THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN - Tyndale House

THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN 67
God created man without their help in His own image alone. 64
If 'we' includes the heavenly court, man must be made in
the image of the elohim. Von Rad argues thus the plural is 'to
prevent one from referring God's image too closely to Yahweh.
By including himself in the heavenly court, he conceals himself
in this majority.' 65 But we may ask, why an author who was too
sensitive to write 'I will make man in my image' proceeded to
say in the next verse 'God created man in his image'. 66
The force of the further objection, that the elohim would be
said to have shared in man's creation, 67 is seldom recognized
by those scholars who see the heavenly court here. The Old
Testament quite consistently represents creation as the act of
Yahweh alone, 68 and we cannot evade the force of 'let us' by
explaining it as a mere consultation before the work of creation
begins. We agree with K. Barth: Genesis 1:26 ‘does not speak
of a mere entourage, of a divine court or council which later
disappears behind the king who alone acts. Those addressed
here are not merely consulted by the one who speaks but are
summoned to an act . . . of creation . . . in concert with the
One who speaks.’ 69
One point in favour of an identification of 'us' with the
םיִהֹל ֱא is the appearance of םיִהֹל ֱא in Psalm 8, which bears very
close affinities with Genesis 1:26. Here man is created a little
lower than םיִהֹל ֱא,
which could be interpreted as meaning a
little lower than the םיִהֹל ֱא or heavenly court. 70 However, even
if this is the correct understanding of Psalm 8, it is not necessary
to find the same reference in Genesis 1, and it would seem that
in general the difficulties involved in this interpretation of the
plural outweigh the superficial suitability of the identification.
64
TB, Sanhedrin 38b ( = Soncino ed., p. 244). Cf. J. H. Lowe, "Rashi" on the
Pentateuch. Genesis, Hebrew Compendium Publishing Co., London (1928) 39f.
65
von Rad, Genesis 57.
66
The absence of this phrase from the LXX of 1:27a is probably tendentious,
and not evidence of a variant Hebrew text (H. Renckens, Israel's Concept of the
Beginning 123; W. H. Schmidt, Schöpfungsgeschichte 141 n. 5).
67
‘Let us make' is not simply communicative, as argued by Franz Delitzsch,
A New Commentary on Genesis I, Clark, Edinburgh (1888) 98, and H. E. Ryle,
The Book of Genesis, Cambridge University Press (1914) 19.
68
Cf. e.g. Is. 40:14; 44:24. Even in Job 38:7 the םיהלא ינב are merely witnesses
to creation.
69
K. Barth, CD III/1 191f.
70
So LXX. It is not decisive that the opening and closing verses of the psalm
contain the name Yahweh (contra G. von Rad, Old Testament Theology I, Oliver
and Boyd, Edinburgh (1962) 145; and others); Elohim may be used instead of
Yahweh in the body of the psalm for the same reason as in Genesis 1.