The Image of the Creative God
Georg Pencz, Solomon Worshipping Idols (detail), (1500–1550), Courtesy The MET
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock 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. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” Genesis 1:26–28
What does it mean that human beings are made in the imago dei, “image of God?”
This is a question that has received a lot of attention since these words were first penned, and answers have varied greatly. One common way of answering this question is to think in terms of how Adam and Eve reflected God’s attributes in distinction to the other creatures he made. Often attributes such as human logic and reasoning (a la Augustine), emotions, and conscience are cited as important “imaging” distinctions. The logic behind this approach is that Scripture tells us human beings alone were made in his image.
However much truth there might be in the distinctions between Adam and the animals, God’s word has more light to shed on this question. In his Commentary on Genesis, John Calvin explained, “Since the image of God had been destroyed in us by the fall, we may judge from its restoration what it originally had been. Paul says that we are transformed into the image of God by the gospel. And, according to him, spiritual regeneration is nothing else than the restoration of the same image.” He cites Colossians 3:10 and Ephesians 4:23 to show this:
Colossians 3:9–10 “you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”
Ephesians 4:22–24 “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Calvin asserts that though the regeneration which produces wisdom, righteousness, and holiness “is the chief part [of image bearing], it is not the whole of God's image.” He then, along Augustinian thinking, acknowledges several human attributes that reflect God’s being such as our judgment faculties, proper relationship between reason and emotions, and our intelligence.
As we seek to determine the meaning of a particular biblical word or phrase, it is important to examine the immediate context. Before we begin to enumerate distinctive anthropological characteristics, it is worth first exploring whether there is something within the passage itself that reveals the primary intention of the phrase. “What is this passage about?” we must ask ourselves.
In an attempt to remain faithful to the immediate Genesis context, some commentators have highlighted the attributes of God which are revealed in this creation account. There are two commonly mentioned: relationality and creativity. As God is three persons in perfect unity (note the plural personal pronoun used in Gen 1:26), so human beings were designed to live in relationship with one another (“It is not good that the man should be alone” Gen 2:18). There is an “irreducible relationality” to human beings that is “intended to reflect in our relationships the unifying love that is at the center of the being of the triune God.” (Moo, 75)
We also see in the creation account that Adam and Eve’s commission to work and keep the garden is a call to creative work. Though not done ex nihilo as was God’s, “human creativity is… always derived from the work of the Creator.” (Van Duzer, 32) In seeking to determine the biblical meaning of the “image of God,” I believe it is a step in the right direction to look at humanity’s work in the world. After all, that is the most immediate context: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion” (Gen 1:28).
Calvin’s focus on moral rectitude and the recognition of the immediate context of the human commission are brought together in Westminster Shorter Catechism answer 10: “God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.” The catechism helpfully connects Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4 to the idea of our dominion over creation. The NIV translation brings this out vividly: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule” (emphasis mine). I believe this understanding gets us even closer to authorial intent.
But, What Exactly is an “Image?”
If you were to visit a rural village in Asia and, upon meeting the local community, began to draw a cartoon of a donkey and an elephant standing toe-to-toe with boxing gloves on, the meaning would likely be lost on most of your audience. This is because these symbols have obvious meaning only for those within a certain cultural context. Without knowledge of the American Democratic and Republican political parties, the drawing would verge on absurdity. In the same way, when we read that God is said to set up his “image” on the earth to exercise dominion, we would do well to explore ancient cultural precedent for such language. In doing so, we find that there’s more meaning to be found than most 21st-century Americans would casually pick up on.
Ancient Near East cultures had strong traditions of setting up “images” (statues) of their rulers. (Lev 26:1, Dan 3:1-7) “Ancient kings would set up images of themselves in distant lands over which they ruled in order to represent their sovereign presence. For example, after conquering a new territory, the Assyrian king Shalmanesar ‘fashioned a mighty image of my majesty’ that he ‘set up’ on a black obelisk, and then he virtually equates his ‘image’ with that of ‘the glory of Asshur’ his god.” (Beale, Temple, 82) Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian ritual involved constructing the idol near a garden and bringing it to a nearby temple. It was believed that once it was set up in the temple “the living essence of the deity would be transferred into its temple statue [so that it would] become the conduit through which the god spoke [even as] the god remains transcendent.” (Beale, We Become, 65)
The image of the god in the temple functioned as the stand-in presence of the god him or herself. “In a similar way, God establishes his human creatures, made in his likeness, to reflect his sovereignty throughout the earth.” (Moo, 74) Adam and Eve were created to represent God to all of creation. They were given “dominion” (royal/ruling language) and were told to “work” and “keep” it (priestly language). Genesis 2:15 tells us that “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” Beale has shown that the Hebrew word pair here translated as “work” and “keep” is seen throughout the Old Testament in reference to the priesthood, often translated as “serving” and “guarding” the temple. (See Numbers 3:7-8 and Ezekiel 44:14; and Beale, Temple, 66-70.) Adam’s call to work the garden and keep it from defilement is equivalent to the priestly commission to do the service of the temple and guard it against desecration. Humanity’s call then to be “priests of creation,” to use Colin Gunton’s phrase (Moo, 182), is inextricably connected to the work of our hands. “We are called to stand in for God here in the world, exercising stewardship over the rest of creation in his place as his vice-regents.” (Keller, 36)
What this tells us is that the imago dei is a central biblical concept for developing a theology of work and technology. When we strive to work and use tools and technologies well, we are fulfilling what it means to be the image of God in the world.
Resources Cited:
Jonathan Moo and Douglas Moo, Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of the Natural World
G. K. Beale, We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry
G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God
John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis
Jeff Van Duzer, Why Business Matters to God (And What Still Needs to Be Fixed)
Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work