Genesis 18 opens by telling us that the LORD appeared to Abraham. Immediately afterward, Abraham sees three men and invites them to his tent:

And the LORD appeared unto him by the terebinths of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood over against him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed down to the earth, (Genesis 18:1–2)

וַיֵּרָא אֵלָיו ה' בְּאֵלֹנֵי מַמְרֵא וְהוּא יֹשֵׁב פֶּתַח הָאֹהֶל כְּחֹם הַיּוֹם. וַיִּשָּׂא עֵינָיו וַיַּרְא וְהִנֵּה שְׁלֹשָׁה אֲנָשִׁים נִצָּבִים עָלָיו וַיַּרְא וַיָּרָץ לִקְרָאתָם מִפֶּתַח הָאֹהֶל וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ אָרְצָה. (בראשית י"ח א-ב)

The men subsequently announce Isaac’s birth. What connects the divine appearance in the first verse with the visit of the three men described from the following verse onward?

A Prophetic Vision or Reality?

In The Guide of the Perplexed (II:42), Maimonides explains that, like the appearance of God in the opening verse, the men’s visit was a prophetic vision. All these verses describe one vision: verse 1 says that God appeared, and the following verses explain how, through a vision of three angels. On this interpretation, the angels’ visit did not happen in reality.

Nahmanides (Genesis 18:1) finds it difficult to accept that the whole visit was merely a vision. Indeed, Maimonides’ approach lacks a textual basis. Nahmanides therefore proposes two distinct events: a revelation of the divine presence, and an announcement by angels. Their common feature, accounting for their sequence, is that both honored Abraham for circumcising himself, as described at the previous chapter’s end. Yet separating the divine appearance from the angels’ visit is unconvincing, since the opening appears to serve as a heading for what follows. It is hard to accept that God’s appearance is wholly unrelated to the men’s visit.

Rashbam, like Maimonides, understands the visit itself as God’s appearance to Abraham, but does not accept that the whole episode took place in a prophetic dream:

“The LORD appeared unto him”: How? Three men who were angels came to him. In many places, an angel’s appearance is described in the language of the divine presence, as in “My name is in him” (Exodus 23:21): a person’s agent is as the person himself. Similarly, “the angel of the LORD appeared unto him [the quoted source has a textual error] in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush” (Exodus 3:2), followed by “the LORD saw that he turned aside to see” (verse 4). (Rashbam, Genesis 18:1)

"וַיֵּרָא אֵלָיו ה'": היאך? שבאו אליו שלושה אנשים שהיו מלאכים. שבהרבה מקומות כשנראה המלאך קוראו בלשון שכינה, כדכתיב: "כִּי שְׁמִי בְּקִרְבּוֹ" (שמות כ"ג כא), שלוחו כמותו. וכן: "וַיֵּרָא אֵלָיו (הטעות במקור) מַלְאַךְ ה' בְּלַבַּת אֵשׁ מִתּוֹךְ הַסְּנֶה" (שמות ג' ב). וכתוב שם: "וַיַּרְא ה' כִּי סָר לִרְאוֹת" (פס' ד). (רשב"ם, בראשית י"ח א)

For Rashbam, angels are God’s messengers, and His agent is as Himself. Wherever God reveals Himself through an angel, one can therefore say that God appeared. The visit’s opening heading is appropriate because the angels’ visit is itself God’s revelation.

As noted, during the visit Abraham learns of Isaac’s birth:

And they said unto him: ‘Where is Sarah thy wife?’ And he said: ‘Behold, in the tent.’ And He said: ‘I will certainly return unto thee when the season cometh round; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.’ And Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.– (Genesis 18:9–10)

וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו אַיֵּה שָׂרָה אִשְׁתֶּךָ וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּה בָאֹהֶל. וַיֹּאמֶר שׁוֹב אָשׁוּב אֵלֶיךָ כָּעֵת חַיָּה וְהִנֵּה בֵן לְשָׂרָה אִשְׁתֶּךָ... (בראשית י"ח ט-י)

Sarah hears and laughs inwardly, whereupon God addresses Abraham:

And the LORD said unto Abraham: ‘Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying: Shall I of a surety bear a child, who am old? Is any thing too hard for the LORD. At the set time I will return unto thee, when the season cometh round, and Sarah shall have a son.’ (Genesis 18:13–14)

וַיֹּאמֶר ה' אֶל אַבְרָהָם לָמָּה זֶּה צָחֲקָה שָׂרָה לֵאמֹר הַאַף אֻמְנָם אֵלֵד וַאֲנִי זָקַנְתִּי. הֲיִפָּלֵא מֵה' דָּבָר לַמּוֹעֵד אָשׁוּב אֵלֶיךָ כָּעֵת חַיָּה וּלְשָׂרָה בֵן. (בראשית י"ח יג-יד)

Who spoke to Abraham and rebuked him for Sarah’s laughter: one of the guests or God Himself? Apparently God, since Scripture explicitly says that the LORD spoke. Yet one guest initially announced the birth using exactly the same words about returning at the appointed time, and now seems to repeat them. The announcer and the one reproaching Abraham were evidently the same speaker. Following Rashbam, we could resolve this by saying that an angel spoke on God’s behalf, allowing the subsequent words to be attributed to God although the angel actually uttered them.

The Third – the Greatest among Them

At Abraham’s tent, the three visitors are always called “men,” never “angels.” When two reach Sodom, however, they are called angels (Genesis 19:1). At least two men were therefore angels. What about the third? Was he also an angel, and where did he disappear when the others went to Sodom?

Following the Sages, Rashi offers this interpretation:

“And, lo, three men”: One to announce the birth to Sarah, one to overthrow Sodom, and one to heal Abraham, since one angel does not perform two missions… Raphael, who healed Abraham, went from there to save Lot. (Rashi, Genesis 18:2)

"וְהִנֵּה שְׁלֹשָׁה אֲנָשִׁים": אחד לבשר את שרה ואחד להפוך את סדום ואחד לרפאות את אברהם, שאין מלאך אחד עושה שתי שליחויות... ורפאל שריפא את אברהם הלך משם להציל את לוט. (רש"י, בראשית י"ח ב)

For Rashi, three angels received three different tasks. Since the third had already completed his announcement that Sarah would give birth, he departed. Two tasks remained, destroying Sodom and saving Lot, so only two angels continued there. But assigning a specific mission to each is a midrashic interpretation without support in the verses. If we seek their plain meaning, the question remains: where did the third man go?

The verses reveal a clear hierarchy among the three men. Abraham sees three but addresses only one:

and said: ‘My lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. (Genesis 18:3)

אֲדֹנָי אִם נָא מָצָאתִי חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ אַל נָא תַעֲבֹר מֵעַל עַבְדֶּךָ. (בראשית י"ח ג)

Rashi’s first interpretation of the verse explains:

He spoke to the greatest among them, calling them all “lords,” but saying to the greatest, “Pass not away.” If he did not pass on, his companions would stay with him.

לגדול שבהם אמר, וקראם כולם 'אדונים' ולגדול אמר "אַל נָא תַעֲבֹר", וכיון שלא יעבור הוא יעמדו חבריו עימו.

The ensuing conversation does involve all three: Abraham offers to wash their feet and feed them, they agree, and they ask about Sarah. At the decisive point, however, only one announces Isaac’s birth:

And He said: ‘I will certainly return unto thee when the season cometh round; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.’ And Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.– (Genesis 18:10)

וַיֹּאמֶר שׁוֹב אָשׁוּב אֵלֶיךָ כָּעֵת חַיָּה וְהִנֵּה בֵן לְשָׂרָה אִשְׁתֶּךָ... (בראשית י"ח י)

Rashbam explains that two angels went to Sodom while the third, the greatest, stayed to discuss its fate with Abraham. The statement about whether to conceal from Abraham what God intended (Genesis 18:17) refers to him. Yet this is unsatisfactory. We can accept that God speaks through angels and that their actions may be attributed to Him. But Rashbam posits three angels of whom only the greatest spoke in God’s name. The nature of this hierarchy is unclear and lacks a parallel in the Torah. All angels are God’s messengers: why should one alone speak for Him?

A Visit by the Heavenly Retinue

A simple explanation answers these questions, continuing Rashbam’s direction but taking one further step: the three men were the heavenly retinue, God Himself and two of His angels.

The following midrash explicitly suggests this:

…The Holy One called the angels and said, “Come, let us visit the sick man.”

They said before Him, “Master of the universe, what is man that You remember him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalms 8:5)…

He said, “Is that what you say? By your lives, the scent of that blood is sweeter to Me than myrrh and frankincense. If you will not go, I shall go alone”… Therefore the Holy One appeared to him, as it says, “He appeared unto him.”

When the angels saw this, they too accompanied the Holy One, as it says, “He lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men,” and so forth. (Midrash Tanhuma, older recension, Vayera 4)

...וקרא הקב״ה את המלאכים ואמר להם: באו ונבקר את החולה.
אמרו לפניו: ריבונו של עולם, "מָה אֱנוֹשׁ כִּי תִזְכְּרֶנּוּ וּבֶן אָדָם כִּי תִפְקְדֶנּוּ" (תהלים ח' ה)...
אמר להם: כך אמרתם? חייכם, עָרֵב עלי ריח של אותו דם ממור ולבונה. אם אין אתם הולכים הרי אני הולך לעצמי... לפיכך נגלה עליו הקב״ה, שנאמר: "וַיֵּרָא אֵלָיו".
וכיון שראו המלאכים כך הלכו גם הם עם הקב״ה, שנאמר: "וַיִּשָּׂא עֵינָיו וַיַּרְא וְהִנֵּה שְׁלֹשָׁה אֲנָשִׁים וגו'. (מדרש תנחומא ישן, וירא ד)

In the midrash, God wishes to visit the ill Abraham and invites the angels. They consider a heavenly visit to a human being inappropriate, but God answers that Abraham’s circumcision merits it. They join Him, and Abraham’s three men are thus God and His two angels.

Rabbi Elhanan Samet argues that the speaker’s third-person reference to God, asking whether anything is too hard for the LORD, proves that it is an angel rather than God Himself, as Rashbam maintains (Studies in the Weekly Torah Portions, second series, pp. 66–67). This can be rejected, since God sometimes refers to Himself in the third person, generally in anger. At Kibroth-hattaavah, after Moses apparently questioned His power, the LORD said to Moses, asking whether the LORD’s hand had become short and promising that Moses would see whether His word came true (Numbers 11:23; וַיֹּאמֶר ה’ אֶל מֹשֶׁה הֲיַד ה’ תִּקְצָר עַתָּה תִרְאֶה הֲיִקְרְךָ דְבָרִי אִם לֹא). Here too God was angry with Sarah for doubting that she would give birth in old age.

If the visitors were God and two angels, the connection between the opening divine appearance and their visit becomes clearer. Rashbam correctly identifies the visit itself as God’s appearance, but on the proposed interpretation God Himself came to announce the birth, accompanied by two angels, rather than being represented by the greatest of three angels.

After bowing to the ground, Abraham addressed his guests:

and said: ‘My lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. (Genesis 18:3)

...אֲדֹנָי אִם נָא מָצָאתִי חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ אַל נָא תַעֲבֹר מֵעַל עַבְדֶּךָ. (בראשית י"ח ג)

Nahmanides notes that Adonai is pointed with a qamatz, identifying it as a sacred divine name. Abraham’s address is entirely singular. As noted, the visitors appeared as one man and two attendants, and he addressed the greatest. Yet even if he sensed the encounter’s importance, he did not know that he stood before God: he thought the leading visitor was human. “My lord,” adoni, or the respectful plural adonai with a patach, would therefore have been more suitable. In reality, however, he was already speaking directly to God. The Torah respectfully changed the vowel to Adonai, in something like a scribal correction. Only upon hearing the prophetic announcement of Sarah’s son did Abraham realize that God, rather than a mortal guest, was speaking. There is thus no need to depart from the plain sense: throughout the episode God Himself, not an angel, addressed him.

This interpretation also illuminates Sarah’s whereabouts. Twice the verses stress that she was in the tent and did not meet the visitors directly: first when Abraham hurried to ask her to prepare cakes, and again shortly before the birth announcement. The Sages praised her modesty, fitting the verses’ plain meaning. On our reading, however, the repetition emphasizes that only Abraham met God face to face, while Sarah merely heard God’s words from behind the tent entrance.

Immediately after Abraham accompanied his guests, we read:

And the men turned from thence, and went toward Sodom; but Abraham stood yet before the LORD. (Genesis 18:22)

וַיִּפְנוּ מִשָּׁם הָאֲנָשִׁים וַיֵּלְכוּ סְדֹמָה וְאַבְרָהָם עוֹדֶנּוּ עֹמֵד לִפְנֵי ה'. (בראשית י"ח כב)

Rashi wonders why Abraham is described as still standing before God when God had come to Abraham, making the reverse formulation seem more appropriate:

He had not gone to stand before Him; rather the Holy One came to him and said, “The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great” (Genesis 18:20). It should have said, “The LORD still stood before Abraham.” This is a scribal correction. (Rashi, Genesis 18:22)

והלא לא הלך לעמוד לפניו אלא הקב"ה בא אצלו ואמר לו: "זַעֲקַת סְדֹם וַעֲמֹרָה כִּי רָבָּה" (בראשית י"ח כ), והיה לו לכתוב: וה' עודנו עומד לפני אברהם. אלא תיקון סופרים הוא זה. (רש"י, בראשית י"ח כב)

Rashi is right that God came to visit Abraham, but this does not justify the suggested reverse statement. This is no ordinary hospitality scene; it is divine revelation, in which a human stands before God, not vice versa. Moreover, even before Abraham understood his guests’ identity, the Torah emphasized his standing by them under the tree (Genesis 18:8). Both descriptions mark Abraham’s subordinate position. Initially he stands beside God as an attendant; later he stands before Him as a recipient of prophecy. If standing was attributed to Abraham before he understood that God was visiting, all the more so should it be at the end, when the visitors’ true identity was clear.

On the proposed interpretation, events unfolded as follows. Abraham accompanied God and His two angels toward Sodom. On the way, God told the angels that it would be inappropriate to conceal their purpose from Abraham:

And the men rose up from thence, and looked out toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And the LORD said: ‘Shall I hide from Abraham that which I am doing; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him.’ (Genesis 18:16–19)

וַיָּקֻמוּ מִשָּׁם הָאֲנָשִׁים וַיַּשְׁקִפוּ עַל פְּנֵי סְדֹם וְאַבְרָהָם הֹלֵךְ עִמָּם לְשַׁלְּחָם. וַה' אָמָר הַמְכַסֶּה אֲנִי מֵאַבְרָהָם אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי עֹשֶׂה. וְאַבְרָהָם הָיוֹ יִהְיֶה לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל וְעָצוּם וְנִבְרְכוּ בוֹ כֹּל גּוֹיֵי הָאָרֶץ. כִּי יְדַעְתִּיו לְמַעַן אֲשֶׁר יְצַוֶּה אֶת בָּנָיו וְאֶת בֵּיתוֹ אַחֲרָיו וְשָׁמְרוּ דֶּרֶךְ ה' לַעֲשׂוֹת צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט לְמַעַן הָבִיא ה' עַל אַבְרָהָם אֵת אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר עָלָיו. (בראשית י"ח טז-יט)

God then addressed Abraham:

And the LORD said: ‘Verily, the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and, verily, their sin is exceeding grievous. I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know.’ And the men turned from thence, and went toward Sodom; but Abraham stood yet before the LORD. (Genesis 18:20–22)

וַיֹּאמֶר ה' זַעֲקַת סְדֹם וַעֲמֹרָה כִי רָבָּה וְחַטָּאתָם כִּי כָבְדָה מְאֹד. אֵרְדָה נָּא וְאֶרְאֶה הַכְּצַעֲקָתָהּ הַבָּאָה אֵלַי עָשׂוּ כָּלָה וְאִם לֹא אֵדָעָה. וַיִּפְנוּ מִשָּׁם הָאֲנָשִׁים וַיֵּלְכוּ סְדֹמָה וְאַבְרָהָם עוֹדֶנּוּ עֹמֵד לִפְנֵי ה'. (בראשית י"ח כ-כב)

We now understand why only two visitors continued to Sodom. The third was God Himself. He had neither gone to Sodom nor vanished; He remained to discuss its fate with Abraham while the angels proceeded to investigate whether the city had acted according to the outcry reaching Him.

In Sodom

The two angels arrived in Sodom that evening. Unlike their intentional visit with God to Abraham’s tent to announce Isaac’s birth, their encounter with Lot was incidental. Lot was sitting at the city gate, saw them, and offered lodging (Genesis 19:1–3). Their purpose was to investigate the outcry and, if confirmed, destroy Sodom (Genesis 18:21). Presumably they wanted to walk around the city in ordinary human appearance and observe how people treated them, rather than specifically stay with Lot. Hence their reply that they would sleep in the square (Genesis 19:2). They agreed to enter his home only after he insisted strongly.

Sodom’s people soon gathered and sought to assault the guests. Their behavior answered the angels’ question and sealed the city’s doom. Lot was determined to protect those under his roof, even at the high price of harm to his daughters. His actions demonstrated that he was a righteous man in Sodom and deserved rescue. The angels therefore revealed their mission and offered him the chance to save himself and everything belonging to him:

And the men said unto Lot: ‘Hast thou here any besides? son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whomsoever thou hast in the city; bring them out of the place; for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxed great before the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.’ (Genesis 19:12–13)

וַיֹּאמְרוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים אֶל לוֹט עֹד מִי לְךָ פֹה חָתָן וּבָנֶיךָ וּבְנֹתֶיךָ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר לְךָ בָּעִיר הוֹצֵא מִן הַמָּקוֹם. כִּי מַשְׁחִתִים אֲנַחְנוּ אֶת הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה כִּי גָדְלָה צַעֲקָתָם אֶת פְּנֵי ה' וַיְשַׁלְּחֵנוּ ה' לְשַׁחֲתָהּ. (בראשית י"ט יב-יג)

Lot delayed. To rescue him, the angels grasped his hand and those of his wife and two daughters, bringing them outside the city. From their perspective, their part was complete; thereafter Lot had to manage for himself, as they had initially proposed.

Until this point the angels always acted and spoke as a pair, and Lot addressed them accordingly. As they took him outside, however, a single speaker suddenly addressed him: he said (וַיֹּאמֶר) that Lot should flee for his life, not look behind him or stop anywhere in the plain, but escape to the mountain lest he perish (Genesis 19:17).

Lot negotiated with this speaker:

And Lot said unto them: ‘Oh, not so, my lord; behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shown unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest the evil overtake me, and I die. Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one; oh, let me escape thither–is it not a little one?–and my soul shall live.’ And he said unto him: ‘See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which thou hast spoken. Hasten thou, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither.’–Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.– (Genesis 19:18–22)

וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹט אֲלֵהֶם אַל נָא אֲדֹנָי. הִנֵּה נָא מָצָא עַבְדְּךָ חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ וַתַּגְדֵּל חַסְדְּךָ אֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתָ עִמָּדִי לְהַחֲיוֹת אֶת נַפְשִׁי וְאָנֹכִי לֹא אוּכַל לְהִמָּלֵט הָהָרָה פֶּן תִּדְבָּקַנִי הָרָעָה וָמַתִּי. הִנֵּה נָא הָעִיר הַזֹּאת קְרֹבָה לָנוּס שָׁמָּה וְהִיא מִצְעָר אִמָּלְטָה נָּא שָׁמָּה הֲלֹא מִצְעָר הִוא וּתְחִי נַפְשִׁי. וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו הִנֵּה נָשָׂאתִי פָנֶיךָ גַּם לַדָּבָר הַזֶּה לְבִלְתִּי הָפְכִּי אֶת הָעִיר אֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתָּ. מַהֵר הִמָּלֵט שָׁמָּה כִּי לֹא אוּכַל לַעֲשׂוֹת דָּבָר עַד בֹּאֲךָ שָׁמָּה עַל כֵּן קָרָא שֵׁם הָעִיר צוֹעַר. (בראשית י"ט יח-כב)

Who was speaking to Lot?

I suggest that, as with Abraham, it was God Himself, not an angel speaking for Him. Lot begins with the plural: he speaks to them (אֲלֵהֶם). Immediately afterward he shifts to the singular, referring to your servant and favor in your eyes (עַבְדְּךָ; בְּעֵינֶיךָ). Adonai could mean “my lords,” continuing the plural address to the angels. On that reading its unusual qamatz, instead of the usual patach, is a pausal form at the verse’s end. Alternatively, Adonai names God and opens a direct conversation with Him. The Babylonian Talmud understands it this way too:

All the names used in connection with Lot are ordinary, except this one, which is sacred: “Lot said unto them: Oh, not so, my Lord. Behold now, Thy servant hath found grace in Thy sight,” and so forth (Genesis 19:18–19). The one who has the power to kill and give life is the Holy One. (Babylonian Talmud, Shevuot 35a)

כל שמות האמורים בלוט – חול, חוץ מזה שהוא קודש, שנאמר (בראשית י"ט יח) "וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹט אֲלֵהֶם אַל נָא אֲדֹנָי. הִנֵּה נָא מָצָא עַבְדְּךָ חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ וגו'"; מי שיש בידו להמית ולהחיות – זה הקדוש ברוך הוא. (תלמוד בבלי שבועות, לה ע"א)

God and His two angels had visited Abraham on their way to Sodom. God stayed to discuss its fate while the angels continued. Lot’s address, beginning in the plural and ending with a personal appeal to God, marks the moment God joined His angels after completing His negotiation with Abraham, now to discuss Lot’s own fate. The earlier discussion established that Lot, Sodom’s righteous man, could not be harmed. Abraham had argued:

That be far from Thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, that so the righteous should be as the wicked; that be far from Thee; shall not the judge of all the earth do justly?’ (Genesis 18:25)

חָלִלָה לְּךָ מֵעֲשֹׂת כַּדָּבָר הַזֶּה לְהָמִית צַדִּיק עִם רָשָׁע וְהָיָה כַצַּדִּיק כָּרָשָׁע חָלִלָה לָּךְ הֲשֹׁפֵט כָּל הָאָרֶץ לֹא יַעֲשֶׂה מִשְׁפָּט (בראשית י"ח כה)

Unlike the angels, who merely left Lot outside, God therefore accepted his request to flee to Zoar and had to urge him to reach it quickly. Bound by the morality clarified in His discussion with Abraham, God could do nothing to Sodom that would endanger Lot.

God in Human Form?

Identifying the third and greatest visitor as God rather than an angel raises a theological difficulty: how can God appear to Abraham as a human being? Divine appearance in human form recalls the Christian belief that Jesus is God’s manifestation in flesh and blood, a belief to which we strongly object. This discomfort might lead us to settle for Rashbam’s angel speaking for God. I would even venture that it explains why Rashbam stopped short of the conclusion his interpretation invites: that the visitor was God Himself. In my view, however, his interpretation is mistaken for several reasons.

First, it matters whether God spoke directly to Abraham or through an angel. A midrash quoted in the Passover Haggadah illustrates this in another context:

“The LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders” (Deuteronomy 26:8): not through an angel, a seraph, or a messenger, but through the Holy One Himself, as it says that He would pass through Egypt that night, strike every firstborn of human and beast, execute judgment on Egypt’s gods, and declare, “I am the LORD” (Exodus 12:12).

"וַיּוֹצִאֵנוּ ה' מִמִּצְרַיִם בְּיָד חֲזָקָה וּבִזְרֹעַ נְטוּיָה וּבְמֹרָא גָּדֹל וּבְאֹתוֹת וּבְמֹפְתִים" (דברים כ"ו ח): "וַיּוֹצִאֵנוּ ה' מִמִצְרַיִם" – לא על ידי מלאך ולא על ידי שרף ולא על ידי שליח אלא הקדוש ברוך הוא בכבודו ובעצמו שנאמר: "וְעָבַרְתִּי בְאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בַּלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה וְהִכֵּיתִי כָּל בְּכוֹר בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מֵאָדָם וְעַד בְּהֵמָה וּבְכָל אֱלֹהֵי מִצְרַיִם אֶעֱשֶׂה שְׁפָטִים אֲנִי ה'" (שמות י"ב יב):

“I will pass through the land of Egypt in that night” – I, not an angel.

“And will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt” – I, not a seraph.

“And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments” – I, not the messenger.

“I am the LORD” – I am He, and no other.

"וְעָבַרְתִּי בְאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בַּלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה" – אני ולא מלאך
"וְהִכֵּיתִי כָּל בְכוֹר בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם" – אני ולא שרף
"וּבְכָל אֱלֹהֵי מִצְרַיִם אֶעֱשֶׂה שְׁפָטִים" – אני ולא השליח
"אֲנִי ה'" – אני הוא ולא אחר.

The midrash strongly emphasizes that redemption was performed by God Himself rather than an emissary, although parts were actually accomplished through agents such as Moses and Aaron. Since the distinction matters, we should not remove Scripture from its plain meaning by substituting an angel when it explicitly identifies God as Abraham’s interlocutor.

To understand the plain sense, we must distinguish the story as the Torah chooses to tell it from what actually happened. From beginning to end, the Torah describes the relationship between God and humanity. The relationship between an infinite God and human beings is difficult, perhaps impossible, to understand. Philosophically, saying that God spoke to Israel at Sinai or face to face with Moses is no different from saying that He appeared to Abraham as a mortal guest. Just as we cannot understand Sinai literally, or Moses’ face-to-face speech and vision of God’s form, neither can we understand this midday meeting literally. We must recognize symbols and images rather than physical reality.

This insight, seemingly simple today, was not accepted through the generations by many great Jewish figures. The Torah and Bible generally portray God as humanlike: He feels grief, regrets, becomes angry, and shows compassion. His form is human, and humanity is created in His image (Genesis 1:27). Generally He cannot be seen, as He tells Moses that no human may see Him and live (Exodus 33:20), but exceptions exist. Israel’s nobles ate, drank, and saw God (Exodus 24:11). Moses saw Him and spoke face to face as one person speaks to another (Exodus 33:11); God said He spoke to Moses mouth to mouth, plainly rather than in riddles, and that Moses beheld His likeness (Numbers 12:8). Isaiah saw the LORD seated on a throne (Isaiah 6:1), and Ezekiel described a human form seated on a throne (Ezekiel 1:26). Rabbinic homilies and Hekhalot literature, mystical writings of the first centuries CE, extended this tendency to bodily descriptions absent from biblical accounts of God. Only in the later Middle Ages do we find a Jewish tendency to reject corporeal expressions, prevalent among rationalists in Spain and Provence and resisted by conservative circles, especially in Ashkenaz. To see how entrenched corporeal conceptions remained in Maimonides’ time, consider the objection of Abraham ben David, the Raavad, of twelfth-century Provence, to Maimonides calling literal believers in these descriptions heretics:

Why did he call such a person a heretic? Many greater and better than he followed this view because of what they saw in Scripture, and even more because of what they saw in the aggadic teachings that confuse opinions. (Raavad’s gloss on Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentance 3:7)

ולמה קרא לזה מין, וכמה גדולים וטובים ממנו הלכו בזו המחשבה לפי מה שראו במקראות ויותר ממה שראו בדברי האגדות המשבשות את הדעות. (השגת הראב"ד על רמב"ם, משנה תורה, הלכות תשובה, פרק ג' הלכה ז)

Only after many years did Maimonides’ approach become generally accepted, and his reading of corporeal verses become their sole accepted interpretation. It treats them as literary devices intended to instill proper conceptions of God and bring His immense transcendence within humanity’s limited earthly understanding. Exploring the significance of the Torah’s humanlike God lies beyond this book. Yet we cannot ignore its choice of this portrayal, although our present understanding considers it fundamentally untenable. In this context, God’s human appearance before Abraham is not exceptional. What is unusual is that He initially appeared as an ordinary person, and Abraham recognized Him only later. In a sense, God disguised Himself as human. We find comparable phenomena elsewhere, such as the burning bush that was not consumed (Exodus 3:2).

How, then, should we interpret an event that the Torah itself, on its plain meaning, chose to describe as God’s appearance in mortal form?

When examining the narrative at the level of peshat, we need not answer its theological questions. Since Scripture generally does not avoid portraying God as almost human, there is no reason to avoid this understanding of Abraham’s three guests. If we ask what actually happened in reality, we may find the answer precisely in Maimonides’ interpretation, that the entire episode occurred in a prophetic vision, even though that interpretation does not qualify as the plain sense.