On this page: It shall be shown that those occasions in which God made plural reference to Himself do not indicate the presence of either three or several different people. The specific example in which Jesus Christ made plural reference to Himself will be shown, and it will be pointed out that Christ was, by any measure, one individual person. The case will then be made that each of God's plural references to Himself indicated not a plural of quantity, but a plural of majesty. Finally, a reason for each plural reference to God in the Old Testament will be presented.
Many people (incorrectly) suppose that God gave evidence that He is three "persons" (or at least plural), whenever He referred to Himself using plural pronouns (us, our, etc.). After all, they say, if God were one person (and not three), then why did He say:
GENESIS 1:26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
and
GENESIS 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
GENESIS 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
and
ISAIAH 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
They suppose that these three scriptures above help to demonstrate that God is three people, not one.
Three scriptures...that's all. The question should be asked, how many thousands of times in the Old Testament did God refer to Himself using singular pronouns (I, my, me, etc.)? After all, if God were three people (or were plural), and not one person, then why did God say:
EXODUS 3:13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?
EXODUS 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
God did not say "We are that we are," He said "I am that I am," using singular pronouns and verbs. It is this way throughout the Old Testament, not only on three occasions, but on thousands of occasions. This provides not only an abundance of evidence, but an overall context that God is one "person" . . . not three, not plural.
There is an instance in the New Testament in which God, as the man Jesus Christ, again made plural reference to Himself:
MATTHEW 3:13 ¶ Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
MATTHEW 3:14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
MATTHEW 3:15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
Note that Jesus did not say "it becometh me to fulfill all righteousness," He said "it becometh us." Here, Christ made plural reference to Himself, even though He is clearly one "person" in any way one might consider this.
For instance, when Jesus said "thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness," He could not have meant He and John the Baptist. John's own protest at Matthew 3:14 above, attests to his unworthiness to "fulfill all righteousness" with Christ. Beyond that, John was not even worthy enough to bear Christ's shoes, as John also said:
MATTHEW 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
Jesus knew this. Therefore, since John was not worthy to "fulfill all righteousness," Jesus did not mean He and John the Baptist when He said "us" at Matthew 3:15.
Likewise, Matthew 3:15 was said in the context of the baptism of Jesus Christ. At this point in the scriptures, Jesus was the only one being baptized. Since many people (erroneously) suppose that God is three people, it should be pointed out that neither the Father nor the Holy Ghost were baptized—only the Son was.
Therefore, the only thing remaining that the phrase "thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness" could refer to, is Jesus Christ Himself. Yet Christ, by any measure, is clearly one person, not several. What therefore could His plural reference to Himself be, but a plural of majesty.
The plural of majesty is a linguistic mechanism by which royalty, or occasionally greatness, is indicated.
The plural of majesty is not such an uncommon construct in language. Anyone who has taken Spanish classes in school might remember that when you refer to somebody else as either a friend or as a peer, that you refer to him as "tu" (Spanish for "you"). Quite naturally, the verbs used in such a sentence would be of the second person singular form. If however, you were speaking to a king, then he (or she) would be referred to as "usted" (the majestic form of "you"). The verbs used in this case would be the third person plural form of the word. In the Spanish language, this is reserved for royalty, and is used to indicate the status of royalty.
The English language has no such construct. Nevertheless, English speakers around the world should be familiar with this concept anyway. After all, the use of the royal "we," a plural of majesty, is often attributed to Queen Victoria of Great Britain as saying "We are not amused" when referring to herself.
Why then would the Lord Jesus Christ, who is obviously one person, refer to Himself using a "plural of majesty" at Matthew 3:15? Recall that Jesus was presenting Himself to John for baptism. Referring to Himself with the plural of majesty provided a way of elevating Himself above the implications of this.
Consider the nature and the confession of John's baptism:
MARK 1:4 John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
John's baptism was for nothing less than the remission (forgiveness) of sins. Of course, the Lord had no sins to confess, nor anything to repent of. John knew this. For this reason, John protested when Jesus presented Himself for baptism, but Jesus insisted:
MATTHEW 3:13 ¶ Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
MATTHEW 3:14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
MATTHEW 3:15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
Repenting from sin is a righteous thing to do, and the Lord came to fulfill all righteousness. However, in presenting Himself for John's baptism, Jesus would otherwise have given the appearance of having sins to repent of. Sinners approach God as supplicants to be forgiven. In referring to Himself using the plural of majesty, Jesus elevated Himself above the role of a supplicant, and placed Himself in the role of both a lord and a righteous man. In this way, Jesus let it be known that He was in fact above the need for repentance, and therefore, above John's baptism.
Christ's use of the plural of majesty in Matthew 3:15 provides us with some in sight as to why God would speak so in the Old Testament.
GENESIS 1:26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
GENESIS 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
God made all of the beasts of the earth (Genesis 1:25) and saw that "it was good," yet man was greater still. Man—and not the animals—was made in the image of God Himself (Genesis 1:27). Furthermore, unto man was given dominion over all of the other things that God had made (Genesis 1:26,18). Man is special. Although man is the greatest of God's creations, God was greater still. In referring to Himself at this point using the plural of majesty, God has elevated Himself over and above even man who He created. Here, the plural of majesty is used as a mechanism to indicate God's superior status.
It should be noted that when God did make man (Genesis 1:27), God is clearly referred to in the singular form. We have one creator, not three.
GENESIS 11:1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
GENESIS 11:2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
GENESIS 11:3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
GENESIS 11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
GENESIS 11:5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
GENESIS 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
GENESIS 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
Genesis 11:4 says that they built this tower to reach "unto heaven," so that they might "make [them] a name," to indicate their greatness. The true greatness, of course, lies with God. When God came down from heaven, and referred to Himself with the plural of majesty (Genesis 11:7), He fittingly indicated that His greatness was greater than the imaginations of these men. Here too, the plural of majesty was used as a device to indicate God's superior status.
ISAIAH 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
At no other point in the scriptures does God ponder who He will send to speak for Him. Throughout the scriptures, God tells someone to speak for Him, and he does so (Numbers 27:18-21, Judges 13, 1Samuel 3, Jeremiah 1:1-9, Ezekiel 2, Hosea 1:1, Joel 1:1, Jonah 1:1, et cetera and so on...). God had no need to depend upon the goodwill of men for this. Thus, God indicated His status by referring to Himself with the plural of majesty, indicating that although everyone else in Judah disregarded Him, He was still lord over the earth.
There are several scriptures within the Bible in which God makes plural reference to Himself. To the untrained eye, these scriptures might seem to indicate that God is somehow a group of several people (that is, several "persons"). When confronted with these scriptures, we were then reminded that almost all references to God were singular references, not plural, all but demanding that God is in fact one person (cf. Deuteronomy 6:4).
The plural reference made at Matthew 3:15 ("thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness") was proven to be a reference to Jesus Christ alone. By any definition, Jesus Christ is one person, not several. Since the statement made by Christ was a plural reference to one person (Himself), then that reference was not a plural of quantity, but a plural of majesty. Next, it was explained why Christ referred to Himself with the plural of majesty.
Having shown the existence of, and the reasons for using the plural of majesty at Matthew 3:15, the reasons for using the plural of majesty at Genesis 1:26, Genesis 11:7, and Isaiah 6:8 were then shown. In this way, it has been explained that the plural references to God at these scriptures do not indicate that God is composed of several "persons."