—that God addressed to His “Son,” the Spirit of His holiness. Now, if they wish to say that the one who “became like one of Us” is that Son, their claim is utterly void. For if by “Son” they intend the Word, which is an attribute of God, that Word is uncreated; nothing ever came into existence so as to become “like” Them, and that Word is never called Adam, nor did God ever designate it as a son. But if by “Son” they mean the human nature (nasut) of the Messiah, that nature is a created, contingent being and can never be equal to the Eternal, Pre-existent One. Besides, God was speaking about Adam, and Adam is not the Messiah. It is impermissible to say “Adam” while intending the Messiah, just as it is impermissible to say “Adam disobeyed” while intending the Messiah.

Moreover, the words “Behold, Adam has become like one of Us” refer to an event that had already taken place; they are not a prediction of something that would occur thousands of years later. If, however, they maintain that God addressed His “Son,” who is His Word and His Spirit—and this is in fact their intention—claiming that He uttered those words in mockery of Adam, meaning, “He sought to become like one of Us and now look at him, naked and disgraced,” then their entire argument rests on the phrase “of Us,” simply because a plural form is used. The same line of reasoning underlies their appeal to the words, “We shall create a human being after Our likeness and in Our image,” taking the plural formulation as proof of a trinity.