Image of God
“Genesis 1:26 can only be understood against the background of an ancient Yahweh statue…humanity is regarded as the statue of God… The terms “image” and “likeness” are used a synonyms denoting a ‘statue.’ Humans were thus created to be the living statues of the deity… There was no need of a divine image because humans represented Yahweh as a statue would have done.” —— H. NIEHR, “IN SEARCH OF YAHWEH’S CULT STATUE IN THE FIRST TEMPLE,” PP. 93-94.
Humanity in the garden is an incarnation of God’s heavenly presence and rule on earth: “To appreciate the full force of this image-of-God-in-humanity theology, we must have in mind the role of idols in ancient Near Eastern religion…where an idol is set up to be the real presence of the god. Because the god is really believed to inhabit the image, the image is the god, and its proper care and veneration guarantees the god’s benefits and protection for the worshipping community… With this understanding of divine images assumed, [Genesis 1] has a sharply focused theological anthropology: humanity is the be the eyes, ears, mouth, being, and action of the creator God within his creation… This point gives the biblical prohibition of idolatry its strongest possible rationale: for humans to make an idol is foolish because it fails to appreciate that according to the original order of creation, it is humanity that functions in relation to God as do the idols in relation to their gods.” —— CRISPIN FLETCHER-LOUIS, “GOD’S IMAGE, HIS COSMIC TEMPLE, AND THE HIGH PRIEST,” P. 83-84.
The Image of God = Humanity as God’s royal image
“Just as powerful earthly kings, to indicate their claim to dominion, erect an image of themselves in the provinces of their empire where they do not personally appear, so humans are placed on the earth in God’s image as God’s sovereign emblem.” —GERHARD VON RAD, GENESIS, 60
In ancient royal ideology “the king is the image of the god. This widely attested functional similarity between the king and god in Mesopotamia, whereby the king represents the god by virtue of his royal office and is portrayed as acting like the god in specific ways, provides the necessary background for understanding the descriptions of the king as the image of a god… [This] provides the most plausible set of parallels for interpreting the imago Dei in Genesis 1… Humanity is dignified with a status and role… that is analogous to the status and role of kings in the ancient Near East. Genesis chapter one…thus constitutes a genuine democratization of ancient Near Eastern royal ideology. As imago Dei, humanity is called to be the representative and intermediary of God’s power and blessing on earth.” —J. RICHARD MIDDLETON, THE LIBERATING IMAGE: THE IMAGO DEI IN GENESIS 1, 121.
The ritual transformation of the divine image
mîs-pî (“mouth washing”) and pît-pî (“mouth opening”)
“The image in ancient Mesopotamia should not be conceptualized as a mere statue or monument, because modern conceptions of portraiture are too often attached to those ideas. The ancient “image” (Hebrew tselem / Akkadian tsalmu) is not a ‘replica’… after the transformation ritual the image becomes and extension or manifestation of the referent.” —STEPHEN HERRING, “A ‘TRANSUBSTANTIATED’ HUMANITY: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIVINE IMAGE AND THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN GENESIS 1:26-28,” VETUS TESTAMENTUM VOL. 58 (2008), PP. 483, 485, 488-89.
Genesis 2:7
Genesis 2:15
The Image of God in the Story-line of the Bible
Genesis 3:15
Genesis 5:1-3
Bibliography
https://bibleproject.com/classroom-alpha/education-videos/session-27-rulers-below/
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/lilith/
James Joyce, Ulysses, chap. 14, “Oxen of the Sun.”
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/hebrew-bible/lilith-in-the-bible-and-mythology/
https://bibleproject.com/classroom-alpha/education-videos/session-28-humans-image-or-idol-god/
https://bibleproject.com/classroom-alpha/education-videos/session-29-image-god-storyline-bible/