What does god mean by the words lets us make humankind in your image according to your likeness?

Answer 1

Jesus Christ is not god and wasnt created yet, until mary believed, only in gods forknowledge was jesus christ known, as we are in his forknowledge so it is either like we the queen or he was talking to spirit beings like angles

Answer 2

Answer 1 - Christian View

Christians believe that God is triune, that is God is one God in three persons. God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit. Although the word "trinity" is not mentioned in The Bible it is implied in more than a few places.

Christians believe that God (trinity) created the world and put a plan in place that involves all persons and events even before the world was created. The "Let Us" is a small part of the discussion between the Persons of the trinity.

There is a lot of talk in the Gospels where Jesus identifies Himself with the Father, and the Holy Spirit is spoken of as a Person in many ways in the N.T.

Jesus includes this "trinity" in Matthew 28:19, " Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

Answer 2 - Jewish view

The "we" of the verb refers to the various facets of the Divine Nature. The reason the plural is used here as opposed to earlier is to draw the allusion that these different facets of self are reflected in humans. A human can argue and debate with itself, which is a unique characteristic as opposed to most animals which are given to following instinct.

Answer 3

In the first creation story (Genesis 1:1-2:4a), God says, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness (Genesis 1:26)." In the second creation story (Genesis 2:4a-25), after Adam had eaten the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, God said, "now the man is become like one of us" (Genesis 3:22). They are two different stories, now recognised as having been written by two different authors, but they have in common that God speaks to someone who is certainly his equal and, in the first story, just like God himself. Those to whom God speaks can only have been other gods, written of at a time when the Hebrew people still worshipped more than one god.

Lang, cited in English by Keel and Uehlinger (Gods, Goddesses and Images of God in Ancient Israel), says

"In the four and a half centuries during which there were one or two Israelite monarchies (ca. 1020-586 B.C.), there was a dominant, polytheistic religion that was indistinguishable from that of neighboring peoples. Insofar as there were differences between the Ammonite, Moabite, Edomite, Tyrian, etc. versions of religion, these beliefs stayed within the framework of Near Eastern polytheism, and each should be interpreted as a local variant of the same basic pattern. The Israelites . . . venerated their own protector god who was there to provide for health and family. But they venerated Yahweh [God] as well, the regional and national god, whose special domain dealt with war and peace issues. Finally, they worshiped gods who performed specific functions, those that were responsible for various special needs: weather, rain, women's fertility, etc."

. For more information, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

Answer 4

People not in possession of the Torah's tradition are liable to misinterpret this verse. Our tradition clearly states that God was addressing the angels (who had been created on the second day). This is explained in Rashi commentary (Gen.1:26), who gives reasons why God used the plural in this one case. All the other verbs in the creation-narrative are singular. See also:

http://religion.answers.com/theory/debunking-the-jepd-documentary-hypothesis

http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=1131(a Christian author)

http://judaism.answers.com/jewish-history/judaism-and-monotheism