What is the Image of God and the Beast?

[Lulav]

Do we really understand what is meant by being made in G-ds image?

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him;male and female He created them.​

Why the seeming reiteration?

Image
Likeness​

What's the difference between the two?

Image---בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ

Interestingly in modern Hebrew this translates as 'we photographed'

It seems to be the only time used in this form and origin is obscure

Likeness---כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ

And this in modern Hebrew translates to 'Like Us'

It has more to do with form than copy

Now what is the definition in Modern day understanding?

Definition of image
1 :a reproduction or imitation of the form of a person or thing; especially :an imitation in solid form
2. a :the optical counterpart of an object produced by an optical device (such as a lens or mirror) or an electronic device
3.a :exact likeness :semblance

• God created man in his own image
• —Genesis 1:27 (Revised Standard Version)

b :a person strikingly like another person

• she is the image of her mother

Likeness :

1. a representation, picture, or image, especially a portrait:
   
2. the state or fact of being like
   
3. the semblance or appearance of something; guise:

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That is from the first book - Genesis

Now from the last book - The Revelation

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast;

saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.​

It is the people who make this image.

Now how do they have the power and means to do that? Is it just a statue like in Nebuchadnezzar time? Or is it something more technological?

This 'image' is given power from the second beast to speak and cause death.

And he had power to give breath (of life) unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.​

The word 'breath' in the Greek used is 'pneuma', meaning life, breath, just like in Genesis 2

7 Then the L-RD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

However the word is not the same in the Septuagint.

We can get an inkling on what this might be by looking elsewhere in the NT by the Greek.

PNEUMA spirit.
In Lk.24.39 Jesus stated, "a pneuma does not have flesh and bones, as you observe me having."
Thus Jesus defined "pneuma" as a living being without a body.

Jas.2.26, referring to humans: "...the body without the pneuma is dead."
In the NT, pneuma usually represents a living, non-physical being or a non-physical part of a human.
"Pneuma," is a non-physical entity called "spirit;" (sometimes called a "sensory being" or "soul"). the word pneuma to be used to describe a "non-physical" being.
A pneuma (spirit) cannnot be detected by the human five senses. Yet its presence in a living human is usually obvious.
The word "zoe" is used to describe "life" in the NT. When it refers to a living human zoe comprises the total of body, soul and spirit (pneuma). But pneuma is only one part of a living human and never means "life."

In the NT pneuma always means "spirit." It is always in the neuter gender.

 

[Meowzltov]

I think image is obviously meant metaphorically since God doesn't have arms and legs and a urinary tract and a pancreas and a gallbladder, etc.

To use it as a metaphor, we have to ask ourselves, what is there about the essense of God that we share? For example, we are NOT omnipotant, omniscient, or omnipresent, so those things are out.

I have often wondered about this down through the years, and this is my best guess: We are morally sentient, knowing good from evil.

 

[Swan7]

Spoiler: 1 John 5:6-8 (KJV)

This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

I'm just pointing this scripture out because it helped me greatly in trying to understand God more concerning not only His ways, but His image and what it means for us as well.

So, we have 3 important puzzle pieces that we have in common with God:

1. We have a form
2. We have a spirit
3. We are living beings.

As for the image of the beast, there is one being that wants to be as the Most High - Satan. He seems to be a copy-cat, an imitator, and certainly is capable of being an imposter. John 10:10
2 Corinthians 11:14

Wouldn't Satan try to do the same thing as how Jesus was born into the world? I know that he would have to be "permitted" to "give life", but that seems to be the very thing in scripture. Revelation 13:15

Thanks for the interesting thread. I have been studying this every so often to keep Watch.

 

[visionary]

Erica, the 'most beautiful and intelligent' android, leads Japan's robot revolution, might be the cross between "man made" and speaking... Not this start, but generations later when they become what transform the world as we know it... as in the movie "I, Robot".. where lines are blurred and the public can't seem to live without it. In fact, they become so good, that they are the generations later of the cell phone we can't take our eyes off of now. Erica, the 'most beautiful and intelligent' android, leads Japan's robot revolution

At that point, the "maker" can manipulate those around his creation to do his bidding.

 

[Meowzltov]

At that point, the "maker" can manipulate those around his creation to do his bidding.

The whole idea with Erika and the concept of AI androids is to eventually create a sentient being that will think for themselves. We will certainly have "in-between" androids who are not sentient, but who will function as our robots today do, serving us. But once the point of sentience is reached, these new AI's will have the same rights as other people. I don't think the idea with Erica is to create a slave class of sentient beings. Japan does not have the fear of androids that our culture does (I'm sure "Westworld" seems baffling to the Japanese). They are looking to create partners.