One of the most abused passages of the Bible is Genesis 1: 27. “So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (TNIV) The believer in God wants to exaggerate the specialness of our human condition and the nonbeliever makes fun of anyone who claims to look like God. Both understandings of this passage are fraudulent. What does the writer of Genesis mean by “the image of God”?
To begin
with (a pun and a lousy attempt at humor), these words were originally given to
us in the Hebrew language and later translated into Greek and then into
English. In Hebrew the words are “tzelem
Elohim”. The root meaning of this phrase
is the shadow of God. Answering my own
question, the writer means that we human beings were created with a shadowing
of God. A shadow is not reality but a
shadow gives some indicators about reality.
We humans were created, according to the writer of Genesis, with the
potential to be spiritual beings or said in another way, created with a predisposition
to make a spiritual connection with God.
This much is
a mouthful but it is all that the writer is saying.
G. Goslaw
Landers, CA
