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Genesis 1:26 uses plural language that suggests the presence of a divine council in creation, but Isaiah 44:24, reflecting a later tradition within Isaiah, insists that God acted entirely alone in making the heavens and the earth, perhaps directly rebutting the Genesis account.
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Genesis 1:26
Hebrew Bible
24 God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” It was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the cattle according to their kinds, and all the creatures that creep along the ground according to their kinds. God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.” 27 God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Isaiah 44:24
Hebrew Bible
23 Shout for joy, O sky, for the Lord intervenes; shout out, you subterranean regions of the earth. O mountains, give a joyful shout; you too, O forest and all your trees! For the Lord protects Jacob; he reveals his splendor through Israel. 24 This is what the Lord, your Protector, says, the one who formed you in the womb: “I am the Lord, who made everything, who alone stretched out the sky, who fashioned the earth all by myself, 25 who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers and humiliates the omen readers, who overturns the counsel of the wise men and makes their advice seem foolish, 26 who fulfills the oracles of his prophetic servants and brings to pass the announcements of his messengers, who says about Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited,’ and about the towns of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt, her ruins I will raise up,’
Date: 7th-5th Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... the prophet objected to another implication present in Genesis 1:26 and other verses in the creation account: the participation, however inconsequential, of other heavenly beings in the creation. The first-person plural verbs depict God as discussing his plans with others, probably the heavenly court ..."
Sommer, Benjamin D.
A Prophet Reads Scripture: Allusion in Isaiah 40-66
(p. 144) Stanford University Press, 1998
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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