Page:The Polytheism of Genesis Chapter 1.djvu/3

possibly the thoughts of the enlightened few."^[1] Professor Zimmern sees here a reference to the conception of other divine beings which was a relic of the early polytheistic foundation of the Hebrew story.^[2] Professor Bennett thinks that the meaning of this "us" is definitely determined by Isa. 6:1, 2, where Yahweh is described as surrounded by his heavenly court.^[3] Professor Davidson acknowledges that "the language is obscure," although he gives the explanation of Professor Bennett as that "of most expositors."^[4] Professor Driver, however, rejects this on the ground that "it would make the angels take part in the creation of man, which .... is not probable,"^[5] and he therefore, with MacLean, sees here "a plural of majesty."^[6] But, as Professor Wade points out, this interpretation "will not explain Gen. 3:22,"^[7] which indeed is practically conceded by Driver himself, who explains the phrase here "as one of us" as indicating that man "has become like one of the class of divine beings to which Jehovah also belongs." Indeed, as he further admits, it is to this class of beings that the serpent refers in Gen. 3:5, where the phrase "as God" signifies, and should be so rendered, "as gods" (RVm), thus harmonizing with the phrase "sons of God" in Gen. 6:2, which should there also be rendered "sons of gods." Professor Driver unreservedly admits that in Gen. 6:1-4 we have "an ancient Hebrew legend .... a piece of 'unassimilated mythology,'" adding, "as a rule the Hebrew narrators stripped off the mythological coloring of the pieces of folklore which they record, but in the present instance it is still discernible."^[8] Now if we have here a piece of pure mythology, similar to the classical myths which record the marriages between the gods and mortals,^[9] in other words, a polytheistic narrative, we are fully justified in seeing in Gen. 1:26 an allusion to a polytheistic conception of deity. In fact, when compared with

1. Higher Criticism, 84, 85.
2. Ibid., 8, 37.
3. Genesis, 85.
4. Theology of the Old Testament, 129.
5. Genesis, 14.
6. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, s.v. "God."
7. The Book of Genesis, 210.
8. Genesis, 45, 50, 82, 83; cf. Charles, Enoch, 62 n; Davidson, Job, 6.
9. Professor Bennett, ibid., 133.