The Role of Angels in the Creation of Humankind

“Let us make humankind” (Genesis 1:26)—whom is God addressing? Across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, some interpreters have identified God’s audience as the angels but have assigned them strikingly different roles in humanity’s creation: collaborators, creators, or critics who question the wisdom of bringing humans and their corruption into existence.

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Bereshit

The Role of Angels in the Creation of Humankind

In Genesis, God creates by issuing commands such as “Let there be light,” or “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters.”^[1] Yet, as Gary Anderson argues, “With the creation of human beings, God took a personal interest,”^[2] creating them in the divine image:

^{בראשית א:כו} וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם בְּצַלְמֵנוּ כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ וְיִרְדּוּ בִדְגַת הַיָּם וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וּבַבְּהֵמָה וּבְכׇל הָאָרֶץ וּבְכׇל הָרֶמֶשׂ הָרֹמֵשׂ עַל הָאָרֶץ.‏ ^א:כז וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתוֹ זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה בָּרָא אֹתָם.

^{Gen 1:26}And God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.” ^1:27 And God created humankind in the divine image, creating it in the image of God—creating them male and female.^[3]

While some believe it can be understood as the royal “we,” God’s phrasing “let us make humankind” has long implied to interpreters that God is speaking here to a council of angels.

Sharing the Creation of Imperfect Humans with the Angels: Philo

Philo of Alexandria (ca. 20 B.C.E.–ca. 50 C.E.), one of the earliest interpreters of the Torah, notes how the creation of humans stands out because of this plural:

^{Philo, On the Creation §}⁷² One may not unfitly raise the question what reason there could be for his (=Moses’) ascribing the creation in the case of man only not to one Creator as in the case of the rest but, as the words would suggest, to several…. “Can it be,” I would ask, “that He to whom all things are subject, is in need of anyone whatever?...”

Philo clarifies that we cannot really know God’s mind, but he continues:

The full truth about the cause of this it must needs be that God alone knows, but the cause which by probable conjecture seems plausible and reasonable we must not conceal….^[4]

Philo explains that since humans are imperfect, it was best for God to offload part of their creation to angelic subordinates:

^{Philo, On the Creation §}⁷⁵ It is to the end that, when man orders his course aright, when his thoughts and deeds are blameless, God the universal Ruler may be owned as their Source; while others from the number of His subordinates are held responsible for thoughts and deeds of a contrary sort…^[5]

Humans do not really have a great track record by any ethical standard, and our bad behavior would have been no less evident in antiquity than it is today. Thus, in Philo’s thinking, God is consulting with the angels because God wants them to actively participate in the creation of problematic humans to avoid God having direct responsibility for their bad behavior.

Who Is God Addressing? Genesis Rabbah

Genesis Rabbah, the 5^th century C.E. midrashic commentary, begins its gloss with the general question במי נמלך “with whom is [God] consulting?” It then offers five answers, four of which are brief:

The Heavens and the Earth

^{בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשת בראשית פרשה ח} ר' יהושע בן לוי אמר: "במלאכת שמים וארץ נמלך, משל למלך שהיה לו שני סינקליטין ולא היה עושה דבר חוץ מדעתן."

^{Gen Rab (Theodor-Albeck) Bereishit §8} Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said: “He was consulting with the heavens and the earth. It is comparable to a king who has two counselors and never does anything without consulting them.”^[6]

The Elements from the Six Days of Creation

^{בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשת בראשית פרשה ח} ר' שמואל בן נחמן אמר: "במעשה כל יום יום נמלך, משל למלך שהיה לו סונקתידרון ולא היה עושה דבר חוץ מדעתו."

^{Gen Rab (Theodor-Albeck) Bereishit §8} Rabbi Samuel ben Nahman said: “He was consulting with the creations from each day. It is comparable to a king who has an advisor, and he wouldn’t do anything without his advice.”

God Consulted with Himself

^{בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשת בראשית פרשה ח} ר' אמי אמר: "בליבו נמלך, משל למלך שבנה פלטין על ידי ארדכל ראה אותה ולא ערבה לו, על מי להתרעם לא על ארדכל אתמהא?! כך 'ויתעצב אל לבו' (בראשית ו:ו)."

^{Gen Rab (Theodor-Albeck) Bereishit §8} Rabbi Ami said: “He was consulting with himself. It is comparable to a king who built a palace in consultation with an architect, but when he saw it, he wasn’t happy with it. To whom must he complain? Not to the architect?! Thus [he did, since the architect was himself, as it says] (Gen 6:6) ‘He was sad in his heart [for creating people].’”^[7]

The Souls of the Righteous

God consulted with the souls of the righteous:^[8]

^{בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשת בראשית פרשה ח} ר' יהושע דסכנין בשם ר' לוי: "בנפשותן שלצדיקים נמלך..."^[9]

^{Gen Rab (Theodor-Albeck) Bereishit §8}Rabbi Joshua of Sakhnin in the name of Rabbi Levi: “[God] consulted with the souls of the righteous…”^[10]

Ministering Angels

The most extensive answer begins with a discussion of how it is that God could have created humans, given the evil that they do in the world. The first response to this is by R. Berekhiah, who says that God hides human evil from his divine consciousness to allow himself to create humans.

^{בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשת בראשית פרשה ח} מה עשה הקדוש ברוך הוא? הפליג דרכן שלרשעים מכנגד פניו ושיתף בו מידת רחמים ובראו...

^{Gen Rab (Theodor-Albeck) Bereishit §8}…What did the Blessed Holy One do? He pushed the ways of the wicked away from before his face, and joined with the attribute of mercy as a partner, and created him…. ^[11]

To this, Rabbi Ḥanina responds that God was speaking with the ministering angels:

^{בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשת בראשית פרשה ח} ר' חנינא לא אמר כן, אלא בשעה שבא לבראות את אדם הראשון נמלך במלאכי השרת, אמר להם: "נעשה אדם." אמרו לו: "מה טיבו?" אמר להם: "צדיקים עומדים ממנו." ה[דא] ה[וא] (תהלים א:ו) "כי יודע י"י דרך צדיקים"—כי הודיע י"י דרך צדיקים למלאכי השרת, "ודרך רשעים תאבד"—איבדה מהם:

^{Gen Rab (Theodor-Albeck) Bereishit §8} This is not what Rabbi Ḥanina said. Rather, [Rabbi Ḥanina’s interpretation is that] when [God] came to create the first human, he consulted with the ministering angels. He said to them (Gen 1:26) “Let us make Man.” They said to him: “What is he like?” He said to them: “The righteous will descend from him.” This is the meaning of the verse (Ps 1:6): “For the LORD knows the way of the righteous”—the Lord made known the ways of the righteous to the ministering angels; “but the way of the wicked is lost”—he made it lost for them:

גילה להם שהצדיקים עומדים ממנו ולא גילה להם שהרשעים עומדים ממנו, שאילו גילה להם שהרשעים עומדים ממנו לא היתה מידת הדין נותנת שיברא.

[God] revealed to them that the righteous will descend from [the first man] but did not reveal that the wicked will descend from him. For if [God] had revealed that the wicked will descend from him, the attribute of justice would not have allowed Him to create [humans].

God, it is suggested, is perfectly aware that some humans will behave poorly. He chooses, however, to hide this information from the angels, so they would not stop Him from creating humans.

The Angels Disapprove

The passage then envisions a scene in which the angels actively disapprove of the creation of humanity:

^{בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשת בראשית פרשה ח} אמר ר' סימון: "בשעה שבא הקדוש ברוך הוא לבראות אדם הראשון נעשו מלאכי השרת כיתים וחבורות, מהם אומרים יברא, מהם אומרים אל יברא. ה[דא] ה[וא] (תהלים פה:יא) 'חסד ואמת נפגשו צדק ושלום נשקו.' חסד אומר: 'יברא שהוא גומל חסדים.' אמת אומר: 'אל יברא שכולו שקר.' צדק אומר: 'יברא שעושה צדקות.' שלום אומר: 'אל יברא דכוליה קטט.'

^{Gen Rab (Theodor-Albeck) Bereishit §8}Rabbi Simon said: “When the Blessed Holy One came to create the first human, the ministering angels divided into opposing camps. Some of them said, ‘create him’; some of them said, ‘don’t create him.’ This is the meaning of the verse (Ps 85:11): ‘Lovingkindness and truth meet; justice and peace kiss.’ Lovingkindness says, ‘Create him, as he will perform acts of lovingkindness.’ Truth says: ‘Don’t create him, since he is all falsehood.’ Justice says: ‘Create him, for he performs just acts.’ Peace says: ‘Don’t create him, all he does is quarrel.’

מה עשה הקדוש ברוך הוא? נטל אמת והשליכה לארץ. אמרו מלאכי השרת לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא: 'רבון העולמים מה את מבזה אלטיכסייה שלך? תעלה אמת מן הארץ!' ה[דא] ה[וא] (תהלים פה:יב): 'אמת מארץ תצמח.'"

What did the Blessed Holy One do? He took truth and threw him down to earth. The ministering angels said to the Blessed Holy One: “Master of the Universe, why are you humiliating your chief commander? Bring him up from the earth. This is the meaning of the verse (Ps 85:12): ‘truth will sprout from the earth.’”^[12]

The passage continues by claiming that God took advantage of the angels’ distraction in this dispute to create man without their noticing:

^{בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשת בראשית פרשה ח} ר' הונא רבא דציפורי אמר: "עד שמלאכי השרת מדיינין אלו עם אלו, מתעסקים אלו עם אלו בראו הקדוש ברוך הוא. אמר להם: 'מה אתם מועילים? כבר נַעֲשָׂה אדם.'"

^{Gen Rab (Theodor-Albeck) Bereishit §8}Rabbi Huna the Great of Tzippori said: “While the ministering angels were debating with each other, and distracting each other, the Blessed Holy One created him. [God] said to them: ‘What point is there [in all this debate]? Man was already made!’”

God’s final words are a midrash revocalizing the text from “let us make (naʿaseh) man” to “man has been made (naʿasah).”^[13] The midrash goes on to envision a discussion between God and the angels, through a reappropriation of Psalm 8:

אמרו מלאכי השרת לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא: "רבון העו[לם] (תהלים ח:ה): 'מה אנוש כי תזכרנו ובן אדם כי תפקדנו?' הדא עקתא—להן מברי!"

The ministering angels said to the Blessed Holy One: “Master of the Universe (Ps 8:5): ‘What are human beings that You have been mindful of them, mortals that You have taken note of them?’ This trouble—why is it being created?”

אמר להם: "אם כן 'צנה ואלפים כולם' (תהלים ח:ח) למה נבראו? 'ציפור שמים ודגי הים' (תהלים ח:ט) למה נבראו? מגדל מלא כל טוב ואין לו אורחים מה הנייה לבעליו שמלאו אותו?!"

[God] said to them: “If so, ‘sheep and oxen all of them’ (Ps 8:8)—why were they created?! ‘the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea’ (Ps 8:9)—why were they created?! A tower filled with everything good, but no guests—what benefit is there for its owners to have filled it?!”

אמרו לפניו: "רבון העו[לם]: 'י"י אדונינו מה אדיר שמך בכל הארץ' (תהלים ח:י)—עבד מה דהני לך."

They said to him: “Master of the Universe: ‘O YHWH, our Sovereign, how majestic is Your name throughout the earth!’—do what is best for You.”^[14]

Although not reflected in the midrash directly, the interpretation of this as spoken by angels may already be seen in the LXX’s translation of another verse in the Psalm:

^{תהלים ח:ו} וַתְּחַסְּרֵהוּ מְּעַט מֵאֱלֹהִים וְכָבוֹד וְהָדָר תְּעַטְּרֵהוּ.‏

^{Ps 8:6} that You have made them little less than divine (or “God”), and adorned them with glory and majesty?

The verse offers a theologically uncomfortable comparison between humans and God, and the Septuagint softens this by rendering the Hebrew ʾelohim as “angels” (ἀγγέλους). This understanding of the verse likely inspired later readers to reflect on the comparison between angels and humans.^[15]

Seven Beings, Including God: Saturninus

Saturninus, a gnostic Christian teacher in Antioch (early 2^nd cent.), believed that the verse reflects a discussion of seven angels, only one of whom was “the God of the Jews.” (In Gnostic thinking, a transcendent, unknowable God sits above all things, but below is the demiurge, a lower-level deity who made the material world, and he is identified with the God of Genesis. For humans, who have a divine spark in them, salvation comes through gnōsis, knowledge of where they came from, which frees the spark to return above.) As the writings of Saturninus are lost, we have only Irenaeus’ (late 2^nd cent.) rebuttal of this position. He begins by explaining what the “father” God created versus what the angels created:

^{Against Heresies 1.24.1} Saturninus, like Menander, set forth one father unknown to all, who made angels, archangels, powers, and potentates. The world, again, and all things therein, were made by a certain company of seven angels.

After creating the world, the angels decide to create man in their image, but they cannot give it human life:

Man, too, was the workmanship of angels, a shining image bursting forth below from the presence of the supreme power; and when they could not, he says, keep hold of this, because it immediately darted upwards again, they exhorted each other, saying, “Let us make man after our image and likeness.” He was accordingly formed, yet was unable to stand erect, through the inability of the angels to convey to him that power, but wriggled [on the ground] like a worm.

The father God takes pity on the wormlike creature and gives him human life:

Then the power above taking pity upon him, since he was made after his likeness, sent forth a spark of life, which gave man an erect posture, compacted his joints, and made him live… ^1.24.²…and he (=Saturninus) maintained that the God of the Jews was one of the angels…^[16]

Yaldabaot, the Jewish Creator God: The Apocryphon of John

The Gnostic idea that there is an unknowable God that transcends all things, but that creation was carried out by lesser beings, is developed in the 2^nd century Apocryphon of John, which survives only in Coptic. In this version, the world is created by Yaldabaot (or Yaltabaot),^[17] the God of Genesis, who is “a lion-faced serpent,” whose “eyes were like lightning fires which flash,”^[18] and he becomes chief among the archons (divine beings). When he hears a divine voice announce man, and the archons all see the reflection of God in physical form in the water, Yaldabaot decides to create a copy:

And he said to the authorities which attend him, “Come, let us create a man according to the image of God and according to our likeness, that his image may become a light for us.” And they created by means of their respective powers in correspondence with the characteristics which were given. And each authority supplied a characteristic in the form of the image which he had seen in its natural (form). He created a being according to the likeness of the first, perfect Man. And they said, “Let us call him Adam, that his name may become a power of light for us.”^[19]

Unsurprisingly, mainstream Christian thinking was unhappy with this version of creation and Irenaeus attacked it as heretical.^[20]

God’s Son (Jesus)

Justin Martyr (2^nd cent. C.E.), in his Dialogue with Trypho (the Jew), also discusses the passage in which God announces human creation in the first person plural, but his attack is aimed not at the gnostics but at an early form of the various Jewish interpretations we saw in Genesis Rabbah:

^{Justin Dialogue with Trypho 62.1} “My friends,” I continued, “the Word of God through Moses stated exactly the same thing when it revealed to us that at the creation of man, God spoke of him (who was pointed out by Moses) in the same sense.”^[21]

Justin then quotes the creation of humanity as set forth in Genesis (1:26–28), and continues by refuting the possibilities that we find in Genesis Rabbah, a work written down centuries after Justin, but likely preserving much earlier interpretation. God is speaking either to himself or to created objects:

^{Justin Dialogue with Trypho 62.2} Lest you distort the meaning of these words by repeating what your teachers say—either that God said to Himself, “Let us make,” just as we, when on the verge of doing something, say to ourselves, “Let us make” (=3^rd answer in Gen. Rab., God spoke to Himself); or that God said, “Let us make,” to the elements, that is, to the earth or other similar substances of which we think man was composed (=1^st/2^nd answers in Gen. Rab.)—I wish again to quote Moses to prove beyond all doubt that he spoke with one endowed with reason and numerically different from himself.

^62.3 These are the words (Gen 3:22), “and God said, ‘Behold, Adam has become as one of us, knowing good and evil.’” Now the words “as one of us” clearly show that there were a number of persons together, numbering at least two.

Justin then turns to contradict the claim that God was speaking to angels (=4^th answer in Gen. Rab.):

I do not consider true that teaching which is asserted by what you call a heretical sect of your religion. Nor can the proponents of that heresy prove that he spoke those words to angels or that the human body was the result of the angels’ work. ^62.4 But this offspring who was really begotten of the Father was with the Father, and the Father talked with him before all creation…

Thus, for Justin, God the Father is speaking with the primordial form of God the Son.

The Angels Fight with God: Qurʾan

Islamic sources do not directly interpret the Hebrew Bible, but the Qurʾan is aware of the interpretive tradition that God consulted with the angels, and that the latter even argued against the creation of humanity.^[22] In its second sura, Al-Baqara (“The Heifer”), the Qurʾan relates a conversation between God and the angels about the human whom God is set to create:

^{Qurʾan 2:}³⁰ When your Lord said to the angels, “I am indeed going to set a khalifa (viceroy)^[23] on the earth,” they said, “Will You set in it someone who will cause corruption in it and shed blood, while we celebrate Your praise and proclaim Your sanctity?” He said, “Indeed, I know what you do not know.”^[24]

The angels are out of line, insolently challenging God’s plan, and accordingly, God rebukes them. Indeed, this may be the main teaching of the verse, namely, that we should be obedient, not insolent. The intriguing bit about this conversation is that while the angels are insolent, they are not wrong.

The angels predict that humans will “do corruption” and “shed blood.” God Himself faults humans for just these things, in the very same chapter of the Qurʾan, in a discourse which blames the Jews of Muhammad’s day for violating a covenant made by their ancestors:

^{Qurʾan 2:}⁸⁴And when We took a pledge from you, [saying]: “You shall not shed your [own people's] blood, and you shall not expel your folks from your homes,” you pledged, and you testify [to this pledge of your ancestors]. ^2:⁸⁵ Then there you were, killing your folks and expelling a part of your folks from their homes, backing one another against them in sin and aggression! If they came to you as captives, you would ransom them, though their expulsion itself was forbidden you. What! Do you believe in part of the Book and deny another part?

Even later in the sura, God speaks of humans doing corruption on earth:

^{Qurʾan 2:205} If he were to wield authority, he would try to cause corruption in the land and to ruin the crop and the stock, and God does not like corruption.

These verses clarify the author’s objectives in the verse about the argument between the angels and God: The Qurʾan’s author does not mean to say that the angels are wrong about humans, and God’s opaque response is not a denial of their claim, along the lines of: “You are wrong, humans will behave well.” The mistake of the angels seems to be how they presumptuously oppose God’s plan to create a human. God rebukes them by saying, “Indeed, I know what you do not know,” which seems to mean: “Don’t overthink things. Don’t think you know everything. Your job is to submit and obey.”

Herein lies the message of the author to his seventh-century C.E. audience. Islam is just getting going and the author is worried about the formation of the new community. Through the example of the angels, he seems to be saying to the new believers: “Be careful not to overthink things; obey God, follow His religion, and don’t cause trouble.”

Al-Raḥman, the Merciful God

God’s response to the angels’ complaint that humans will behave poorly is that while God knows about this future, He is prepared to look the other way, to some extent, when humans misbehave. This fits with the Qurʾan’s frequent claim that one of God’s names is al-Raḥman, “The Merciful.” A well-known Islamic tradition (or hadith) has Muhammad say: “When Allah had finished His creation, He wrote over his throne: ‘My mercy precedes my anger.’”^[25]

God Teaches Adam the Animals’ Names First

At the same time, the Qurʾan uses the conversation with the angels as an introduction to a story about God’s humbling of them. This begins in the next verse, where the scene shifts dramatically. The human, Adam, has now been created—we are not told how or where—and God teaches the names of the animals to Adam and then asks the angels what the names are, which they, of course, do not know:

^{Qurʾan 2:31} And He taught Adam the Names, all of them…

This verse is connected to the garden of Eden story, in which Adam names the animals.^[26] In Qurʾan 2, however, God teaches Adam the names, and then He challenges the angels (whom He has not taught these things) to come up with the names, forcing them to admit that they only know the things that God has taught them, and do not know these names:

^{Qurʾan 2:31} …[God] then presented them to the angels and said, “Tell me the names of these, if you are truthful.” ^2:³² They said, “Immaculate are You! We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Indeed, You are the All-knowing, the All-wise.”

Yet this is not the end. The author then has God command Adam to show off his knowledge of the names to the angels (who have already repented and shown their contrition):

^{Qurʾan 2:}³³ He said, “O Adam, inform them of their names,” and when he had informed them of their names, He said, “Did I not tell you that I know the Unseen of the heavens and the earth, and that I know whatever you disclose and whatever you conceal?”

This last line—which appears elsewhere in the Qurʾan as a warning to humans (Q 2:77; 3:29; 5:99 etc.)—implies that angels, like humans, are to be judged by God. He is keeping a record of their thoughts and actions.

The Angels’ Insolence: Counter-Discourse

One of the Qurʾanic author’s favorite rhetorical strategies throughout the text is to quote the arguments, or the erroneous statements, of opponents (who inevitably speak as a group)—what Mehdi Azaiez calls the Qurʾan’s “counter-discourse”^[27]—from sinners damned in hell to the opponents of past prophets, including Noah, Abraham, and Moses, and even Muhammad.^[28] This sort of counter-discourse acts as a warning to the audience, to convince them of the danger of straying from the norms of the community by vividly presenting the remorse of those who do so. The statement of the angels is an example of counter-discourse, since they insolently declare that humans should not be created only to be rebuffed by God.

Angels in the Qur’an usually model good, pious behavior for the audience. The episode of their resistance to God’s creation of Adam is exceptional, written to convince the audience not to stray, not to overthink, and not to object to God’s will. The angels repent in the end, and it is pious to repent. Yet their initial challenge to God’s plan teaches the Qur’an’s audience precisely how they are not to act.

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Published

October 21, 2026

Last Updated

October 21, 2026

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Footnotes

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Published

October 21, 2026

Last Updated

October 21, 2026

[1] This piece, especially the Quran section, is largely based on our correspondence with Gabriel Said Reynolds, and is published here with his permission.

[2] Gary A. Anderson, The Genesis of Perfection: Adam and Eve in Jewish and Christian Imagination (Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 22.

[3] Biblical texts are based on R-JPS.

[4] Philo, On the Creation 72–75, in Philo, vol. 1, trans. F. H. Colson and G. H. Whitaker, Loeb Classical Library 226 (Harvard University Press, 1929), 57–61.

[5] He also discusses this in his “On the Confusion of Tongues”:

^{Philo, On the Confusion of Tongues ¹⁶⁹}Here we have “The Lord God said: ‘let us make man in our own image and likeness’” (Gen 1:26); where the words “let us make” imply plurality. And once more, “God said, ‘behold Adam has become as one of us by knowing good and evil’” (Gen 3:22); here the “us” in “as one of us” is said not of one, but of more than one… ¹⁷⁹ Thus it was meet and right that when man was formed, God should assign a share in the work to His lieutenants, as He does with the words "let us make men," that so man's right actions might be attributable to God, but his sins to others. For it seemed to be unfitting to God the All-ruler that the road to wickedness within the reasonable soul should be of His making, and therefore He delegated the forming of this part to His inferiors. For the work of forming the voluntary element to balance the involuntary had to be accomplished to render the whole complete.

Philo, On the Confusion of Tongues 168–181, in Philo, vol. 4, trans. F. H. Colson and G. H. Whitaker, Loeb Classical Library 261 (Harvard University Press, 1932), 103–109.

[6] Unless otherwise noted, translations of rabbinic texts are the editors’.

[7] The passage then adds a second analogy:

^{בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשת בראשית פרשה ח} אמר רב יאסי משל למלך שעשה לו סחורה על ידי סרסור והפסיד על מי להתרעם לא על הסרסור אתמהא כך ויתעצב אל לבו.

^{Gen Rab (Theodor-Albeck) Bereishit §8} Rabbi Yassi said: “It is comparable to a king who did business by way of a broker and lost money. To whom must he complain? Not to the broker?! Thus (Gen 6:6) ‘He was sad in his heart [for creating people].’”

[8] We are going out of order here, since the fourth answer, angels, is much more extensive than these four and is the focus of this piece.

[9] The midrashic proof for this comes from a verse in Chronicles:

^{בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשת בראשית פרשה ח} ה[דא] ה[וא] (דברי הימים א ד:כג): "המה היוצרים ויושבי נטעים וגדרה עם המלך במלאכתו ישבו שם."

^{Gen Rab (Theodor-Albeck) Bereishit §8}This is [the meaning of the verse] (1 Chron 4:23): “These were the pottery formers who dwelt at Netaim and Gederah; they dwelt there in the king’s service.”

"המה היוצרים" על שם (בראשית ב:ז): "וייצר י"י אלהים את האדם וגו'."

“These were the pottery formers” called that for (Gen 2:7) “And the LORD God formed the man…”

"ויושבי נטעים" על שם (בראשית ב:ח): "ויטע י"י אלהים וגו'."

“Who dwelt at Netaim” called that for (Gen 2:8): “And the LORD God planted (נ.ט.ע)…”

"וגדרה" על שם (ירמיה ה:כב): "אשר שמתי חול גבול לים וגו'."

“And Gederah” called that for (Jer 5:22) “I placed sand as the border of the sea” (The root ג.ד.ר means “fence.”)

"עם המלך במלאכתו ישבו שם" עם מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא ישבו נפשותן שלצדיקים שבהן נמלך וברא העולם.

“They dwelt there in the king’s service” The souls of the righteous dwelt with the King, King of kings, the Blessed Holy One, and with them he consulted and created the world.

[10] After this, the passage moves on to a discussion of why the Torah even informs readers of God’s consultation, and the discussion there highlights how the dominant understanding of the verse is the fourth view, that God consulted with angels.

[11] The full text reads:

^{בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשת בראשית פרשה ח} אמר ר' ברכיה: בשעה שבא הקדוש ברוך הוא לבראות אדם הראשון ראה צדיקים ורשעים עומדים ממנו. אמר: 'אם אבראנו—רשעים עומדים ממנו. לא אבראנו—צדיקים היאך עומדים ממנו.' מה עשה הקדוש ברוך הוא? הפליג דרכן שלרשעים מכנגד פניו ושיתף בו מידת רחמים ובראו, ה[דא] ה[וא] (תהלים א:ו): 'כי יודע י"י דרך צדיקים ודרך רשעים תאבד.' מהו תאבד? איבדה מכנגד פניו ושיתף בו מידת רחמים ובראו."

^{Gen Rab (Theodor-Albeck) Bereishit §8}Rabbi Berekhiah said: “When the Blessed Holy One came to create the first human, he saw that both righteous and wicked would descend from him. He said: ‘If I create him, wicked people will descend from him. If I do not create him, who will the righteous descend from?’ What did the Blessed Holy One do? He pushed the ways of the wicked away from before his face, and joined with the attribute of mercy as a partner, and created him. This is the meaning of the verse (Ps 1:6): ‘For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked is lost.’ What does it mean ‘lost’? He made it lost from before his face and joined with the attribute of mercy as a partner, and created him.”

[12] At this point, the rabbis offer a midrashic proof that it was good to create the first human, through a metathesis-based midrash (i.e., scrambling letters in a word to spell another word):

^{בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשת בראשית פרשה ח} כל רבנין אמ' לה בשם חנינה, ר' פינחס ר' חלקיה בשם ר' סימון: "מאד הוא אדם, ה[דא] ה[וא] (בראשית א:לא): 'וירא אלהים את כל אשר עשה והנה טוב מאד'—והנה טוב אדם."

^{Gen Rab (Theodor-Albeck) Bereishit §8}The rabbis in general said in the name of Rabbi Ḥanina, Rabbi Pinḥas, Rabbi Ḥilkiya in the name of Rabbi Simon: “‘Very (meʾod)’ refers to the man (ʾadam). This is what the verse means (Gen 1:31): ‘And God saw all that he had done and behold it was very (מ.א.ד) good’—behold, the man (א.ד.מ) was good.”

[13] The text adds one further midrash to this complex, in which God says to the angels that the world was created from the beginning with humans in mind:

^{בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשת בראשית פרשה ח} ר' הונא בשם ר' אייבו: "בדעת בראו, משברא צרכי מזונותיו ואחר כך בראו."

^{Gen Rab (Theodor-Albeck) Bereishit §8}R. Huna in the name of R. Ayvo: “[God] created him with advance preparation (lit. “on purpose”), when He created what they needed for sustenance, then he created him.”

[14] Another version of this appears in the Babylonian Talmud:

^{בבלי סנהדרין לח:} אָמַר רַב יְהוּדָה אָמַר רַב: "בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁבִּקֵּשׁ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לִבְראוֹת אֶת הָאָדָם, בָּרָא כַּת אַחַת שֶׁל מַלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת. אָמַר לָהֶם: 'רְצוֹנְכֶם נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם בְּצַלְמֵנוּ?' אָמְרוּ לְפָנָיו: 'רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם, מָה מַעֲשָׂיו?' אָמַר לָהֶן: 'כָּךְ וְכָךְ מַעֲשָׂיו.' אָמְרוּ לְפָנָיו: 'רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם, ״מָה אֱנוֹשׁ כִּי תִזְכְּרֶנּוּ וּבֶן אָדָם כִּי תִפְקְדֶנּוּ״?' הוֹשִׁיט אֶצְבָּעוֹ קְטַנָּה בֵּינֵיהֶן וּשְׂרָפָם. וְכֵן כַּת שְׁנִיָּה.

^{b. Sanhedrin 38b}Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: “When the Blessed Holy One wished to create humanity, He created a group of ministering angels. He said to them: ‘Would you like to create man in our image?’ They said to him: ‘Master of the Universe, what does (man) do?’ [God] said to them: ‘He does such and such.’ They said to him: ‘Master of the Universe (Ps 8:5): “What are human beings that You have been mindful of them, mortals that You have taken note of them?” [God] stretched his little finger between them and burnt them up. The same with the second group.

כַּת שְׁלִישִׁית אָמְרוּ לְפָנָיו: 'רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם, רִאשׁוֹנִים שֶׁאָמְרוּ לְפָנֶיךָ מָה הוֹעִילוּ? כָּל הָעוֹלָם כּוּלּוֹ שֶׁלְּךָ הוּא. כׇּל מָה שֶׁאַתָּה רוֹצֶה לַעֲשׂוֹת בְּעוֹלָמְךָ – עֲשֵׂה.'

The third group said to him: ‘Master of the Universe, the earlier ones who answered you, what use were they? The entire world is yours, whatever you want to do, just do it.’

כֵּיוָן שֶׁהִגִּיעַ לְאַנְשֵׁי דּוֹר הַמַּבּוּל וְאַנְשֵׁי דּוֹר הַפְּלַגָּה שֶׁמַּעֲשֵׂיהֶן מְקוּלְקָלִין, אָמְרוּ לְפָנָיו: 'רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם, לֹא יָפֶה אָמְרוּ רִאשׁוֹנִים לְפָנֶיךָ?' אָמַר לָהֶן: '"וְעַד זִקְנָה אֲנִי הוּא וְעַד שֵׂיבָה אֲנִי אֶסְבֹּל וְגוֹ׳."'"

Once the generation of the flood and the generation of dividing up peoples (after the Tower of Babel) came, with their corrupted ways, they said before Him: “Master of the Universe, didn’t the earlier groups speak well before you?” He said to them: “Till you grow old, I will still be the same, when you turn gray, it is I who will carry, etc.”’”

[15] These texts imply that God prefers humans to angels. Indeed, Gary Anderson presents the humans-above-angels tradition as a manifestation of a biblical theme. For example, when Rebecca goes to ask God about her pregnancy, she is told:

^{בראשית כה:כג} וַיֹּאמֶר יְ־הֹוָה לָהּ שְׁנֵי (גיים) [גוֹיִם] בְּבִטְנֵךְ וּשְׁנֵי לְאֻמִּים מִמֵּעַיִךְ יִפָּרֵדוּ וּלְאֹם מִלְאֹם יֶאֱמָץ וְרַב יַעֲבֹד צָעִיר.

^{Gen 25:23} And YHWH answered her, “Two nations are in your womb; two separate peoples shall issue from your body. One people shall be mightier than the other; and the older shall serve the younger.”

In Genesis the younger is frequently preferred to the elder. Abel is preferred to Cain; Isaac to Ishmael; Jacob to Esau; and Ephraim to Manasseh. In the rabbinic tradition above, humans are preferred to angels, although they are younger. Anderson (The Genesis of Perfection, 31) comments:

This rabbinic tale has a certain light-hearted façade. But beneath the surface lies a profound reflection on the nature of the human person and God’s commitment to him.

For the rabbis (and for the Church fathers), these sorts of traditions are meant to make a point about human dignity, as Anderson (The Genesis of Perfection, 186) writes:

The angels serve as an important category that marks off human life from the divine. One might expect that the resulting hierarchy would be a simple pyramid, with men and women on the bottom, angels in the middle, and God at the top. For both Jews and Christians this was not the case. One of the functions of the angelic host is to be supplanted by humans.

[16] Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.24.1–2, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Christian Literature Publishing, 1885), 348–349.

[17] The meaning of the name is unknown, since we have only this corrupted version and not the Hebrew/Aramaic original. Some theories are Yah El Tzvaot (Yah the God of Hosts) or Yalad Tzvaot (Gave birth to Hosts) or Yalda Bahut (Child of Chaos). For Yah El Tzvaot, see Robert M. Grant, “Notes on Gnosis,” Vigiliae Christianae 11.3 (1957): 145–151; for Yalad Tzvaot, Gershom Scholem, “Jaldabaoth Reconsidered,” in Mélanges d’histoire des religions offerts à Henri-Charles Puech [Studies in the History of Religions Presented to Henri-Charles Puech] (Presses Universitaires de France, 1974), 405–421; for Yalda Bahut, Jacques Matter, Histoire critique du gnosticisme et de son influence sur les sectes religieuses et philosophiques des six premiers siècles de l’ère chrétienne [Critical History of Gnosticism and Its Influence on the Religious and Philosophical Sects of the First Six Centuries of the Christian Era], 2 vols. (Levrault, 1828), 2.198. Scholem also argues against the “child of chaos” reading.

[18] Frederik Wisse, trans., “The Apocryphon of John (II,1, III,1, IV,1, and BG 8502,2),” in The Nag Hammadi Library in English, ed. James M. Robinson, 3rd ed. (HarperSanFrancisco, 1988), 104–123.

[19] Following a long description of how every part of Adam is created, the archons decide that they want this being to live:

They advised him that they should bring forth the power of the mother. And they said to Yaldabaot, “Blow into his face something of your spirit and his body will arise.” And he blew into his face the spirit which is the power of his mother; he did not know (this), for he exists in ignorance. And the power of the mother went out of Yaldabaot into the natural body, which they had fashioned after the image of the one who exists from the beginning. The body moved and gained strength, and it was luminous.

However, once Adam comes to life, the archons are jealous of him:

And in that moment the rest of the powers became jealous, because he had come into being through all of them and they had given their power to the man, and his intelligence was greater than that of those who had made him, and greater than that of the chief archon. And when they recognized that he was luminous, and that he could think better than they, and that he was free from wickedness, they took him and threw him into the lowest region of all matter.

[20] Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.29, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers 1.353–354.

[21] Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 62.1–4, trans. Thomas B. Falls, rev. Thomas P. Halton, ed. Michael Slusser, Selections from the Fathers of the Church 3 (Catholic University of America Press, 2003).

[22] This section is based entirely on the work of Gabriel Said Reynolds. On the Qur’an’s familiarity with Jewish and Christian traditions, and its expectation that its audience shares that familiarity, see Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qurʾān and Its Biblical Subtext, Routledge Studies in the Qurʾān (Routledge, 2010), and his commentary on each sura in idem, The Qur’an and the Bible: Text and Commentary (Yale University Press, 2018). The classic study is Abraham Geiger, Judaism and Islam, trans. F. M. Young (1898; repr. Ktav, 1970); trans. of Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthume aufgenommen? [What Did Muhammad Take from Judaism?] (F. Baaden, 1833).

[23] God refers to the human as a khalifa, an Arabic word meaning something like “viceroy,” and which also gives us the term, “caliph,” later taken by Muslim rulers.

[24] Translations of the Qurʾan are Reynolds’ adapted from the translation of Ali Quli Qarai in Reynolds, The Qur’an and the Bible.

[25] Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Kitāb al-Tawḥīd, no. 7422; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, Kitāb al-Tawba, no. 2751. For a rabbinic version of this concept, see Herbert Basser, “YHWH and Elohim: One God, Different Attributes,” TheTorah (2026).

[26] The passage reads:

^בראשית ^ב:יט וַיִּצֶר יְ־הֹוָה אֱלֹהִים מִן הָאֲדָמָה כׇּל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה וְאֵת כׇּל עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וַיָּבֵא אֶל הָאָדָם לִרְאוֹת מַה יִּקְרָא לוֹ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר יִקְרָא לוֹ הָאָדָם נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה הוּא שְׁמוֹ.‏ ^ב:כ וַיִּקְרָא הָאָדָם שֵׁמוֹת לְכׇל הַבְּהֵמָה וּלְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וּלְכֹל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה...

^{Gen 2:19} And YHWH God formed out of the earth all the wild beasts and all the birds of the sky, and brought them to the Human to see what he would call them; and whatever the Human called each living creature, that would be its name. ^2:20 And the Human gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to all the wild beasts…

[27] Mehdi Azaiez, Le contre-discours coranique [The Qurʾanic Counter-Discourse], Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East 30 (De Gruyter, 2015).

[28] For example, towards the end of Qurʾan 2 we read (v. 167): “Those who followed [false gods] will say, ‘If we can have another chance, we will disown them, as they disowned us.’ Thus God will show them their deeds, as a source of regret for them, and they will not get out of the Fire.”