Is there a “Divine Council” in Genesis 1?

Q: I recently heard a teaching about Genesis 1:26 that I’m confused about.  The verse says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” I was always under the impression that this pointed to the Trinity, although it’s not explicitly stated. However, this pastor was saying it’s NOT the Trinity but rather that it’s referring to “God and his divine council made up of sons of God, created in the image of God and share in the reign of the spiritual world with God” (direct quote from his sermon).  I had never heard this before and feel like this is a poor exegesis of the text. I did a little research, and I think he pulled it from Michael Heiser’s work (possibly his book The Unseen Realm).  I feel like it’s a little controversial. This pastor’s teaching is bothering me, but I don’t have much knowledge to really back up why I feel that way!

When you come across something that sounds skeptical, what you should do to look and look and look at the text, and then look at the text some more, to see if what is being said actually does match up with it.  It’s the looking at the text part that many people don’t do, when it comes right down to it.  And it is the same with this particular textual problem.

It is very common among Christians to understand the plural pronouns used in God’s speech in Genesis 1 as evidence for the Trinity.  And indeed, as a Christian that is how I understand them.  At the same time, however, I absolutely must affirm that I read the text this way because I am importing Trinitarian theology (post-Incarnation of Jesus) back into that pre-Incarnation text.  There is nothing in Genesis 1 itself that would lead us to read that speech of God as some sort of Trinitarian conversation.

However, the “Divine Council” view of that speech is also not substantiated anywhere in the Genesis 1 text.  That view, whether it comes from Michael Heiser or others, is a projection onto the text of other information about the ancient Israelite conceptualization of the heavenly realm (either from other parts of the Bible or from other extra-biblical sources).  This means that the Divine Council view is just as problematic as the Trinitarian view in terms of the exegesis of the actual text itself.  

When we read Genesis 1 and come across the plural pronouns used by God in his speech, we should look at the local text for clues regarding how to understand that peculiar aspect of the text.  In the case of Genesis 1, there are two clues which can help us.  First of all, the word for God is plural instead of singular.  Now just because a word is plural does not mean that the referent is plural.  A plural form in Hebrew can refer to something singular, similar to how “pants” in English refers a singular article of clothing even though the word itself uses a plural form.  So it is possible to read the Hebrew plural form for God as somehow referring to some kind of multiplicity in God, but it is not assured simply from the form itself.  Secondly, there is a reference to a “spirit of God” in Genesis 1:2.  Of course, this brings up the question: “How does the ’spirit of God’ relate to ‘God’ within the conceptual world of the author writing the story?”  And we don’t know the answer to that question.  I’m only saying that, if we read the text itself and look for the contextual clues in the local context, the plural pronouns in reference to God would appear to refer to some kind of relationship between “spirit of God” and “God.”  

Of course, Christian Trinitarian theology quickly speaks up and suggests an answer.  And rightly so, if we believe the manifold witness of Christian interpreters throughout the centuries.  However, as I said earlier, we must affirm that that view does not truly arise from the text itself but is rather a later explanation of the text provided after Jesus came to earth as revealed to us that God is Trinity and not simply unity.

If we want to speak strictly about the point of view of the Genesis author, we must confess that we don’t know what the author had in mind when God speaks using plural pronouns.  It is a mystery of the text. In theory, the “Divine Council” might be correct…but it could just as easily be incorrect.  It’s really just speculation.  And most of the time, as an exegete and theologian I usually prefer to stop at the place of mystery rather than speculate on solutions that could just as easily be wrong as right.  Generally speaking, I think it’s a wiser way to handle the Scriptures.