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Question

Dear Father,

I thought I could write you a couple of lines about the Holy Trinity.

In the old testament it is rare to read about the Holy Trinity, however, once it seemed very clear to me: Gen 1:26 “Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness”.

In the Gospels we often hear Jesus speaking of the Holy Trinity confirming: God Three and One.

I thank you and, please, include me in Your prayers.

Giuseppe

The priest’s answer

Dear Giuseppe,

Since the New Testament is explicit about the one God who exists in three Persons, I answer you in the light of the affirmation of the Old Testament that you brought to my attention.

1. First, I report here the verse we are talking about: “Then God said, «Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.»  So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Gen 1:26-27).

It has been rightly observed that when the sacred author speaks of God, he uses the third person singular, as can be clearly seen from verse: “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him”.

But when God speaks about himself, he uses the first plural person: “God said, «Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. » Does that “us” represent the Holy Trinity?

The Holy Fathers (the ancient Christian authors) believe so.

They say it in the light of the New Testament which revealed the Three divine Persons.

But the verb Let us do it doesn’t say it explicitly.

So much so that the Jews have never interpreted a reference to the Holy Trinity.

3. However, one thing is true: if it does not represent the Trinity, it nevertheless refers to a plurality.

4. It is true that many believe that it could be a majestic plural.

And yet in the light of v. 22 of the third chapter where God says: ““Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil.“He speaks with no doubt about a multiplicity of people.

5. Some holy Fathers see in these words a dialogue between the three divine Persons, Father and Son and Holy Spirit.

6. The Jews say that it could be either a dialogue between God and the angels, who are involved at the moment of the creation of man, or a plural of majesty.

7. The Jerusalem Bible notes: “Let us do does not appear to be a majestic plural and it is not explained primarily by the simple fact that the neglect Elohim is in the plural form, because this name is almost always used as the proper name of the true God and is normally used with a singular verb.

It seems that the phenomenon underlying our text, although rare in Hebrew, is the “deliberative plural”: when God, as in Gen 11: 7, and any other person speaks to himself, the Hebrew grammar seems to recommend the usage of the plural form.

The Greek (followed by the vulgar) of Ps 8:6, taken up in Heb 2:7, understood this text as a deliberation of God with his heavenly court (cf. Is 6), with the angels.

And this plural was an open door for the interpretation of the Fathers of the Church, who saw the mystery of the Trinity already hidden in this verse” (note to Gen 1:26).

8. In the light of what I have written to you, we can conclude that the text does not explicitly refer to the Trinity. But after the revelation made in the New Testament, we cannot say that it is not wrong to see a reference to it, as the Holy Fathers did.

I thank you, I include you in my prayers and I bless you

Father Angelo

Translated by Jolanda Beraldi

Revised by Michele B