A fact that cannot be set aside as unimportant is that the plural name of God is

generally associated with verbs in the singular. This will be found to be the case about

thirty times in Gen. 1:  On the other hand, it is also true that verbs, adjectives and

pronouns are used in the plural in association with Elohim. For instance:

Here the word "holy" is qadoshim, plural.

Here the word "Creator" is in the plural.

So also are the words "Maker" and

"Husband" in Isa. 54: 5.

To the above might be added such expressions as:

The words here are uttered by One, Who Himself, in the former part of the verse, uses

the language of Jehovah. (For a similar case see Isa. 45: 19).

Returning to Gen. 1: 26, we further observe that, while Elohim is plural, and the

pronouns are "us" and "our", the passage does not read: "And they said" but "And He

said", with the verb in the singular. We find the same thing in Gen. 11: 7:

Here again the pronoun is plural but the verb singular.

The orthodox Jew at the present time rejects the idea of plurality in the Unity of the

Godhead, but this has not always been the case. When Moses Maimonides wrote the

thirteen articles of the Jewish faith, he gave an absolute sense to the oneness of the

Godhead, which before had been understood as a unity.  The modern Jew, in the

synagogue service, rises when the "Shema" is reached, and cries: "Shema Yisrael Adonai

Elohenu Adonai echad" ("Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one"). The word echad

here he regards as indicating an absolute, and not a compound unity. This, however, is

unscriptural. The word yacheed, which is the true Hebrew word for absolute oneness,

occurs some twelve times in Scripture, but is never once used to express the Unity of the

Godhead. It is used three times in Gen. 22: (verses 2, 12 and 16) with reference to

Isaac as the "only" son, and also in Judges 11: 34 with reference to Jephthah's daughter.

In Psalm 68: 6 it is translated "solitary". The word is never used, however, in

connection with the Godhead. The word echad, which is in fact used, comes from the

root yachad, meaning "to unite", as for example in Psalm 133:, where the Psalmist

speaks of brethren dwelling together in unity. The same word (echad) is used in

Numb. 13: 23: "A branch with one cluster of grapes"; and in Judges 20: 1, where all

the congregation of Israel assemble "as one man" (See also verses 8 and 11). These are

all instances of a compound unity.