Commentary on Genesis (Complete Edition). Martin Luther
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a twofold life: an animal and an immortal life. The latter however was not as yet plainly revealed, but held in hope. Had he not fallen by sin therefore, he would have eaten and drunk, worked and generated in all innocence, sinlessness and happiness. I have thought proper to make these admonitory observations upon that difference which God made by his deep counsel between us men and all other animals among which he permits us to live. I shall return to this subject hereafter and shall dilate upon it to a greater extent.
Secondly, I would remark upon this divine Word "Let us make," that it pertains to the mystery and confirmation of our faith; by which we believe that there is one God from all eternity and three distinct Persons in one divinity or divine essence, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. The Jews indeed attempt in various ways to elude this passage; but they can bring nothing solidly or effectually against it. For this passage plagues them to death, to use the expression of Occa. That author so describes all trying and tormenting questions, which he finds he cannot solve.
The Jews assert that God uses the same expression elsewhere, when he includes the angels with himself; and also where he includes with himself the earth and other creatures. But I would here ask in the first place, why God did not use this same expression before in the creation of the previous creatures? I would demand secondly what the creation of man had to do with angels or angels with it? And I would thirdly call attention to the fact, that God makes here no mention of angels whatever but simply says, "Let us." Wherefore God speaks here of makers or creators. This expression therefore could not design or imply angels. In the fourth place, it is quite certain that it was not, could not, and cannot, be said that we were created "in the image" of angels. And fifthly and lastly, we have the divine Word in both forms of expression in the plural and also in the singular number, "Let us make" and "God made." Moses therefore here most clearly and most forcibly indicates to us, that there is internally in the very divinity itself and in the very creative essence, an inseparable and eternal plurality. Suffer we not the gates of hell themselves to wrest this truth from the grasp of our faith!
And as to what the Jews say about God's joining the earth with himself when he speaks by the pronoun we or us, that is frivolous and absurd. For surely the earth is not our maker or creator. Why did not the adorable God rather join the sun with himself, when he spoke. For Aristotle affirms that man and the sun generate man. But neither would this invention succeed; because we are not made in the image of the earth but we are made "in the image" and "after the likeness" of those glorious makers and creators who here speak and say, "Let us make," etc. These makers are three distinct persons in one divine essence. It is in the image of these three divine and glorious Persons that we are created, as we shall hereafter further hear.
And again, it is extremely absurd for the Jews to assert with reference to this passage that God adopts, in the words he here uses, the custom of princes; who, for the sake of reverence and dignity, use the plural number when they speak. But the Holy Spirit does not imitate this distancing pomp of terms, if I may so term it; nor do the Scriptures know anything of such a manner of speech.
Wherefore most assuredly the Holy Trinity is here intended of God; that in the one divine essence there are three divine Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; so that the Deity is not separated here, even in this case of action or agency. For all three Persons here concur and speak unitedly when they say, "Let us make." For neither does the Father make any other man than the Son makes; nor does the Son make any other man than the Holy Ghost makes. But the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, the one same God, are the one same author of the one same work and are the one same creator.
Wherefore according to this scriptural argument and this holy statement of the truth, the Deity or Godhead cannot be separated objectively, as the object of divine worship, nor actively as the creative agent. For the Father is not known, but in the Son through the Holy Ghost. Hence as actively, so objectively, there is but one adorable God; who nevertheless is in and within himself, substantially or essentially Father, Son and Holy Spirit; three distinct persons in one Godhead or Deity.
These divine testimonies of this book of Genesis ought to be dear and delightful to us. For although both Jews and Turks deride us, because we believe that there is one God, but three Persons in the Godhead, yet unless they are prepared impudently to deny the authority of the Scriptures, they must be compelled by the present text as well as by the passages above cited to fall in with our doctrine. They may indeed attempt to elude and avoid these testimonies, nevertheless the sting of this passage still sticks fast in their hearts; they cannot get rid of the divine expression "Let us make." They can assign no other reason for it than we have here given. Nor can they otherwise explain why Moses uses the plural noun ELOHIM. The reflections and natural convictions arising from these divine expressions they cannot shut out from their hearts and consciences, notwithstanding all the various means which they adopt in order to do so. And if they deem it the height of their wisdom to elude and get rid of these testimonies, do they think that we are destitute of ability, and cannot find wisdom enough to defend them? But the authority of the Scriptures on our side is far mightier than all wisdom on theirs; especially since the New Testament reveals the whole divine matter more clearly still. For there the Son which is in the bosom of the Father teaches us all these things with a clearness far surpassing all other testimony; whom not to believe is the highest blasphemy and eternal death. Wherefore, bid we farewell to all these blind corrupters of divine doctrines until we meet them at the day of judgment!
But you will say perhaps that these testimonies are too obscure to be appealed to as proofs of so important an article of faith. I reply, these divine things were spoken at this time, thus obscurely, according to the counsel and purpose of God; and for this very reason, because they were all left to that Great Lord and Teacher, who was to come; until whose advent the restitution of all things was reserved; even the restitution of all knowledge and of all revelations. Those mysteries therefore which "in the beginning" were set before us thus obscurely, Christ when he came revealed, made known and commanded to be preached. Nevertheless the holy fathers were in possession of this knowledge by the Holy Spirit; though not so clearly as we possess it now, who hear in the New Testament the names of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost plainly declared. For when Christ came it was necessary that all those seals should be unloosed, and all those things openly preached, which "in the beginning" had been purposely delivered to us in obscure words in reverence to the Great Teacher who was to come. And had not the Holy Spirit deferred this clear knowledge to the time of the New Testament, Arians would have existed long before the birth of Christ. Wherefore the Holy Spirit willed that this sun of knowledge should be opposed to the devil in these "last times," that his eyes might be the more intolerably dazzled, that he might the more virulently envy men such a brightness of knowledge, and be thus the more terribly tormented.
Thirdly. A whole sea of questions is here agitated as to what that "image" of God was in which Moses here says man was formed. Augustine has dwelt largely on the explanation of this passage in his book "On the Trinity." Those divines in general, who retain the division and definition of Aristotle, follow Augustine. They consider the image of God to be those powers of soul, memory, mind or intellect and will. They affirm that the image of God consists in these three qualities; which image, they say, is found in all men. And their argument is, that as in divine things the Word is begotten of the substance of the Father, and as the Holy Spirit is the complacency or good pleasure of the Father, so in man from the memory proceeds the word of the heart, which is the mind of the man; which word being uttered there is developed the will, which will the mind beholds and with which it is delighted.
These divines affirm moreover that "the similitude," after which man was formed, stands in gratuitous gifts. For as a similitude is a certain perfectness of an image, so, they say, the created nature of man is perfected by grace. According to their views therefore the "similitude" of God in man consists in his memory being adorned with hope, his intellect with faith and his will with love. It is in this manner, they assert, that man is created in the image of God; that man has a mind, a memory and a will. Again they state the sacred matter thus: Man is created after the "similitude" of God; that is, his intellect is illuminated by faith, his memory is confirmed by hope and constancy, and his will is adorned with love.
Fourthly. Divines give other divisions and definitions of the qualities of this "image" of God, in which man was originally created. They hold that memory