Genesis 1:26-27
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
A lot to unpack in here, despite it being a fairly short section of Scripture.
The first thing to jump out is the plurality of the Lord shown in the choice of pronouns used.
"Let US make"
"In OUR image"
Clearly there is a plurality acknowledged right away. The verses preceding all the way back to verse 1 are some form of "God did this and God did that" or "God said this and God said that". But here, we get our very first insight as to who or what is this God that is saying and doing all of these things.
It's also quite interesting because this revelation occurs in the very sentence which declares that we're created in His image.
In order to understand the implications of that, we need an understanding of what that image is and here's our first clue.
We are created in the image of One who is pluristic in nature, and therefore so are we.
Additionally, I'd like to point out how verse 27 makes absolutely clear that in most instances throughout the rest of the Bible, the word "man" is really best translated as "mankind" and refers to all of us male and female alike.
The reason this is important is because many supposedly Christian men throughout the years have used verses out of context to diminish women and make them "less than".
There is also a loving order to things and a necessary hierarchical system in place. As well as a vast number of differences between the two sexes, but there is really no justification for belittling or not fully appreciating the splendor and equality of women with regard to them also having been created in the image if God.
5/11/2023 11:21 AM (edited)