Why Does God Refer to Himself as Us and He in Genesis 1?

Question of the week:  Why does God in Genesis 1 say “us” and “he” about himself when creating human beings? Is there just one God or two or more?

My answer: In Genesis 1, God in creating human beings purposely describes himself with both singular and plural pronouns. God here is making the point that he in one context is singular and in a different context plural. Genesis 1 is where we see the first biblical proclamation of the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine that God is one essence expressed through three eternal always existing persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Note, too, that in Genesis 1 the word used for God in the original Hebrew is Elohim, which means the uniplural One.