Hello Brother:

First … I have no intentions of “haunting” your blog. This last thing caught my attention as it was posted on my birthday. April 17th! (smiles)
Then, after reading the extensive replies, I was dismayed no one was able to adequately respond (only one even tried) to your observation.

---I leave you with one particular oddity in the Old Testament that I find fascinating, which no one has yet, to my knowledge, addressed. In Genesis 1:26, it is written: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." My question to you is: Who's "us"? What's all this about "our" image, "our" likeness? Who's God talking to?---

I feel overly compelled not to leave that a near total blank.
Ill give my input and then Ill be on my way.
So here I go … Answer?

God, was talking to Himself.

God is a Miraculous Trinitarian entity

>God is truly only One God, not three gods.
Deuteronomy 6:4
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

>God in Three Persons is recognized by Abraham in the Old Testament.
Genesis 18:1-3
The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, do not pass your servant by.
(Later in this same chapter Abraham pleads with God over Sodom and Gomorrah)

>All Three were present at the Baptism of Jesus Christ in the New Testament
Matthew 3:16+17 (and other Gospels)
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

>Jesus was present at the Beginning of Time as God
John 1:1-5 (Through verse 15 continues to verify that Jesus is That Word)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

>So the last question is why exactly would God talk to Himself? Jesus was kind enough to answer this question when He resurrected Lazarus.
John 11:41+42
So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

God talks to Himself simply when He wishes to expose to those who (heard Him then, and) read the Word now the truth of His nature. Not for His sake, but for our sake, so that He could best reveal who He is to us, as we come to know Him.

It seems in the case of Genesis, God was even as far back as the very beginning, revealing His Trinitarian nature for future generations.

BLX

The use of the plural personal pronoun was historically used by a ruling monarch.

It would be interesting to know if it was used in the original scrolls or just inserted during translation into English.

At the time of the King James translation, the plural personal pronoun would have been used to imply God's supreme power.