In
Genesis, what the "image" (εικων) of God consists of may never (and
may never have been meant to) be reduced to a single element. A range of
characteristics and functions have been proposed in medieval and modern
theology: sexuality, relationality, reason, etc.
Initially,
I am less interested in pinpointing the specific divine quality possessed by
humans than in stating the basic fact: human beings, according to the first
chapter of the Bible, are iconically like God. The fundamental likeness provides
(as we see in Gen 3, 6, and 11) the basis for the further step: mixing with and
potentially entering the class of divine beings.
Those
who were part of the class of divine beings were, as we noted, called "the
sons of God" (οι υιοι του θεου) (Gen 6:2; Ps 28[29]:1; 88:7 [89:6];
81[82]:6). Divine sonship links back to the divine image, as is indicated in
Gen 5:3. Here Adam begets a son "in his likeness, according to his
image" (כצלמו בדמותו; κατα την ιδεαν αυτου και κατα την εικονα αυτου). The
language in Gen 1:26 is similar, except for the prepositions which appear to be
interchangeable: "in our image, according to our likeness" (בצלמנו כדמותנו;
κατ εικονα ημετεραν και καθ ομοιωσιν). It seems, then, that even in Gen 1:26,
Yahweh wants to draw humankind (אדם; ανθρωπος) into a kinship relation with
himself. As an image of God, the human is a son of God. Accordingly, the author
of the Gospel of Luke can write that Adam, created in God's image, is
genealogically (and genetically?) speaking, "son of God" ([υιος] του
θεου) (3:38; cf. 17:28b). By making mankind in the image and likeness of
himself and the other divine beings (note: "Le us"), Yahweh
makes humans his children and thus strikingly close to the "sons of
God" who in Gen 6 and Ps 28(29):1 are part of the class of divine beings.
When
we turn to the historical meaning of human iconicity, Hebrew Bible scholars
have allowed us to see it at least in part as a morphological and thus physical
similarity to Godself. In the words of Benjamin Sommer, Genesis 1:26-27 "asserts
that human beings have the same form as God and other heavenly beings."
The words צלם (εικων) and דמות (ομοιωσις) refer to the "physical
contours" of God. To share God's image thus means to share God's
corporeality. Although scholars of all stripes and times have downplayed the
corporeality of God in the Jewish scriptures, the notion is unavoidable.
In
Genesis 2.7 God blows life-giving breath into the first human—an action that might
suggest that God has a mouth or some organ with which to exhale. Less
ambiguously, in Genesis 3.8, Adam hears the sound of God going for a stroll in
the Garden of Eden at the breezy time of the day. A being who takes a walk is a
being who has a body—more specifically, a body with something closely resembling
legs. As we move forward in Genesis, we are told that God comes down from
heaven to earth to take a close look at the tower the humans are building
(Genesis 11.5) and that God walks to Abraham's tent, where He engages in
conversation. (Genesis 18) (Sommer, Bodies of God, 2).
Thus
by making humankind iconically similar to himself, God apparently shares his
bodily form. Humans become the statues (εικονες) of God ("statue"
being a common meaning of εικων in Paul's day). This line of interpretation is
confirmed in later Jewish literature. In Vita Adae et Evae, Adam's
bodily face and likeness take on the image of God (13:3). The patriarch Isaac
affirms that not preserving the body profanes the image of God (TIsaac
6:33-7:1). R. Hillel goes to the bath to take care of the image of God (his
body!) (Lev. Rabb. 34.3). Likewise, when Adam shares his image with
Seth, he shares his bodily form (Gen 5:3). Just as Seth is embodied in a form
akin to that of Adam, so Adam in Gen 1:26-27 is embodied in a form akin to that
of God. (M. David Litwa, We Are Being Transformed: Deification in Paul's
Soteriology [Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche
Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche 187; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2012],
100-2)
Further Reading:
Lynn Wilder vs. Latter-day Saint (and Biblical) Theology on Divine Embodiment