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

by Nabeel Qureshi

Why did God not even give a hint of the Trinity before?” My answer often surprises them: He did, starting with the very first verse of the Bible. Genesis 1:1 reads: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (NIV). If we look more closely at the word we translate “God,” Elohim, we see it is plural. If we were to translate it literally, we would translate it “Gods.” But the reason we do not translate it that way is because the verb in the sentence is singular. The word Elohim is plural, but the verse treats it as a singular noun. So, in the very first verse of the Bible, we see that God is in some sense plural, but in some sense singular. This fits the model of the Trinity perfectly: God is in one sense plural in terms of his persons, but in another sense singular in terms of his being. A monadic interpretation of God makes less sense of the verse. Of course, if it were just this one instance, there would not be much of a case, but we find three indications of God’s plurality in Genesis 1. The second is found in verse 26, where God says, “Let us make man in our image” (NIV). He refers to himself in the plural. Why would God call himself “us”? Some people respond that it is a plural of majesty; a king might refer to himself as “we,”