The phrase, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil,” is remarkable. It occurs in Genesis immediately after God discovers that Adam and Eve have eaten of the forbidden fruit. If it is correct to say that existence is God and therefore evil is the lack of God, then how can God say that “man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil?” It is possible, but unlikely, that he is referring to the serpent, whom he has just cursed.
In some translations, “us” is capitalized to suggest that God is referring to himself as a “royal we.” Most likely God is introducing the concept of the Trinity—a community of three persons of the same divine substance comprising one God. In Hebrew, it is Yahweh-Elohim, or the “Lord God,” who is speaking.
In Old Testament Hebrew, several names are used to refer to God. There has been a long-standing controversy going back to the ancient rabbis about the significance of these different names. In more modern times, devotees of “source criticism” claim that the different names are due to the “sources” or writers of the Scriptures.1 Source critics believe that the Pentateuch2 comes from four sources that they call the Yahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, and Priestly. The Yahwist or “J” source (from the German “Jahweh”) uses the name “Yahweh” for God. The Elohist or “E” source uses the name Elohim for God. The Deuteronomic or “D” source is mostly concerned with topics relating to the law. The Priestly or “P” source is concerned with matters relating to the priesthood.
Since no actual primary texts or true “source” documents exist, source critics try to reconstruct these sources (and therefore the more “authentic” Scriptures) from hints they think they find in the final Scripture books. Needless to say, this is an imprecise and totally subjective method yielding few reliable results for those who are interested in lectio divina3 rather than endless academic debates without a resolution.4 No wonder it is a favorite of Scripture debunkers going back to Protestants in the 17th century who were looking for non-traditional ways (i.e., non-Catholic) to interpret the Bible. The method was particularly popularized by German scholars in the 19th century.
For the person reading with the eyes of faith, the different names used for God align remarkably well with each person of the Trinity. In Greek, Latin, and certainly modern vernacular translations, the name of God is largely translated the same way: Theos, in Greek, Deus, in Latin, etc. However, this one-size-fits-all name of God is not the way it appears in the original Hebrew or the early Greek Septuagint translation. The different traditional names for God supported the doctrine that God consists of more than one person, one of whom could be Jesus Christ, who repeatedly refers to himself as “I AM” or Yahweh. The three names are “Elohim” for the Father, “Yahweh” (the tetragrammaton or “I Am Who Am”) for the Son, and “Shekinah” for the Holy Spirit. While the word “Shekinah” does not actually appear in Scripture, it commonly appears in early rabbinical writings. Certainly, the concept of “Shekinah,” meaning “one who dwells” does appear frequently in Scripture, typically describing God’s presence in various ways, including as a cloud and as a pillar of fire. Yahweh-Elohim, usually translated as “Lord God,” is also commonly used to indicate the fullness and completeness of God, which is now known to be the Trinity.
The different names for God, particularly Elohim, were typically written in the plural in the original texts. Because these different names correlated with different actions, an ancient rabbinical tradition developed recognizing that there are different “forms” of God.5 This ancient rabbinical “two powers theology” was suppressed when the bitter struggle against Christianity began in the first century and was replaced with a strictly enforced unitarian interpretation that they maintain to this day.6
Generations of modern biblical scholars have been trained to call these names “majestic plurals” and to think of them as similar to the “royal we”7 and therefore translate them into vernaculars as singulars. These plural names were not unnoticed by the Church Fathers. For example, St. Augustine thought of them as evidence of God revealing himself as a Trinity of Persons.8
In the original Hebrew text, it is Elohim,9 or the Father, who speaks Creation into existence in the very first verses of Genesis. He makes the sun, earth, and stars and forms Adam in his image as a reasoning, creating, and ruling being. Elohim is the God of justice, of moral and physical laws. The very last time the name Elohim is used is by Jesus/Yahweh/Son from the Cross when he calls out in Hebrew to the Father, “Eli, Eli, sabachthani?” Matthew very helpfully provides a translation, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).10 It would make no sense for God to call out to himself. Jesus is obviously calling out to another of the divine persons.
The Son, in addition to the Father, appears to Adam as Elohim-Yahweh (or Lord God), when the Trinity curses the serpent, takes pity on Adam, and promises to redeem him. From then on, it is largely Yahweh (or the Son) who is the primary actor in human redemption until Pentecost, when he sends the Spirit to guide the Church. As Yahweh says to Moses,
“I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as their God, but I did not reveal to them My name, Lord. I also established My covenant with them to give them the land of the Canaanites” (Exodus 6: 2-4).
All English translations obscure the real name of God that is used in the original texts. In Hebrew, the word translated here as “Lord” is “Yahweh” and in the Greek Septuagint it is consistently Kurios. Of course, it is this same Yahweh who stands as a man before the apostles at the Last Supper and establishes a New Covenant with humanity in his blood, the same blood that is spilled on the Cross and flows from the chalice at every Catholic Mass.
“In the same manner, He also takes the cup after supper saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians: 11: 25).
How do we know it is the same Yahweh? Does it require some deep knowledge of Scripture and ancient languages in addition to profound theological reasoning? No, it is much simpler than that. Jesus plainly says so. He does so most clearly in John 8:58, when he is engaging the captious Pharisees and says,
“I say to you, before Abraham was I AM.”
This is the way Yahweh identified himself to Moses from the burning bush. Because the Jews understand exactly what he is saying, they think it is blasphemy; so they pick up stones to kill him. He tells the Samaritan woman at the well the same thing.
“The woman said to Him, ‘I know that the Messiah is coming (who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He’” (John 4: 25-6).
The Greek phrase translated here as “I am He,” is actually εγω ειμι or ego eimi or “I AM.” Jesus identifies himself the exact same way when the disciples see him walking on the water in a wind storm and Peter gets out of the boat to meet him. When the disciples cry out with fear upon seeing what they think is a ghost, he says,
“Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid” (Matthew 15:27).
The phrase translated as “It is I” is again ego eimi or “I AM.”
In the Garden of Gethsemane, when the soldiers come to arrest him,
Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, “Whom are you seeking?” They answered Him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am He .” And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them. Now when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground. Then He asked them again, “Whom are you seeking?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered, “I have told you that I am He (John 18:4-8).
John tells us that the soldiers are from the chief priests and the Pharisees at the Temple; they are not Romans. It is only later after his trial by his own people, that the Jews turn him over to the Romans for execution and Jesus stands trial again before Pilate. To these fellow Jews, it is unmistakable what Jesus is saying. If these representatives from the Temple don’t believe he can be Yahweh, why would they fall down in fear? If they believe that he is simply blaspheming, they would respond with anger. Instead, Jesus needs to tell them to get up and do what they came to do. He is prepared and willing to be sacrificed. At his trial before Caiaphas later that night, Jesus says again that he is “I AM,” or Yahweh.
The high priest asked Him, saying to Him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus said, “I AM. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy!” (Mark 14: 61-63).
Jesus not only identifies himself as Yahweh, but also as the “Son of Man” to emphasize that he is not just God, but also God who is a true human of flesh and blood. He is the “Son of Man” referenced by Daniel. The four earthly kingdoms that Daniel sees and interprets from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2:31-34) will be replaced by the “Kingdom of Heaven,”11 or the “Kingdom of God,” which is a common theme of the Christian gospels. The four kingdoms in the dream are Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon depicted by a golden head (Daniel 2:32), the silver chest and arms is the Medo-Persian Empire (Daniel 2:32), the third is Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire depicted by stomach and thighs of copper (Daniel 2:32), and the fourth is the brutal Roman Empire depicted as legs of iron (Daniel 2:33). In addition, the angel Gabriel foretells to Daniel that the Messiah will come in “seventy weeks” (Daniel 9:24). When interpreted as 70 weeks of years, or seventy times seven, or 490 years, that would place the coming of the Messiah in the Roman Empire and squarely at the time of Christ.
Jesus ties himself to Daniel’s visions and prophecies by repeatedly referring to himself as the “Son of Man.”
One like the Son of Man was coming with the clouds of heaven until He came to the Ancient of Days and approached him. Then dominion, honor, and the kingdom were given to Him, and all peoples, tribes, and languages served Him. His authority is an everlasting authority which shall not pass away, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7:13:14).
The Ancient of Days is the Father and the Son of Man is his Son Yahweh who intercedes for us before the Father and whose everlasting Kingdom is the fifth everlasting kingdom prophesied by Daniel. The phrase “Son of Man” in almost all bibles is an overly literal translation of the Aramaic bar enash (ben adam in Hebrew). A more accurate translation would instead be “someone who looks like a human being.”12 The inspired translators responsible for the Greek Septuagint properly render “man” as ανθρωπος or anthropos which does indeed mean “man” or “a human being,” but more specifically implies someone with the “face or countenance of a human being.” So, there we have it, long before the Incarnation and the birth of Jesus into history, Daniel is shown the Second Person in the image of a man interceding before the Father. Because we know that God exists in “everlasting” time, we know that the Second Person must therefore have possessed, possesses, and will possess the image of a man always and forever outside of time. Since there is no other, this is the “image” of God all of the angels were shown at their creation and the demons rejected.
The Jews of Jesus’s time were well aware of Daniel’s prophecies and knew that they were living in Messianic times. By referring to himself as the Son of Man, Jesus announces himself not just as Yahweh, but as “the Christ, the Son of the Blessed,” and as the man-God figure foretold by Daniel. He is identifying himself as the Incarnation by using Old Testament language and imagery.
It is interesting that Jesus does not answer Caiaphas’s question with a simple affirmative. Instead, he makes a pun, “I AM,” meaning “Yes,” but also “Yahweh.” This exchange shows that Jesus is in complete control of not only his faculties, but also of the situation. Is he toying with the pompous hypocrite Caiaphas? The tearing of the clothes by the judge in ancient Jewish law indicates guilt of an offense so grave that the offender has permanently broken with the covenant.
Yahweh is ready to fulfill the promise that he made to Adam in another garden long ago. It must be Yahweh, through whom everything is created, who will bring salvation. As St. Paul writes,
[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross (Colossians 1: 15-18).
“Source Criticism (Biblical Studies),” Wikipedia, accessed May 21, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_criticism_(biblical_studies).
The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. Also known to Jews as the Torah, these are the books written by Moses revealing the law; namely, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
"Lectio divina,” Wikipedia, accessed May 21, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectio_Divina.
“Sayre’s law,” Wikipedia, accessed May 21, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre%27s_law.
Peter Schäfer, Two Gods in Heaven: Jewish Concepts of God In Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020), 6.
Mohammad copied this view from the Jews he knew and it remains a core Islamic teaching.
“Royal we,” Wikipedia, accessed May 21, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_we.
Ibid.
Admittedly, this is a somewhat controversial assertion. Many will claim that “Elohim” is simply a plural for God. Interlinear Bibles are readily available and readers can investigate the question of Hebrew names for themselves. Everywhere the Father can be assumed to be the primary actor, the Hebrew uses Elohim. Is that simply because the Trinity (the plural Elohim) is acting and the Father is a member of the Trinity, or is it because it is primarily the Father’s action? There is much less controversy regarding Yahweh which is always translated as Kurios in the Septuagint and who is clearly the Son.
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2: 9-11).
In the original Greek, “Lord” in this passage is the word Kurios. Paul makes a flat declarative statement that Jesus Christ is Kurios or Kyrie (the vocative case of the word Kurios), but even more interestingly, Paul says flatly that Jesus Christ is Yahweh, since Kurios is the Greek translation of “Yahweh.” Therefore, we can say with full confidence in Paul’s inerrant authority that Jesus Christ is Yahweh and that Yahweh is the enfleshed second person of the Trinity.
Jesus is quoting from the todah or “thanksgiving” Psalm 22. He is thanking the Father for his deliverance. He is manifestly NOT calling out in despair and abandonment as people who are not familiar with the psalms think. The psalm describes Jesus’s Passion to a “T.” It describes pierced hands and feet, dividing garments among themselves, and casting lots for clothing. It also describes rejection by the Jews and becoming the God of the Gentiles (who by the way Jesus knows will be reading the Scriptures for the next several centuries almost exclusively in Greek — definitely NOT Hebrew).
"Kingship or Kingdom of God,” Wikipedia, accessed May 21, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingship_and_kingdom_of_God.
Schäfer, Two Gods in Heaven, 19.