{"id":36212,"date":"2021-06-29T11:35:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T16:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=36212"},"modified":"2021-06-29T13:29:42","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T18:29:42","slug":"why-are-singular-pronouns-and-plural-pronouns-used-in-reference-to-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-singular-pronouns-and-plural-pronouns-used-in-reference-to-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are singular pronouns and plural pronouns used in reference to God?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

Blessed day.<\/p>\n

In my discussion with the Unitarian Church, I used Genesis 1:26 to prove that God is not only one person. They ask me if God in Genesis 1:26 is in the plural form then why is it, in Genesis 1:27, there is only one God who created man? They used the verb created and the pronoun His being singular as proof.<\/p>\n

I found some verses on the website bible.ca<\/a> that it is possible to use a plural pronoun in a singular verb.<\/p>\nThey used
\nGenesis 1:1 God (plural) – created (singular)
\nGenesis 46:7 Sons, grandsons – brought(singular)
\nJudges 12:7 Cities(plural) – buried(singular)
\nNehemiah 3:8 goldsmiths (plural) – repaired(singular)\n

I study these verses, but I think they are not referring to plural pronouns.<\/p>\n

Do you have additional evidence?<\/p>\nThank you so much
\nGod bless.\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them<\/em>” (Genesis 1:26-27).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Hebrew word for “God” is\u00a0elohim<\/em>. The “im<\/em>” ending in Hebrew serves a similar function to the “s” ending in English, indicating that the word refers to a plurality.\u00a0Elohim<\/em> is used 2249 times in the Old Testament.<\/p>\n

In the case of God,\u00a0elohim<\/em>, also functions as a plural noun. In English, a plural noun is a singular word that by definition refers to a set with multiple elements. For example, a congregation is singular but is composed of multiple people. Consider the following:<\/p>\n

“The congregation decided to change its evening service time to 5 pm. They debated the matter for over an hour and conclude the new time would best serve their needs.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While the first sentence is in the singular, the second is in the plural even though we are discussing the same congregation. The first sentence emphasizes the unity of decision by the entire congregation. The second sentence emphasizes the individuals coming to a conclusion.<\/p>\n

The same thing happens in Genesis 1:26-27. The discussion is between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so the plural is used. The action that resulted in Genesis 1:27 was done as a unit so the singular form is used.<\/p>\n

I agree that the examples used by the Unitarians are poor choices. Genesis 46:7 is talking about Jacob bringing his descendants with him. Nehemiah 3:8 says that one of the goldsmiths in a guild made repairs. Judges 12:7 says that Jephthah was buried somewhere in the cities of Gilead, but which one is not specified. Only Genesis 1:1, which is the same as Genesis 1:26-27, deals with a plural being treated as a singular.<\/p>\n

Another example is when the Lord calls Isaiah. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”<\/em> ” (Isaiah 6:8). Notice that God said, “whom shall I (singular) send” and “who will go for us (plural)” in one sentence. It emphasizes God’s plurality in being and unity in action.<\/p>\n

In regards to something that is not God: “Now Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in Goshen, and they acquired property in it and were fruitful and became very numerous<\/em>” (Genesis 47:27). All of Jacob’s descendants lived as a unit in Goshen so the singular is used for the first part of this verse. Individually they settled there and prospered. Since it was not all in the same way, the plural was used in the last part of the verse.<\/p>\n

Another example: “Then Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they struck the Canaanites living in Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah<\/em>” (Judges 1:17). Notice that Judah and Simeon are treated as singular (“his brother”) even though we know we are talking about tribes with many people. It then says in the plural that they struck the Canaanites. “They” could refer to the plurality of tribes or the soldiers of the tribes. But also Canaanites is in the plural, but\u00a0it<\/em> (singular) was destroyed.<\/p>\n\t

Response:<\/h2>\n

Thank you so much for the response. It is a very clear explanation.<\/p>\n

God bless.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: Blessed day. In my discussion with the Unitarian Church, I used Genesis 1:26 to prove that God is not only one person. They ask me if God in Genesis 1:26 is in the plural form then why is it, in Genesis 1:27, there is only one God who created man? They used the verb…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[90,1098,1507,87,630],"class_list":["post-36212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-god","tag-grammar","tag-hebrew-language","tag-trinity","tag-unitarians"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":85488,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/their-face-our-heart-your-body\/","url_meta":{"origin":36212,"position":0},"title":"Their Face, Our Heart, Your Body","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 9, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Oliver Watts via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 16 No. 1, March 31, 1990 In the King James and American Standard Versions, \"your\" is always plural. It means belonging to more than one person spoken to. Unlike how we talk now, when \"belonging to one person spoken to\" was meant, the word\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36572,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-the-sky-referred-to-as-heavens-in-genesis-16-8\/","url_meta":{"origin":36212,"position":1},"title":"Why is the sky referred to as “heavens” in Genesis 1:6-8?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am currently bust with a Bible study of Genesis and I am confused about something. In Genesis God said: \"Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth\". If the first heaven is the atmosphere\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1309,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/gender-neutral-bibles\/","url_meta":{"origin":36212,"position":2},"title":"Gender-Neutral Bibles","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our society has been extremely concerned about avoiding giving offense to various sections of our culture \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Just to use certain words can be perceived to be an insult by various groups. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0All variations of Negro are off limits, as is use of colored to refer to people with very dark\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44023,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-lord-our-god-is-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":36212,"position":3},"title":"The Lord Our God Is One","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Deuteronomy 6 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the world there are many views divinity. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We can broadly categorize them as: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Polytheism \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many gods, each independent. They interact with each other, sometimes cooperatively and sometimes in opposition to each other. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0b.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hinduism is a modern day polytheistic religion \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Monotheism \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63606,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/three-in-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":36212,"position":4},"title":"Three in One","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: II Corinthians 13:11-14 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Christianity, Judaism, and Muslims all believe in one God \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But their concept of \u201cone\u201d differs greatly \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In Judaism and Muslim beliefs, God is numerically one. To think of God as multiple beings smacks of polytheism and is blasphemous. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But most of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1350,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/objections-to-satan-being-referred-to-as-male\/","url_meta":{"origin":36212,"position":5},"title":"Objections to Satan being referred to as male","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 16, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You recently posted an answer to a young lady who said that her boyfriend joined the House of Yahweh and is advocating that Satan is a female.\u00a0What I got from your answer was that Satan is referred to as male in the Scriptures! There recently was a gathering of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}