English grammar distinguishes itself from other European languages by using "you" for both the singular and plural second pronouns. In some parts of the USA this deficiency is addressed by using "y'all" when addressing more than one person. And now some are advocating for the use of "they" for the third person singular as well as plural. The reason for this is to avoid using "he" or "she" since these pronouns have become controversial.
However, if students had to write sentences like the ones found in Genesis 1:26-27 the teacher would probably call them illiterate. For the sake of clarity I write the original Hebrew words in parentheses, plural words in bold and underline singular words:
1:26 And God (Elohim) said, Let us make man (Adam) in our image ...
1:27 So God (Elohim) created man (Adam) in His own image; in the image of God (Elohim) He created him; male (zakar) and female (neqebah) He created them.
I believe the verses contain hints about the nature of God. (1) He is a plurality of persons - hence Elohim, not El; (2) His image in mankind was incomplete before the creation of the female. (3) Humans are created to be in a community.
Light can be cast on the subject by looking at the more detailed account of man's creation in Genesis 2:15-23.
2:15 Then the Lord God (YHWH Elohim) took the man (Adam) and put him in the garden of Eden ...
2:16-18 And the Lord God (YHWH Elohim) commanded the man (Adam), saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die". 18 And the Lord God (YHWH Elohim) said, “It is not good that man (Adam) should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
2:20 So Adam gave names to all cattle ...
2:22-23 Then the rib which the Lord God (YHWH Elohim) had taken from man (Adam) He made into a woman (isha), and He brought her to the man (Adam). And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman (Isha), because she was taken out of Man (Ish).”
In these verses God is identified by his NAME, the so-called Tetragrammaton YHWH which pious Jews don't pronounce. It is the name by which God identified himself to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). One conclusion I draw from this is that there was a one-on-one personal relationship between the Creator and Adam whom he had made in his image.
Every believer can be sure that God wants to relate to him/her personally as well as in community. I cannot elaborate on this better than CS Lewis's who, commenting on Revelation 2:17, wrote:
What can be more a man's own that this new name which even in eternity remains a secret between God and him? And what shall we take this secrecy to mean? Surely, that each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the divine beauty better than any other creature can. Why else were individuals created, but that God, loving all infinitely, should love each differently? And this difference, so far from impairing, floods with meaning the love of all blessed creatures from one another, the communion of the saints. If all experienced God in the same way and returned Him an identical worship, the song of the Church triumphant would have no symphony, it would be like an orchestra in which all the instruments played the same note...
