A reader recently raised a question regarding the study note on Gen 1:26. Here is the NLT text and study note for reference (which you can also see on p. 10 of the Genesis sampler):

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” (Gen 1:26, NLT)

1:26 Let us make is more personal than the remote “Let there be” (e.g., 1:3, 6). • The plural us has inspired several explanations: (1) the Trinity; (2) the plural to denote majesty; (3) a plural to show deliberation with the self; and (4) God speaking with his heavenly court of angels. The concept of the Trinity—one true God who exists eternally in three distinct persons—was revealed at a later stage in redemptive history, making it unlikely that the human author intended that here. Hebrew scholars generally dismiss the plural of majesty view because the grammar does not clearly support it (the plural of majesty has not been demonstrated to be communicated purely through a plural verb). The plural of self-deliberation also lacks evidence; the only clear examples refer to Israel as a corporate unity (e.g., 2 Sam 24:14). God’s speaking to the heavenly court, however, is well-attested in the OT (see 3:22; 11:7; 1 Kgs 22:19-22; Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6; 38:7; Ps 89:5-6; Isa 6:1-8; Dan 10:12-13).

Here are the reader’s question and comments:

I was just reading through some notes in the Genesis sampler and am concerned with a conclusion reached in Gen 1:26. The scholar(s) that worked on it seems to have gotten away with endorsing their own view while quickly rebutting the other 3 views.... The conclusion reached in this passage is that “Let us make human beings in our image” is referring to God’s conversation with the ‘heavenly court’ or ‘angels’ and dismisses the view that it is the Godhead. Why then in verse 27 did He say that God created human beings in his own image (not in the image of angels)?

If they would have just listed the various views and not their bias, it would have been a truer Study Bible....

In reply, it is worth repeating that we do our best to explain the text in its original context. I agree with the contributor’s judgment that “Let us make” probably does not refer to the Trinity in the original context of Genesis. To put it another way, Moses would not have understood it that way, and neither would the people of Israel to whom he was writing.

I’m concerned with the perception that we are “dismissing” alternate views. We do present them, and we explain briefly why they are less probable, and why the idea that God is speaking to the heavenly court is more probable, including pointing to other passages that help set the context of this passage and give us insight as to what was probably meant here.

The doctrine of the Trinity—the uniplurality of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—did not become clear until Jesus and the apostles explained it. So Gen 1:26 probably was not intended by Moses to refer to the Trinity or to God as a plurality. Yet Christian readers have, from very early on, seen the Trinity reflected in this verse. Are they wrong? No, not necessarily. The Old Testament understanding of God in the midst of his heavenly court is fully compatible with the New Testament understanding that God’s “court” includes the uniplurality of his own identity. It is not necessarily wrong to see dim reflections of the Trinity in Old Testament passages like this, but the question we are asking in the NLT Study Bible is, how would the original human writers and readers have understood the passage? That is our focus.

It also concerns me that the reader perceives the authors and editors as trying to sneak bias into the notes. We’re really just trying to provide as much cutting-edge evangelical biblical scholarship as we can. In the NLT Study Bible, we do our best to go where the Bible itself takes us, as understood in light of the best available scholarship, within a frame of reference of faith that “all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable” (2Tim 3:16).

We do understand that different interpreters have different judgments about various things, which is why we include a variety of resources in the “Further Reading” for each book—so that readers can pursue these questions to greater depth than a study Bible can address.

In the case of Gen 1:26, The description of God addressing his heavenly court in the process of creation speaks of his majesty and authority as King—which is very much at play in Genesis 1. In response, the ancient people of Israel and we ourselves today should fall down before him in worship and say, “How great is our God! Not only does he rule the heavens and the earth, but he rules all the hosts of heaven. Nothing is beyond the bounds of his authority.”