by Karen Pusey

Created on: August 01, 2009   Last Updated: August 03, 2009

Humans are created in the image of God. Theologians have puzzled over the meaning of the phrase "image and likeness". Many, like Tertullian (160-220 CE) have made a distinction between the two words. In a treatise on baptism,Tertullian says that "image" refers to his form and "likeness" to his eternity, the latter given to humans by God breathing into him the breath of life. However, there is no need to make distinction, because Hebrew poetry is full of examples where the same idea is put into two different expressions. Many of these examples of Hebrew parallellism are in the Psalms. The Psalm which tells of God's knowledge of each person says, "For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb" (Psalm 139: 13) No-one would make a serious theological point about the difference between "formed" and "knit"!

The Septuagint (LXX) translates "image" as "eikon". Humans are God's eikons. The Orthodox churches have taken this to their hearts and eikons depicting humans are venerated. This includes eikons of Christ. He was the perfect eikon. "He is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15) "He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being..." (Hebrews 1:3)

So what does the idea of humans as God's eikons mean? First, it puts humans on the side of God rather than the side of the animals. This is not to deny the fact of evolution. God has used this method to reach the heights of creation. Humans have a relationship to the animal kingdom, but it is not there that we look for God's image. Humans are not animals plus spirituality or morality or whatever makes us different. Humans in their wholeness are God's eikons. They have a relationship with him. Like him, they take part in creativity. They are his stewards looking after the cosmos. God is the father of all humans, but more particularly the Father of the perfect eikon, Jesus the Christ,God's ultimate agent in the making of the cosmos.

Tertullian, as has already been noted, made much of God breathing into humans the breath of life. Does this mean that humans are twofold in their being? Ancient Hebrews would answer with a resounding,"No", for as H.Wheeler Robinson famously said "Man is an animated body, not an incarnated soul" The Greek idea of the soul did penetrate into later Hebrew thinking, but biblical Judaism and Christianity believes in the importance of the body and that whatever extra spirituality humans may show, basically they reflect

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