My second guess was that the plurality of persons was
>to depict the fact that "Elohim" is plural. But then, didn't medieval
>people have almost no knowledge of Hebrew? Or could they have picked
>it up from Jerome?
>
I don't know of anyone who made anthing of the plurality of "Elohim". A
more probable influence is God speaking in the plural - "Let US make Man in
OUR own image", often cited by exegetes as a reference to the Trinity in the
Old Testament. God the Father and God the Son are often shown acting
together in iconography. I have on my wall an Ethiopian icon with two
identical bearded men crowning Mary as Queen of Heaven. One might expect a
pigeon to be hovering around to represent the Holy Spirit, but I don't see one.
Oriens.
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