Young earth, old earth, creation, evolution...what does Genesis teach? (part 4)

June 28, 2:14 PMMethodist ExaminerJames-Michael Smith

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Men, Women and the Image of God

The literary pattern in Genesis 1:1-2:4, as noted in part 2 of this series on the Genesis creation account is undeniable.  The rhythmic refrains and parallel structure set up the 6 periods of God's forming and filling, which are all then capped with a 7th period of rest. 

Yet in the midst of the final creative period ("day 6"), the reader encounters a curious little poem-within-a-poem.  It reads as follows:

Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

So God created human beings in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." 
[Genesis 1:26-28]

Many have seen this as a separate account of the creation of man and woman than the one that begins in Genesis 2:4ff with Adam and Eve.  However, this conclusion, while widely held by 19th and 20th century critical scholars, is based on a failure to recognize Hebrew literary convention whereby an event is told in its entirety and then a part of the event is given in more detail in following narrative sections.  (For one of many examples of this, see this article on the David and Goliath narrative.) This is not a separate creation account of humans from that in 2:4ff; rather it is an abbreviated account stylized in order to fit into the larger hymnic presentation of all of creation in 1:1-2:4. 

But what is the purpose of the three-line parallelism in the middle of this description?  Why say basically the same thing three times in a row?  The answer lies in how Hebrew poetry functions.  Basically, when something is repeated in Hebrew poetry, the purpose is emphasis, contrast, or clarification.  In this case, the lines are repeated with slight variation in order to clarify what is in fact one of the key points in the entire creation account--humans are the "image of God" in the world.  And not just "male", but also "female" bears the image of God.  We can see this by looking at the three lines' components:

a) So God created humans in his own image,
b) in the image of God he created them;
c) male and female he created them.

Each element is present in each line, but some are slightly altered.  This gives three way of saying the same overall point and in the final line, "image of God" is restated as "male and female." 

Thus we see, in contrast to later mysogynist readings throughout history, that from the very beginning of the Bible women are described as being of equal worth as men and being just as much in God's image.  Of course, there is more to what the "image of God" actually entails--which won't be fully revealed until the next part of the narrative (2:4ff).  But from the outset, the Biblical author wants the reader to know that whatever the "image of God" may be, it is something that is intrinsic to both men and women. 

Failure to recognize this and to read later texts in light of this foundational truth has spawned all types of error and heresy regarding the Bible's view of women, men and issues of gender.