WORDS
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WORD by Charles L. Feinberg, Th.D., Ph.D., Director, Talbot Theological Seminary Im a g e
of God John 4:24.) Still others would restrict the designation to mean dominion over nature on the basis of the first usage in Genesis 1:26 (Psa. 8). The force of the expression is really in another direction altogether; it is not toward man, but toward God. It is just because man is created in the image of God, that he does have sovereignty over the created universe. Some equate the image of God in man with self-conscious reason. Probably the best position is that the image of God in man refers to the fact that he is a moral and rational personal ity like God, able to differentiate be tween good and evil, to choose the good and refuse the evil, and to en joy spiritual fellowship and commun ion with God. What happened to God’s image in man after the fall? Was it lost? Through the fall the divine image, though greatly marred, has not been completely destroyed. In other words, by sin the image was defaced but not effaced. Since rational and ethi cal personality is an essential part of man’s being, it cannot be eradi cated as a temporary attribute. The New Testament declares unequivocal ly that the image of God, though de faced by the fall, still resides in man. See James 3:9; in 1 Cor. 11:9 it is employed of man in his power to command or in his place of author ity. Through the redemptive work of Christ the divine image in man is restored in even more glorious fash ion. Three times in the New Testament Christ is called the image of God, 2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15 and Hebrews 1:3. His divine nature and infinite moral excellence are under lined in these references. What the Word is to the ear (and Christ is the- Logos) the image is to the eye (and Christ is the express image of God). The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect representation in visible form of the invisible God, the face of God, as it were, turned to a fallen humanity, 2 Corinthians 4:6. (Those interested in a more detailed study of this im portant phase of Bible truth, will be richly repaid for their study of James Orr’s God’s Image in Man and Its Defacement.) END.
T he Hebrew words for image and likeness are tselem and demuth, while the Greek equivalents are eikon and homoiosis. The word image or its plural is employed throughout the Old and New Testaments for graven or molten idols. The refer ences to eikon (from which comes our English icon ) in the Gospels speak, not of idolatry, but of the image of Caesar on the Roman coinage (Mt. 22:20; Mk. 12:16; Lk. 20:24). The single use of homoiosis in the New Testament is found in James 3:9 where the reference is clearly to Genesis 1:26. The expression image of God con tains two Biblical doctrines: man as made in the image of God, and Chnst as the eternal image of God. We first meet the phrase under consideration in Genesis 1:26. The previous verses in Genesis 1 indicate that, when it was a matter of physical and mater ial creation alone, God spoke and it was done. With verse 26 we find a change of wording that definitely signifies a counsel in the Godhead and a decision based thereupon. We read: “ And 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 cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” This definition of man’s basic and initial relation to God is echoed in Psalm 8:5-8. Otlqer uses of this idea in Genesis occur in 1:27, 5:1, and 9:6. One of the several problems involved in 1:26 and discussed through the centuries is this: is there any difference between image and likeness? Most of the Church Fath ers made some distinction. Image was supposed to refer to man’s bodily form, and likeness to his spiritual na ture. Other thinkers proposed other views. The general view now tends to see no difference in the words, but to treat the terms as synonymous. What is the image? Early Chris tian scholars thought it was the Logos who formed the pattern in the crea tion of man. This is reading back truth which is revealed later and not intended here. Others held it means physical resemblance to God. But the Bible reveals God as Spirit. (See
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