Man (Gen 1:26,27) as the "image" and "likeness" of God |
Below are some references to Man (Gen 1:26,27) and Christ as the image/likeness of God (or as reflecting God's nature, qualities, and power). The quotations are from the TEV, unless otherwise specified.
Note: Clement of Alexandria (150-215 A.D.), in his Exhortation to the Greeks 10 [ANF 2:199], wrote:
For the image of God is His Word, the genuine Son of Mind, the Divine Word, the archetypal light of light; the image of the Word is the true man, the mind which is in man, who is therefore said to have been made "in the image and likeness of God," assimilated to the Divine Word in the affections of the soul, and therefore rational; but effigies sculptured in human form, the earthly image of that part of man which is visible and earth-born, are but a perishable impress of humanity, manifestly wide of the truth.
Note: In verse 28, "I am he," is simply "ego eimi" in the Greek New Testament. "He" is not in the Greek text. Ego eimi means, "I have being" -- specifically in John, "I have timeless being." The writer of John's Gospel repeatedly uses the phrase Ego eimi as a reference to Exodus 3:14, where God reveals himself as "I Am Who I Am," which in the Greek Septuagint Old Testament (the "Bible" used by the early Christians) was "Ego eimi ho on" [English word-for-word: I am the being.] Thus, the TEV appropriately translates this passage, "So he said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that ‘I Am Who I Am’; then you will know that I do nothing on my own authority, but I say only what the Father has instructed me to say. " This further reinforces the Gospel of John's references to the Logos -- and to Christ Jesus -- as the Revealer of God and his creation. See also, http://www.bibletexts.com/terms/i-am.htm.
Copyright
1996-2004 Robert Nguyen Cramer
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