Smoodock's Blog

In the beginning, when the Lord created man, he created him in God’s own image (Genesis 1:27), but what constitutes the image of God? For one thing, the word God in chapter one is in the plural form throughout, but whenever God is referred to in a pronoun, it is never they but he (Genesis 1:5, 10, 16, 27, 31). The sole exception to this rule is in verse-26, where God says: “Let us make man…” What can we say about this? We are told by Moses, the author of Genesis and the other four books of the Law: “The LORD our God is one LORD!” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Once again, God is plural, but he is ONE! How would this be expressed in mankind as the image of God?

The Bible also describes God as a man of war (Exodus 15:3) and a husband (Jeremiah 31:32), traditional male characteristics. However, he is also described as a mother (Deuteronomy 32:11-12; Matthew 23:37), obviously, a female characteristic. So, the Lord, who is one, has what we might describe as male/female characteristics. This is not to say God is a man or a woman, but mankind, which is both male and female (Genesis 1:27), was created as the image of God. Whatever this may have looked like in the beginning, what we know, today, as male and female didn’t come into existence until the day God formed the woman. Indeed, Adam existed prior to that moment, but he existed as both male and female in one body, and male and female (Genesis 1:27) became a man and a woman in Genesis 2:21-23.

However we may wish to interpret Genesis 1:27, the fact remains that, according to the scriptures, the man was created first (1Timothy 2:13), and afterward, all that was to become the woman was taken out of the man (Genesis 2:21-22). Therefore, we might ask, what did the man look like, prior to when everything the Lord built into the woman was taken out of Adam?

According to the word of God, the Lord formed mankind from the ground (Genesis 2:7), creating (them) male and female (Genesis 1:27). Moreover, the Lord completed his task in six days (Exodus 20:11; cp Genesis 1:31). However, if we compare the creation stories of Genesis 1 with Genesis 2, we have a problem, if we accept what we’ve been taught in our childhood Sunday school classes. There simply isn’t enough time to get to creating the woman on the sixth day, and, remember, all creation activity stops there, with God resting on the seventh day from all his creative labor.

Certainly, it wouldn’t have been a problem for God to create everything in six days, including the woman. Nevertheless, if God is to relate to mankind, he must limit himself to the abilities he has given mankind. The problem of the timing of the woman’s appearance arises from the task God gave the man to perform. (Genesis 2:19). This was a very large project! Despite what we’ve come to believe, this project couldn’t have been completed **by Adam** in a single day, and the text claims the woman wasn’t made until after the task was completed!

Am I saying the woman is an afterthought (cp. Genesis 2:18)? Not at all, not any more than the masculine, Adam, was an afterthought, because Adam didn’t become masculine, until the feminine (woman) was removed and made into the woman through God’s operation upon the man (Genesis 2:21-22). Originally, Adam was formed, having both genders, but after a period of time God removed most of his feminine characteristics to form the woman. At that time, Adam became masculine.

Think about it. How much time would it take even a group of scientists, today, to study the whole kingdom of land animals and all the different kinds birds and name each kind to reflect their behavioral characteristics, which they display in their customary habitat? Even if we allow for the fact that many species of animals developed later in our history, we still have thousands of different kinds of animals and birds (Genesis 2:19-20; cp. Genesis 1:20, 24-25). Such a task would have taken months, perhaps even a year or longer, if all we’re concerned with is giving the creatures descriptive names. (cp. Genesis 35:18; 38:28-30; also 28:17-19).

Nevertheless, this isn’t all that can be said about the image of God. The New Covenant text tells us that the image of God is spiritual in nature, and when we consider Christ in the Gospel narratives, “we… are changed into that image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord” (2Corinthians 3:8). So, the image of God is understood both physically as male and female and behaviorally by demonstrating God’s nature as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). However, this is done only through the Spirit of God that dwells within us as believers. Nevertheless, each characteristic has a traditional male side (forthright) and a female side (tender), and the Spirit of God is expressed in a unique manner by the believing man and the believing women. Thus, there is no room for a patriarchal hierarchy here. Both the man and the woman are needed to express the image of God, and God is one; there is no hierarchy in the Godhead.