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

And God said, “‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.” And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Genesis 1:26-27.

What is man that You have been mindful of him, mortal man that You have taken note of him, that You have made him little less than devine, and adorned him with glory and majesty; You have made him master over Your handiwork

Psalm 8:5-7

There are many meanings attributed to “In His image”

Aside from who “us” and “our” refer to, the meaning of the term “in our image, after our likeness” has been a source of much debate. This post and the next nine posts explore a meaning of this term which appears to be fundamental and does not require an anthropomorphic view of God, seems reasonable in light of observed data, and certainly is not presumptuous of us.

At various times, this term has been interpreted to suggest the erect structure of man as symbolizing his elevation over the animals and his power to rule them^[1], the likeness meaning a direct and positive relation of community between God and man^[2], the likeness being man’s personality^[3], intellect, self-awareness, consciousness of the existence of others, conscience, responsibility and self-control^[4]. It has also been interpreted to mean: having characteristically human faculties such as language, self-consciousness, reason, moral deliberation and cultural creativity. While the above-discussed characteristics appear to be applicable, they do not seem to be fundamental enough to describe such a momentous conclusion. There should be another, more fundamental, characteristic which forms a well from which these characteristics have sprung. The human-faculty view seems to be a good starting point, but is inadequate.

Preview of the next post

The most common interpretation of “In His Image” is that man was created to be a duplicate of God. The next post in this section of the God Series presents a discussion of this interpretation.

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^[1]  See, Bill T. Arnold, page 45 of “Genesis” published by Cambridge University Press of Cambridge and New York in 2009:

On the basis of numerous parallels from both Egypt and Mesopotamia, it has become clear that the phrase is related to royal language, in which a king or pharaoh is the ‘image of (a) god.’ Thus humans are created to function as the devine image through the exercise of ‘dominion’ and ‘rule’, which of course is reinforced by the statement ‘and let them have dominion over…’ (V.26). This statement in v. 26 should be interpreted as a purpose clause, expressing the motivation behind God’s creation of humans in his image: ‘in order that they may have dominion over….The image of God is about the exercise of rulership in the world….

This creature is unlike others, and is intended to rule and have dominion over the whole.

^[2] Th. C. Vriezen, “An Outline of Old Testament Theology” Blackwell; Enlarged 2nd edition (1970)

^[3] W. Eichrodt, “The Theology of the Old Testament” (2 vols; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1961).

^[4] See, “Understanding Genesis” by Nahum M. Sarna, published by Schocken Books of New York in 1970.