“Behold, the Man Is Become as One of Us”

And the LORD God said: ‘Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.’ (Genesis 3:22)

וַיֹּאמֶר ה' אֱלֹהִים: הֵן הָאָדָם הָיָה כְּאַחַד מִמֶּנּוּ לָדַעַת טוֹב וָרָע. וְעַתָּה, פֶּן יִשְׁלַח יָדוֹ וְלָקַח גַּם מֵעֵץ הַחַיִּים – וְאָכַל, וָחַי לְעֹלָם. (בראשית ג', כב)

The expression “as one of us” points to heavenly beings – perhaps the angels, whom the LORD consults. This is not an isolated instance: elsewhere in the Torah similar divine consultation is described. For example, at humanity’s creation: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26), and in the decision to disperse the city’s and tower’s builders: “Come, let us go down, and there confound their language” (Genesis 11:7).

The Bible describes occasions on which the LORD consults heavenly beings in a kind of heavenly council. One example is Micaiah son of Imlah’s prophecy:

I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right hand and on His left. And the LORD said: Who shall entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? (I Kings 22:19–20)

רָאִיתִי אֶת ה' יֹשֵׁב עַל כִּסְאוֹ, וְכָל צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם עֹמֵד עָלָיו – מִימִינוֹ וּמִשְּׂמֹאלוֹ. וַיֹּאמֶר ה': מִי יְפַתֶּה אֶת אַחְאָב וְיַעַל וְיִפֹּל בְּרָמֹת גִּלְעָד? (מל"א כ"ב, יט-כ)

A similar picture emerges at the beginning of Job:

Now it fell upon a day, that the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. (Job 1:6)

וַיְהִי הַיּוֹם, וַיָּבֹאוּ בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים לְהִתְיַצֵּב עַל ה', וַיָּבוֹא גַם הַשָּׂטָן בְּתוֹכָם. (איוב א', ו)

Heavenly beings appear under various biblical names: “the sons of God” (Genesis 6:2), “angels,” or messengers (Genesis 16:7), “God,” elohim (Genesis 32:29), “the host of heaven” (Deuteronomy 4:19), “the congregation of God” (Psalms 82:1), “the host of the high heaven” (Isaiah 24:21), and others.

The verse “Behold, the man is become as one of us” expresses concern that, if humanity acquired eternal life after already acquiring knowledge of good and evil, the boundary distinguishing it from heavenly beings would blur. Although the LORD includes Himself among them – “of us” – the gap between God and humanity cannot be bridged. The concern reflected in the verse thus clearly concerns humanity’s dangerously close proximity to heavenly beings, rather than its standing before God.

The Torah seems, then, to present a view that reduces the gap between humanity and divine beings. This view recurs elsewhere in the Bible.

Just as human beings are imperfect, heavenly beings, too, can sin. Eliphaz says in Job: “Behold, He putteth no trust in His servants, And His angels He chargeth with folly” (Job 4:18) – meaning that even the LORD’s servants and angels do not enjoy absolute trust. Similarly, the end of Parashat Bereshit describes the sin of “the sons of God,” who took wives from the daughters of men (Genesis 6:2), and Isaiah’s prophecy describes the future punishment of “the host of the high heaven” (Isaiah 24:21).

Nor is there an absolute gap in strength between humanity and divine beings. Jacob – known for his strength, as suggested by his rolling the stone from the well’s mouth (Genesis 29:10) – wrestles with a “man,” the designation also used for the angels visiting Abraham, and even overcomes him, as the words indicate: “for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Genesis 32:29).

Deuteronomy 4 says that all nations have divine beings – “the host of heaven” – allotted to them by the LORD, and Israel is forbidden to worship them:

and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest … even all the host of heaven, thou be drawn away and worship them … which the LORD thy God hath allotted unto all the peoples (Deuteronomy 4:19)

וּפֶן תִּשָּׂא עֵינֶיךָ הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וְרָאִיתָ … כֹּל צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְנִדַּחְתָּ וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִיתָ לָהֶם … אֲשֶׁר חָלַק ה' אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֹתָם לְכֹל הָעַמִּים (דברים ד', יט).

Psalm 82 continues this understanding and describes the judgment of those “gods,” commanded to judge their peoples justly, who failed:

“God standeth in the congregation of God; In the midst of the judges He judgeth” (Psalms 82:1). The poet rebukes them for perverting justice and expresses disappointment: “I said: Ye are godlike beings, And all of you sons of the Most High” (Psalms 82:6) – that is, I thought you were gods, sons of the LORD, God Most High (see Genesis 14:22). Finally the poet decrees their fate: “Nevertheless ye shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes” (Psalms 82:7). Through your sins you will lose the eternal life intended for you and become mortal, like human beings. The psalm ends with a prayer that the LORD inherit all nations, not only Israel, and judge them justly too: “Arise, O God, judge the earth; For Thou shalt possess all the nations” (Psalms 82:8). JPS renders the second elohim in verse 1 as “judges”; the author’s reading takes it to mean divine beings.

Just as the nations’ gods are regarded as judicial beings, human judges, too, are often called elohim in Scripture – a title reflecting majesty, authority, and power, likening their status to those higher beings. Thus Parashat Mishpatim says: “then his master shall bring him unto God” (Exodus 21:6), and “he whom God shall condemn shall pay double unto his neighbour” (Exodus 22:8). Even rulers themselves are called elohim, as the parallelism reveals: “Thou shalt not revile God, nor curse a ruler of thy people” (Exodus 22:27). Here too, the author’s interpretation of elohim as judges or rulers differs from JPS’s “God.”

All this shows that in many places Scripture narrows both the physical and essential distance between human beings and heavenly beings. A key verse encapsulating this approach occurs in Psalm 8:

Yet Thou hast made him but little lower than the angels, And hast crowned him with glory and honour. (Psalms 8:6)

וַתְּחַסְּרֵהוּ מְּעַט מֵאֱלֹהִים – וְכָבוֹד וְהָדָר תְּעַטְּרֵהוּ. (תהילים ח', ו)

The word elohim (אֱלֹהִים) in this verse refers, of course, to heavenly beings – as plain-sense commentators such as Ibn Ezra, Radak, Meiri, and others explained – rather than to the LORD Himself. The gap between humanity and the LORD is infinite; one cannot say that humanity is “almost God.” Moreover, had the LORD been intended, Scripture would have said, “Thou hast made him but little lower than Thyself.” JPS’s “angels” expresses this reading of the Hebrew elohim.

Thus both the Genesis verse, “Behold, the man is become as one of us,” and the Psalms verse, “Yet Thou hast made him but little lower than the angels,” show that the gap between humanity and divine beings is quite narrow. Humans and divine beings share knowledge of good and evil, have sexual impulses, can sin, and may even be punished. The significant difference remaining is eternal life itself, which divine beings, too, can lose through sin.