Who is the 'us' and 'our' in Genesis?

Answer 1

== This is easily understood from the scriptures. At Genesis 1:26 we read: (Genesis 1:26-27) 26 And God went on to say: "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every moving animal that is moving upon the earth." To whom was God speaking? The scriptures indicate that God had a special son, his first born, who was with him in the beginning, and who was his masterworker in creating all other things. Note the evidence of this in the following scriptures: (Proverbs 8:22-24) 22 "Jehovah himself produced me as the beginning of his way, the earliest of his achievements of long ago. 23 From time indefinite I was installed, from the start, from times earlier than the earth. 24 When there were no watery deeps I was brought forth . . . (Proverbs 8:30-31) 30 then I came to be beside him as a master worker, and I came to be the one he was specially fond of day by day, I being glad before him all the time, 31 being glad at the productive land of his earth, and the things I was fond of were with the sons of men. (John 1:1-5) 1 In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. 2 This one was in [the] beginning with God. 3 All things came into existence through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into existence. What has come into existence 4 by means of him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light is shining in the darkness, but the darkness has not overpowered it. (John 1:14) 14 So the Word became flesh and resided among us, and we had a view of his glory, a glory such as belongs to an only-begotten son from a father; and he was full of undeserved kindness and truth. (Colossians 1:15-18) 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 because by means of him all [other] things were created in the heavens and upon the earth, the things visible and the things invisible, no matter whether they are thrones or lordships or governments or authorities. All [other] things have been created through him and for him. 17 Also, he is before all [other] things and by means of him all [other] things were made to exist, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The 'us' is God talking to His son The Word [Jesus]. Together as Father and Son they are creating the earth. The 'our' is again referring to both of them the Father and the Son. "Let us [both] make man in our image..." means we look a lot like they do. "after our likeness", means He also gave us some of His characteristics in that, we not only look alike in image but behave and act in much the same way He does.

Answer 2

The second creation account in Genesis (Genesis 2:4b-25) is believed to have been written in the southern kingdom of Judah by an anonymous author now known as the Yahwist, early in the first millennium BCE. This was a time when Judah was still thoroughly polytheistic.

Genesis 2:17 says that God placed a Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the middle of the Garden of Eden. By eating the fruit of this tree, Adam became god-like: (3:22) "now the man is become like one of us." The reference to "us" can include God, but can not mean Jesus, because that would beg the question of which "one of us" had Adam become like, and why God expressed consternation. It can only mean that God was referring to the assembly of gods, of which he was a member (see Psalm 82:1: "God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.").

Adam had become like the gods, except that he was still mortal. So that he would not now eat of the Tree of Life which God had also planted in the Garden of Eden, and thus become immortal like the gods, God sent Adam and Eve from the Garden and placed cherubim and a flaming sword to keep (block) the path to the Tree of Life (3:24).