Rabbi Simlai Answers the Heretics on the Plural Verb Make Man

(Genesis 1:27) Heretics asked Rabbi Simlai: How many divine powers created the world? He said to them: I and you, let us inquire of the first days, as it is written, "For ask now of the former days that were before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth" (Deuteronomy 4:32). It does not say here "the gods created" but "God created." They came back and asked: What is the meaning of what is written, "Let us make man"? He said to them: Read what comes after it. It does not say here "And the gods created man in their image" but "And God created man in His image" (Genesis 1:27). Thus, in every place where the heretics have rebelled with words, you find their refutation at their side. When they had gone out, his disciples said to him: Rabbi, these you pushed off with a reed; to us what do you answer? He said to them: At first Adam was created from the earth, and Eve from Adam; from here onward it is "in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26), no man without woman and no woman without man, and neither of them without the Divine Presence. Just as His praise comes only at the end, as it is written, "Praise the LORD from the earth" (Psalms 148:7), and at the last "kings of the earth and all peoples," so his creation is only after every beast, animal, and bird. First (Genesis 1:24) "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature," and afterward "Let us make man." And likewise his Torah: first (Leviticus 11:46) "This is the law of the beast and of the bird and of every living creature," and at the last "If a woman conceives and bears a male child" (Leviticus 12:2). Four traits He created in him from above: he stands, speaks, understands, and sees like the ministering angels; and a beast does not see but turns its face aside, while this one does not turn his face aside. And four from below: he eats, drinks, is fruitful and multiplies, casts off dung, and dies like a beast. The upper beings were created in image and likeness and do not reproduce; the lower ones reproduce and were not created in image and likeness. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Behold, I will create him in image and likeness like the upper beings, yet fruitful and multiplying like the lower beings. Rabbi Tifdai said in the name of Rabbi Acha: The Holy One, blessed be He, said: If I create him from the upper beings he will live and not die, and if I create him from the lower beings he will die and not live; rather, behold, I will create him from the upper and from the lower: if he [sins] he will die, and if he [is meritorious] he will live.