No God but One: Allah or Jesus?: A Former Muslim Investigates the Evidence for Islam and Christianity

by Nabeel Qureshi

Biblical Hebrew does not use the plural of majesty, and it is probable that such a literary device had not been invented yet. To say that the Bible is using a plural of majesty is to apply later manners of speaking and writing to the Bible, which is poor methodology. God is not referring to himself here with a “royal we.” God is pointing out that, in some sense, he is plural. Another indication of his plurality is found in verse 27, which reads: “And God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” After emphasizing that God created mankind in his image, the Bible then says he created them male and female. That’s not to say God has genders, but it is to say that there is plurality in his image. This is reflected in Scripture’s use of him to refer to mankind, and then its switch to them. Mankind is in one sense singular, one humanity, but in another sense plural, composed of men and women. That is the image of God: both singular and plural.