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 in this section of posts presented a discussion of the common meaning of the term “In His Image,” and suggested that these meanings are either anthropomorphic, anthropocentric, not reasonable or simply not fundamental enough.

Preview of this post

This 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.

If not “Duplicate,” What Does “In His Image” Mean?

Viewing Genesis Chapters 1 and 2 as a unit provides further support for the conclusion that God wanted man to be the master of all He created in Genesis – that is the universe as we know it – our universe. Viewing these two chapters as a unit also gives a clue as to the meaning of “In His image”.

Genesis Chapter 1, Verses 1-26 describes God’s creation of the universe as we know it: order out of chaos, separation of light from darkness (division of time), sky, stars (the portion of our universe beyond earth), land, seas, vegetation, sun, moon, sea life, and land life. After creating all of this, God created man in Genesis 1:27: “And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Immediately after creating man, God gave man dominion over all in Genesis: “God blessed them and God said to them, ‘Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it…’”. Note that the formula of what God said after each other creation is changed after He created man. With each other living entity on earth, after creating it, God noted that “it was good” then blessed it and instructed it to “be fertile and increase.” However, this formula was changed for man. While God did bless them and did instruct them to “be fertile and increase,” instead of seeing that it “was good,” God changed the formula to instruct man to “master” the earth and rule all the living things that God had created for earth. After creating man, God ceased creating living things. That is, after creating man in Genesis 1:27 and in Genesis 1:28 charging him with the duty to master all the living things He created, God ceased creating and rested. Once He created the living entities and the entity to master it and guide it, God had no further need to create, He was satisfied with the entirety of His creation, including the creation of a master (“And God saw all that He had made, and found it very good…” Gen 1:31), so He stopped. Had God created some further living entity after this, there would have been a question about whether that later-created entity was included in the universe over which man had been charged as being master. Since God ceased His creating after He created man, it can be concluded that God wanted man to be master of all the living things He created.

Animals, birds and fish were charged only with the duty of being fertile and increasing. To fulfill this duty, these entities needed only rudimentary survival skills – nothing more. Instinct for survival is all these entities needed to fulfill their destiny. As will be understood from the following discussion, survival instinct only requires memory. Memory allows the entity to avoid situations which, in the past, have resulted in undesired consequences. It should be noted that the basic skills of the entities need not change (their need for survival is basic and does not change) even though their forms might change and evolve. In fact, the physical forms of these entities will change, but their basic skills given to them at creation will not change. Thus, Genesis leaves room for evolution.

However, man, while also being charged with the duty to be fertile and increase, was given an additional duty of managing all the other living entities on earth (in Gen 1:28).

As such, man needed a skill or characteristic which was in addition to those possessed by the other living entities. Man was not given the duty of creating in the manner God created. If God would have wanted continued creation in this manner, He would have done so Himself. Therefore, man needed a skill which was different from those possessed by the other living entities created by God in Genesis, but the different skill should not elevate man to a skill level equal to God since equaling God’s skills would have made man equal to, or a duplicate of, God which would have been superfluous.

By omitting the phrase “God saw that it was good” from the act of creating man, it showed that God felt that man was not completed at this moment. Thus, there is support for the conclusion that while being endowed with an innate characteristic that could develop into skills which will allow man to master the other living entities God created in Genesis, this characteristic was not fully developed when humans were created in Genesis 1:27.

The very next discussion in Genesis occurs in Chapter 2 where man develops from an initial creation with only rudimentary skills beyond survival skills into an entity having skills which are shown to be developing in a manner which will ultimately reach a level sufficient to fulfill the duty of being master of the living entities on earth created in Genesis. Genesis 2 recites the creation of earth and heaven as well as the creation of man. However, this recitation is a reiteration, a re-cap as such, of what had already occurred in Genesis 1. That is, God did not create again in Genesis 2 what He had already created in Genesis 1 (that would be superfluous, and God cannot be considered as doing acts which are superfluous). Thus, Genesis 2:7 is a reiteration of what God had already completed in Genesis 1:27, not another act of creation.

Preview of the next post

The next post suggests characteristics possessed by man which are not possessed by the other entities created in Genesis.