Genesis 1:26

Hebrew Bible

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.

Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 1:26

Targum

25 God made the beasts of the earth according to their kind, kinds that are clean and kinds that are not clean, and the cattle according to their kind, and all the creeping things of the earth according to their kinds, kinds that are clean and kinds that are not clean. And God saw that it was good. 26 And God said to the angels who minister before him, who were created on the second day of the creation of the world, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds that are in the air of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.' 27 And God created Adam in his own likeness, in the image of God he created him, with two hundred and forty-eight members, with six hundred and sixty-five nerves, and he formed a skin over him, and filled it with flesh and blood; male and female in their appearance he created them.

 Notes and References

"... The fact that God’s words, “let us make,” are in the plural, and might be taken to indicate that there is a plurality in the Godhead, gave rise to the opinion that God spoke these words to the angels; compare Genesis Rabbah 8:4; b. Sanhedrin 38b. Of the four Targums (Onkelos, Neofiti, Palestinian, Pseudo-Jonathan) of Genesis 1:26, only Pseudo Jonathan has been influenced by this midrash. On other occasions, too, Pseudo Jonathan specifies that words of God which are recorded in the plural in the Bible, were, in fact addressed to angels (compare Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 3:22; 11:7; see also 18:20, where Pseudo Jonathan tells us that God spoke to the angels). Rabbinic sources explained the words “let us make” in such a way as to exclude the Christian claim that these words pointed to the Trinity ..."

Maher, Michael Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Genesis (pp. 19-20) Liturgical Press, 1992

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