Daily Scripture Reading Genesis 1:26 - 2:14
Most pastors and Bible teachers claim that both male and female are created in the image of God. That statement is often used to declare the value of all people in general and females in particular. The belief that both men and women are created in the image of God is sometimes used to insist that men and women should have equal roles and authority in the family, church, and society.
We will see in today’s passage that the Bible doesn’t actually say that females are created in the image of God. However, this does not devalue women. Instead, it forces us to value men for being men and value women for being women.
The first verse of the Bible tells us God created the heavens and the earth. The rest of chapter one describes how God gave form to the earth and filled it with plants, trees, birds, land animals, and sea creatures.
Gen. 1:26 ¶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, so that they will have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
The word “image” tells us there is something about man that is different than all the other living things God created. God is an intelligent, creative Being. He created humans with similar intelligence and creativity. Some animals are smart, but they don’t have the intelligence possessed by God and humans. Some animals can build shelters, but they don’t have the creativity displayed when God and humans create things.
The word “dominion” gives humans authority over animals. There are people who object to the existence of zoos because they don’t believe man should control animals. However, God created humans so that we would exercise dominion over everything on the earth.
Gen. 1:27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Most pastors and Bible teachers say that both male and female are created in the image of God. The problem is the Bible doesn’t actually say that. The word “man” is singular, and in the original Hebrew, it is prefixed with the singular definite article. This means this verse should read “And God created the man in His own image”.
In the next phrase, the pronoun “him” is singular, meaning God only created one man in His image.
The final phrase refers to God creating female, but it does not include the word “image”.
The creation of man is mentioned in Genesis 9:6, but once again in the Hebrew text the word man is singular and it is prefixed with the singular definite article.
Perhaps the most telling verse on this topic is 1Cor 11:7 “For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man.” This verse explains that men should uncover their head during prayer and women should cover their head during prayer because men are the image of God, while women are the glory of men. There is clearly a difference between male and female.
Many people have the mindset that if men are created in the image of God, but women are not, then that means women are inferior or less valuable than men. However, if a painter paints a self-portrait and a portrait of another person, the self-portrait is not more valuable just because it is a self-portrait.
A painter creates paintings because he is creative. He might paint a self-portrait to communicate truth about himself. God created the universe and everything in it because He is creative. He created man in His image to communicate truth about Himself. Men and women are different. The fact that men are the image of God and women are not tells us God is masculine, not feminine. It does not mean women are not valuable. In fact, Proverbs 31 very explicitly describes the great value of females.
Gen. 1:28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “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 sky and over every living thing that creeps on the earth.”
Look at the phrase “be fruitful and multiply”. When I was a kid, a common expression was that this is the only command of God that humans have not rebelled against. Unfortunately, that is no longer true. Many people in western civilization believe the world is over-populated and that humans are destroying the earth. They are hostile to anyone bringing more children into the world.
Christians should promote child-bearing because God commanded humans to be fruitful and multiply.
Gen. 1:29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given to you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has the fruit of the tree yielding seed; it shall be food for you;
Gen. 1:30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that creeps on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.
When humans were first created, they were vegetarians. That does not mean we should be vegetarians today. God added meat to the human diet after the flood, as we will see when we read Genesis 9.
Gen. 1:31 And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Gen. 2:1 ¶ Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.
Gen. 2:2 And on the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
Gen. 2:3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created in making it.
Gen. 2:4 ¶ These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made earth and heaven.
Gen. 2:5 Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet grown, for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.
Gen. 2:6 But a stream would rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.
Gen. 2:7 Then Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and so the man became a living being.
Gen. 2:8 And Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden, toward the east; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.
The Hebrew word “eden” means luxury, dainty, or delight. The garden of Eden was delightful and luxurious.
Gen. 2:9 And out of the ground Yahweh God caused to grow every tree that is desirable in appearance and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Gen. 2:10 ¶ Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers.
There were four rivers whose source came from the same area.
Gen. 2:11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that went around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
Havilah was probably located in the Arabian peninsula.
Gen. 2:12 Now the gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there.
Gen. 2:13 And the name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that went around the whole land of Cush.
Cush was south of Egypt.
Gen. 2:14 And the name of the third river is Tigris; it is the one that went east of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow down the Mesopotamian Valley.
When you look at a map today, it seems these four rivers could not be sourced from the same area, particularly the one that flowed around Cush. However, this verse describes the geography that existed before the flood. The flood was so cataclysmic that it radically changed geography. It is possible that there was only one continent before the flood and that the flood broke that one continent into multiple continents.
Since we don’t know what the geography of the area looked like before the flood, we should not get hung up on trying to understand where these four rivers were.
Most pastors and Bible teachers claim that both male and female are created in the image of God. However, the Bible doesn’t actually say that. 1Cor 11 tells us men are created in the image of God while women are the glory of men.
This does not devalue women. Proverbs 31 declares the exceeding value of women. Men and women are different, and each are valuable for different reasons. We should not have the mindset that women need to be created in the image of God in order to be valuable.
To what extent have you or your church bought into the fallacy that the value of women is based on them being created in the image of God?
Since men are created in the image of God, meaning God is masculine, what do the differences between male and female tell you about what God is and what He is not?
Thanks for visiting Bible Mountain. If you have already joined my email list, thank you and please tell others about Bible Mountain. If you have not joined my email list yet, please do so now. In order to join, go to Bible Mountain dotcom, click on subscribe, and that will take you to a page where you can sign up. Your email address will not be sold nor given away. Once again, thanks for visiting Bible Mountain.
“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”