2005

Question
I am a man of deep faith, but a daily verse recently left me without answer.

In the creation story God says "let US create him in OUR image."  Who is "us" and "our" -- should that not be "my" image?

One more, just in case I don't sound too much like a nut. :)

Adam and Eve were God's first humans.  They begot Able and Cain.  When one brother committed murder, he was sent off to live in a village.  Where did the people in that village come from?

Thanks in advance for any insight you might provide.

Randal

Answer
Hi Randal


The us and our refers to the Plural nature of God, recognised even from the earliest. The name of God used in the early part of Genesis is Elohim, which is plural. Thus God the Father, Jesus the living Word, and the Holy Spirit were present. Genesis 1.1, John 1.1, tell us this.

Genesis is not an account of all the people whoever lived.
We have no real idea of the time scale of Genesis, Adam lived for almost one thousand years. In a time scale like that, from beginning with two, there would be many thousands, perhaps millions, by the time Adam died. How do you know there were people in this village? but assuming there were, I expect they comprised other sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. We do not know the ages of Abel and Cain when the murder was committed. Because the Bible tells us that Seth was born after the murder we expect there were no other children at that time. God tells us what we need to know, not what we want to know. We are told about Cain because we need to understand the importance of a right attitude towards God.

Vaya con Dios