THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN - Tyndale House

THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN 91
We can hardly say that 'likeness' ( תּ ומּד ְ ) strengthens the
meaning of םֶלֶצ, 172 for an image which is also a likeness is
not more of an image than one which bears no likeness to
what it represents; this follows from our acceptance of the
representative quality as the essential significance of the
image. Yet we may say that the use of the term 'likeness'
brings into sharper relief the huge claim that is made for
man in this statement.
We find ourselves here in opposition to the great majority
of scholars, who have either understood the abstract term
תּ ומּד ְ 'likeness' to be a weakening of the strong physical
implication of the concrete term םֶלֶצ 'image', or have denied
that any distinction between the two terms may be discerned.
These two opinions, however, have usually been held for
reasons which we do not find acceptable or necessary.
Those who believe that תּ ומּד ְ ‘weakens’ the strong
physical force of םֶלֶצ have assumed that םֶלֶצ by itself would
signify man's creation according to the physical image of
God, and that the author must therefore qualify this strong
term by explaining that man is not an exact copy of God,
only a ‘likeness’. 173 But if we understand the םֶלֶצ to refer
to man as the image and not to God's image, there is no
reason why we should not understand it in a quite physical
sense (which does not of course exclude the spiritual, since
body and soul/spirit are for practical purposes indivisible);
תּ ומּד ְ then specifies what kind of an image it is: it is a
‘likeness’—image, not simply an image; representational, not
simply representative.
Those on the other hand who deny that any distinction
can be drawn between the terms םֶלֶצ and תּ ומּדְ 174 are
often conscious of the fundamental error in the traditional
Christian interpretation, by which the terms םֶלֶצ and
תּ ומ ּדְ
were made to refer to entirely different things. This
interpretation, which goes back to Irenaeus, 175 understands
the םֶלֶצ to refer natural likeness to God (e.g. reason, free-will),
תּ ומּד ְ to supernatural likeness (e.g. moral excellence). This
172 So I. Engnell, VTS 3 (1957) 112.
173 P. Humbert, Etudes 160; L. Koehler, TZ 4 (1948) 21.
174 So W. H. Schmidt, Schöpfungsgeschichte 143.
175 A. Struker, Die Gottebenbildlichkeit des Menschen in der christlichen Literatur der
ersten zwei Jahrizunderte, Aschendorff, Münster (1913) 87, 101ff.