Genesis 1:26-27
I'm a monotheist, am I not? So this one has me puzzled, too.
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [1] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Why does God refer to Himself as "us", and refer to man as being in "our likeness." If this refers to the Trinity, a concept I still don't come close to understanding, how is man in their image? For this to be true, man would have to be in the Father's image, and the Son's image (this part makes sense) and the Holy Spirit's image.
So, did one true God make man? Or did a collection of Gods make man?
I knew Genesis was going to cause me some of the most trouble, but I'm not even through a page yet.
3 Comments:
Marla from proverbialwife.com here. I have always understood this passage to refer to the trinity. Though the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have distinct roles, they are unified in their attributes, the chief of which is love. In fact, the Bible says that God is love--it doesn't distinguish between the three persons of the trinity. Same with goodness. So that could mean that God made man to be able to give love and receive love, and that before the fall, he made him good. He also gave us the ability to reason and create, just as he can do as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It's definitely not possible to grasp it fully with our minds, but the little I can garner, does make sense.
There are two primary lines of interpretation here. One is that the "us" refers to the Trinity. In that sense, "our image" could refer to a relative freedom not available to angels or animals or even to the ability to reason and have self-awareness and other-awareness (unlike animals). It could also refer to a "tri-unity" in man: namely, the mind, the soul, and the heart.
The other line of interpretation is that God is referring to the heavenly court, which would include the angels. "Our image" in that sense would be a distingushing from the animals. God created man, like the beings in heaven, to be in relationship with others and to have the intangible faculties of conscious creatures -- intellect, reason, emotion, etc.
That interpretation is favored by some commentators I've read.
I think they are equally valid, but I have no opinion really as to which is "better." I tend to favor the first one, that "us" refers to the Trinity. But I think either option is suitable for dismissing any problems or confusion that text may bring up.
Jared -- www.thinklings.org
First let me preface my comments. I am not a scholar of any type so I do not comment from a position of formal training or authority. Now to the question.
In terms of the image of God I have two thoughts. 1) man is a spiritual image of God because God is Spirit. Scripture speaks of God in human bodily terms and emotions to give us a reference point from which we may comprehend God. Our bodies are only a functional part of who we are and are serving only a temporary function until such time as we no longer require them. 2) I think the image of God is also reflected in the human ability to create, not out of nothing like God, but to manipulate matter and energy in a fashion that mimics the creative impulse of God. Humans can conceive ideas and things that are not instinctual. This ability distinquishes us as a special creation in God's universe.
I also think that this special extra (the image of God) hints at the reason God would bother to love us in the first place. We are made to commune with God.
Pilgrim
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