This section of posts in the God Series explores the meaning of the term “In His Image” and then offers an alternative meaning and discusses the implications of that alternative meaning.

IN HIS IMAGE

Review of previous posts

            The previous post suggests that the meaning of “after His Image” is fulfilled by God providing man with a characteristic that is more than those characteristics possessed by the other entities created in Genesis, but less than the characteristics possessed by God. This post also suggests that Genesis 2 is a continuation of Genesis 1.

Preview of this post

This post suggests a particular characteristic possessed by man which is not possessed by any other entity created in Genesis provides man with a means to exercise dominion over the entities created in Genesis as charged by God in Gen 1:28.

If man is not a duplicate of God, what characteristic does man have that is fundamental, yet which would be different from the other entities in Genesis and be sufficient to give man dominion over those other entities?

Introduction

Following this line of reasoning, it might be interesting to determine what characteristics God appears to have added to humans vis á vis other animals and entities mentioned in Genesis. By detailing these characteristics, it might be understood which characteristics seem to be emphasized and, by implication, which special characteristics seem to be what God wanted humans to have. In the interest of brevity, only the added characteristics will be discussed. In order to determine which characteristics were added, it will be instructive to compare humans to the other creations detailed in Genesis. Specifically, humans will be compared to animals.

Using this method, there may be support for the conclusion that the following characteristics are possessed by humans but are not possessed by animals: imagination, a complex memory, the ability to communicate complex thoughts and, perhaps, a sense of humor. Of these special characteristics, it appears that the most important and most fundamental one and the one from which the others grew, is imagination. Therefore, it is suggested that imagination is the great gift God gave to humans as compared to all of the other entities detailed in Genesis. It is the human imagination which sets humans apart from all other animals. Imagination is the basic trait that humans have that makes humans “in God’s image.”

It might be noted that Maimonides, in Guide for the Perplexed, argues that God has no body or shape or form; therefore, it is not possible for man to be in God’s “likeness.” Maimonides thus suggests that “likeness” refers to God’s essence, which Maimonides interprets as “intelligence.” However, as discussed in this series of posts, animals also possess some form of intelligence. Hence, some other trait must be used and the thesis of this series is that this other trait is imagination.

Preview of the next post

The next post investigates the attributes of imagination and the advantages an imagination provides to man over the other entities created in Genesis.