Smoodock's Blog

If mankind was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), does this mean that our physical frame was created in the likeness of our Creator? Actually, such a thing is more of a Greek interpretation of God’s appearance than a Hebrew interpretation. In other words, the Bible makes no such statement. In fact, a comparison of Genesis 1:27 with Genesis 5:1, 3 implies the shape and appearance of man is different from that of God. While God created man in **God’s** image and likeness, Adam sired Seth in **his own** image and likeness. Thus, this seems to indicate there is something deeper going on in the text in Genesis 1 than immediately meets the eye.

What did Adam look like, when God created him? Did he look like a modern male human? Perhaps, but probably not! We’re told that Adam was created first (1Timothy 2:13), and he was both male and female, according to the text (Genesis 1:27). A comparison of Genesis 1:26-27 with 2:7, 21-22 shows that the human was both male and female in chapter one, but, by the time chapter two is complete, humanity has become a male and a female. So, how should we pack Genesis 1:26-27 into 2:7, 21-22?

I believe, in order to see what the Lord looks like, we need to come to Jesus in the New Covenant text. In Philippians 2 we are told that the one who became Jesus was in the form of God prior to his becoming man. What occurred was, he set the form of God aside in order to take upon himself the form of a servant (Philippians 2:5-7; cp. John 1;1, 14). Therefore, the form of a servant/man, whether male or female, doesn’t look like the form of God. In other words, the text emphatically shows that the physical bodies of men and women were not created in God’s image. So, something other than our physical appearance was created in the image of God.

This perspective is also shown to be true in the second chapter of Genesis. When God formed the body of man, he wasn’t in the image of God, until the man breathed in the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). How so? Notice, the text tells us two things. First, man is a soul, and, secondly, because he breathes in the breath of life, he has become a living soul. Moreover, Paul tells us that, as men and women, each of us is composed of spirit, soul, and body (1Thessalonians 5:23). Yet, we find in Genesis 2:7 that God created man as a soul, which had the breath of life (spirit). Nothing is said of man having a physical body at that point, so what does this mean, as it applies to mankind being in the image of God?

Consider that, in his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul alludes to the idea that Adam and Eve didn’t have physical bodies, when they were first formed by God. In Genesis 2:25 the text says of Adam and Eve: “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” However, does this simply mean Adam and Eve were nude? I don’t think so! Notice how Paul defines nakedness in his epistle. When he wrote of dying (shedding his body) and being in the presence of the Lord, Paul indicated that he hoped he wouldn’t be naked but, rather, he wished to be clothed upon with immortality (2Corinthians 5:1-4). Thus, Paul expected to receive a different form or body after he shed his physical form, and so should we. We shall continue to have the same spirit and soul (cp. Job 19:26-27), but we’ll be given a different house or body after our deaths (cp. John 14:2 and 2Corinthians 5:1).

Therefore, it seems clear through an examination of the text that Adam’s later physical appearance has absolutely nothing to do with what God looks like. In fact, Adam didn’t have a physical body until Genesis 3:21. That’s when God made coats (H3801) of skin for the man and the woman, meaning he gave them bodies. Job metaphorically describes his own physical body in a similar manner. Referring to his disease, he said by a great force (disease) his garment was changed, and it vis-à-vis his disease, bound him about as the collar of his coat (H3801), which is the same Hebrew word used in Genesis 3:21 (cp. Job 30:18). In other words, Job’s garment (H3830) or coat (H3801) was affected by his disease. So, we might say, the appearance of the coats, which God made for the man and the woman (Genesis 3:21), could be ‘changed’ by the great force of a disease similar to what Job endured.

What’s my point? Well, in the beginning there was neither male, nor female bodies (cp. Galatians 3:28). There was the man, and then there was the woman, who was formed from something taken out of the man. Moreover, if Adam was originally created in the image of God, then his helper was made to help him address the whole image in which he was created. There’s no hierarchy here. The man needs the woman to help him understand the softer side of God, and the woman needs the man to help her understand the more direct and forceful image of him. Both are needed to understand the whole of what God has revealed about himself.