THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN - Tyndale House

THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN 95
that involved the nations in blessing as well. 183 Nevertheless,
none of this recognition of the equality and unity of man seems
to have stemmed from the doctrine of the image of God. The
image doctrine may in fact have been a precipitate of, rather
than a catalyst for, the type of thought we have referred to here.
There is, however, one phenomenal distinction between
man and man which is specifically denied by the text of Genesis
1:27 to be ultimate, namely the distinction between male and
female. The image of God does not subsist in the male but in
mankind, within which woman also belongs. Thus the most
basic statement about man, according to Genesis 1, that he is
the image of God, does not find its full meaning in man alone,
but in man and woman. E. Brunner has observed on the phrase
‘male and female created he them’: ‘That is the immense
double statement, of a lapidary simplicity, so simple indeed
that we hardly realize that with it a vast world of myth and
Gnostic speculation, of cynicism and asceticism, of the deifica-
tion of sexuality and fear of sex completely disappears’. 184
5. It is the king who is the image of God; in virtue of his being
the image of God he is ruler. Likewise in Genesis 1 the concept
of man's rulership is connected in the strongest possible way
with the idea of the image : 'Let us make man as our image
according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over
he fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing
that creeps upon the earth' (verse 26). Again we find: 'So God
created man as his own image . . . and God blessed them and
said . . . , "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and
subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves
upon the earth" ' (verses 27f.). Again in Psalm 8, which has
been aptly termed the best commentary on Genesis 1:26, 185
man's status is linked with kingship and dominion: 186
Thou hast made him a little less than God,
and dost crown him with glory and honour.
Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands;
thou hast put all things under his feet,
183
E.g. Gn. 12:3; Ps. 2:10f.; Is. 19:24f ; 42:6.
184
E. Brunner, Man in Revolt, Lutterworth, London (1939) 346.
185
Cf. P. Humbert, Etudes 170.
186
For analysis of the terminology see H. Gross, ‘Die Gottebenbildlichkeit
des Menschen’ 96ff.