What is the meaning of 'In the Image of God'?

ewq1938 said:

The Hebrew definitions show that you are wrong. You have only your opinion while I have the Hebrew itself to support this.


image
H6754
צלם
tselem
tseh'-lem
From an unused root meaning to shade; a phantom, that is, (figuratively) illusion, resemblance; hence a representative figure, especially an idol: - image, vain shew.

Likeness
H1823
דּמוּת
demûth
dem-ooth'
From H1819; resemblance; concretely model, shape; adverbially like: - fashion, like (-ness, as), manner, similitude.

Click to expand...

Yes, let's take a lexicon definition, and randomly highlight one of the possible meanings in bold. That's really honest! [/sarcasm]

And how exactly do you explain Psalm 39:6 or Psalm 58:4?

ewq1938 said:

Not remotely related to the topic at hand.

Click to expand...

That comment proves that your supposed knowledge of the Hebrew words is sadly lacking, because Psalm 39:6 and Psalm 58:4 are other places where the words are used.

Man has three aspects, flesh, soul and Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:23. God has three aspects, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Unlike animals we are self aware and have empathy etc. We have an image of God that no other creation has, in multiple ways.

But we don't "look" like God as He is Spirit. It's not that kind of an image, as has already been pointed out.

dms1972 said:

With regard to the terms 'image' and 'likeness' I found this from and article by James Barr [The Image of God in the book of Genesis - a study of terminology]

"The probability is that, though tselem [Hebrew for image] is the more important word, it is also the more novel and the more ambiguous. Demuth [Hebrew for likeness] is added in order to define and limit its meaning, by indicating that the sense intended for tselem must lie within the part of its range which overlaps with the range of demuth. This purpose having been accomplished when both words are used together at the first mention, it now becomes possible to use one of the two alone subsequently without risk of confusion. In later exegesis the loss of sense for this literary device caused interpreters to suppose that the 'image' might be one thing and the 'likeness' something quite other."

Click to expand...

I agree that being in the image and likeness of God are two different things just as the article by James Barr stated. God created man in His image and likeness. By crowning man with glory and honor, he becomes like God in that he is pure, righteous, without sin, has eternal life and was given dominion over the earth just as God has dominion over all creation.

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all[fn] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Psalm 8:5-6 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.

When Adam sinned, he still retained the "image of God", but he lost the "likeness of God." Man lost his crown of glory and honor and became a slave to sin and death. He lost eternal life and death came to him as a result of sin. Christ came to free man from the slavery of sin and death and to restore his "likeness of God" so that man can have eternal life with God in Heaven.

Since the "likeness of God" is separate from the "image of God", what then is the "image of God"? As someone pointed out under this thread, the image of God is something physical. Jesus is the only person in the Holy Trinity who has both a human and divine nature. It was God the Son, who gave His image to all mankind because Christ was the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last (Revelations 22:13). The second Adam (Christ) stamped His image on the first Adam when He created him. That is why He took on himself the role and the name of the first Adam, in order that He might not lose what He had made in His own image.

Some are probably thinking that the Second Person in the Holy Trinity only became human after the Incarnation. Yet, we know this cannot be because God never changes. With that said, we find in the Holy Bible that the Word (the Son) is the image of the invisible God and the firstborn over all creation (Colossians 1:15). What does it mean to be the "firstborn over all creation?" It means that Christ was eternally the Son just as God is eternally the Father and eternally the Spirit.....the Holy Trinity.

Moses, who wanted to see God's face, was told: "You cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live" (Ex 33: 30; cf. Jn 14: 8-9). However, Christ said that those who see Him also sees the Father (John 12:45). Therefore, the face of the Father, Creator of the universe, becomes accessible in Christ, the architect of created reality: "All things were created through Him... and in Him all things hold together" (Colossians 1: 16-17). Thus, while on the one hand Christ is superior to created realities, on the other hand He is involved in their creation. John attested to the fact that the Word (the Son) was there in the beginning. At the time appointed by God, the only Son of the Father, the eternal Word, that is, the Word and substantial Image of the Father, became incarnated by assuming human form through the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Holy Trinity and Incarnation is truly a mystery which defies human logic.

dms1972 said:

[My apologies this would have been better posted in Christian Scriptures forum]


I have come across a few different views on this, at least they seem to me to differ somewhat, and not sure who is right, perhaps they all hold some truth?

I am speaking of course of Genesis 1:26,27

Then God said "Let us make man in Our Image, after our likeness..."

1. Some take it in the sense of man is just an image of God.

2. Other point out that the verse says "in Our Image", and say man is not the Image of God per se, but made in the Image, the Image being Christ Himself, God the Son (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15). Man and the Divine Image are therefore not identical.

3. Yet others see distinction of meaning or nuance between the nouns "image" and "likeness" - image for them refers to the natural or physical aspect, and likeness to the spiritual or ethical aspect of man's constitution.

However if verse 26 is taken as announcing the decision of God to create man "Let us make man..." and verse 27 the fulfilment of that decision "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created he him..." there is no mention of likeness in verse 27, which suggest verse 26 has but one notion to convey, not two.


It seems to me the first view sees no special reference to Christ in the term Image.


I must admit until I came across Phillip Edgecumbe Hughes book The True Image, I took the sense of it to be no. 1.

What way do you understand this verse?

Click to expand...

We know that God is Triune, in 3 Persons.

So, to make man in "our" own image means that man was created trichotomous. Man has a material body, and an immaterial soul and spirit. Paul differentiated between soul (mind) and spirit in 1 Cor 14:15.

Hebrews 4:12 also differentiates between sould and spirit.

What did God say about eating of the forbidden fruit? In the day you eat it, you shall surely die. The original Hebrew says "dying, you shall die". Did Adam fall dead on that day? No. But his relationship with the Lord ceased. He became spiritually dead to God, unable to approach Him. So what actually died on that day was Adam's human spirit. But Adam's physical body continued to live, but now, it began to die physically over time. That's what the Hebrew "dying" refers to.

So, when Adam ate the fruit, he immediately died spiritually, and began to die physically.

So, because of this, all humans are born physically alive but spiritually dead (Rom 5). At the moment of faith in Christ, the person is born again, or regenerated, becomes a new creation. So, unregenerate man is dichotomous; body and soul. Regenerate man, otoh, is trichotomous; body, soul and spirit.

Recall what Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:24 - God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth.”

In the website, Bible Hub.com, only 2 out of 28 translations capitalize the second "spirit". What Jesus was telling the woman was, in order to worship God, one must possess a human spirit (a live one). Therefore, unregenerate people cannot properly worship God.

To summarize, humans are born dichotomous, and at the new birth, or spiritual birth, become trichotomous.

So to be "in the image of God", man must become born again.

Selene03 said:

Some are probably thinking that the Second Person in the Holy Trinity only became human after the Incarnation. Yet, we know this cannot be because God never changes.

Click to expand...

You just denied a core Christian doctrine which is part of our SoF.

Radagast said:

You just denied a core Christian doctrine which is part of our SoF.

Click to expand...

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Malachi 3:6 “For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.

God exists outside of time and space. Actually, He is everywhere and can exist in all time. The Holy Trinity and Incarnation is difficult to explain. Even I have trouble explaining it. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

CCC 359 "In reality it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes clear."
St. Paul tells us that the human race takes its origin from two men: Adam and Christ. . . The first man, Adam, he says, became a living soul, the last Adam a life-giving spirit. The first Adam was made by the last Adam, from whom he also received his soul, to give him life... The second Adam stamped his image on the first Adam when he created him. That is why he took on himself the role and the name of the first Adam, in order that he might not lose what he had made in his own image. The first Adam, the last Adam: the first had a beginning, the last knows no end. The last Adam is indeed the first; as he himself says: "I am the first and the last."