Glory to Rule (Imago Dei part 2)

Defining "image"

The starting point for nailing down what it means to be made in the image of God is simply by defining terms. There are two major concepts embedded within the Hebrew word tselem (image): representation & rule.

Representation

The Hebrew word used in the Genesis account for "image" is tselem. That word is derived from the idea of cutting or carving something, especially in reference to idols as it is used throughout the Old Testament (Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, 853.) Carmen Imes similarly states, "a tselem... refers to the idol or statue of a god in its temple" (Carmen Imes, Beings God's Image, 31). The Scriptures speak often of a tselem in the house of Baal in reference to the statue that was erected in his temple (2 Kgs 11:18; 2 Chr 23:17). Ezekiel and Amos both rebuked Israel for setting up a tselem in the temple of Yahweh (Ezek 7:20; Amos 5:26). This term "image" is used throughout scripture as a way of speaking about the statue that represented the god being worshipped by a people. As John Walton says, "In the ancient world an image was believed to carry the essence of that which it represented" (John Walton, The IVP Bible Background Commentary).

This provides a powerful insight into what it means to be made in the image of God. As humans, bearing God's image is to carry the very essence of God with us by representation of Him. When a human is seen, it's like seeing the reflection of God's glory shining through that human. Every human is a small statue (if you will) beaming with the light of God's glorious presence in his creation. To be made in the image of God is to be a representation of God's presence in the cosmos.

Rule

Now, a tselem did not only reference idol statues dwelling in their temples, but it also referred to royal statues standing in territory that a king wished to conquer or had conquered. Ancient kings would place a tselem of themselves in the territories they had conquered for everyone to know who ruled that territory and pay homage to the king (John Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought in the Old Testament, 184). This practice was seen throughout history even into the period of the Roman Empire. Pliny the Younger wrote of Christians who had capitulated and began paying homage to "the image" of the emperor that was brought out into the city (Pliny Letters, 10.96). Furthermore, ancient kings were usually the ones spoken of as representing the image of God (Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought in the Old Testament, 184).

What all of this demonstrates is that humans were made to display rule. This is why God commissions them to "fill the earth and subdue it" and to excercise "dominion" over the created order (Gen 1:28). As Matthew Bates says, "Humans are made in God's image for the purpose of ruling creation on his behalf" (Matthew Bates, Why the Gospel, 62).

Understanding this background to the word tselem reveals that humans are a tangible sign of Yahweh's rule over creation. Beyond just a sign, humans are appointed and commissioned as rulers over the cosmos. Humans were meant to reign as mini-kings displaying the goodness of God's reign as an ultimate king. The chief end of creation was to fill the earth with God's glory locally through humans who displayed God's glory through representative rule over the creation.

Yahweh's Cosmic Temple

This all brings up a fascinating question. If God's creation has a statue that represents him and his creation seeks to be filled with His glory, does that make God's creation a temple? Temples had idols and were filled with the glory of their deity. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck... (you know the rest).

Carmen Imes suggests that this language is used of creation because Yahweh has constructed his very own cosmic temple where he is represented by his images (Carmen Imes, Being God's Image, 31).

John Walton, in The Lost World of Genesis One cites several ancient Sumerian and Egyptian texts demonstrating how the ancients saw a close relation between the cosmos and the temple (Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One, 80).

Josephus made this connection in his reflections on the tabernacle saying, "every one of these objects is intended to recall and represent the universe" (Josephus, The Jewish War 3, 7.7).

Not to mention all of the Garden of Eden imagery built into the Jewish temple, making it a sort of cosmic sacred space for Yahweh to fill with his presence. There is a direct link between the creation narrative and ancient temples.

Isaiah 66:1-2 seems to speak to this concept of the relationship between cosmos and temple:

"Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be."

The language of this text depicts the cosmos as a giant temple for Yahweh, one that he made for himself. Furthermore, texts like 1 Kings 8:27 when Solomon dedicated the temple, say,

"But will God dwell on the earth? Behold heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house which I have built."

And again, in Isaiah's grand vision of Yahweh on his throne, the Seraphim chant:

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." (Isaiah 6:3)

The very same glory that filled the tabernacle and the temple is the same glory that Isaiah said filled the earth!

What all of this amounts to, John Walton concludes, is that the most central truth to the creation account is that this world is a place for God's presence (Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One, 84). The Genesis account has been seen by many as an ancient temple building narrative where God establishes his rule, places an image to reflect his glory, and takes up his residence in a 7th day rest.

Putting the Pieces Together

What the ancient world shows us about the imago Dei is so much bigger than simply cognitive ability, as some have suggested. We were made to be living, breathing, walking, talking, and ruling statues of the creator of the cosmos. We were placed in Yahweh's cosmic temple where we rule over his creation and reflect HIS glory.

It's no wonder David reflected on the creation narrative and said,

"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor." (Ps 8:4-5)

When God made us in his image, he placed a small representative in his temple to reflect his glory into all creation, he commissioned these little "glory mirrors" to rule over the creation, and to fill the earth with His glorious image by being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth (Gen 1:28). Humanity, in large part, is how God is exercising his rule over creation and filling this cosmic temple with his glory, which is the chief end of creation (Rev 21-22). All of this is packed into those first key verses about human existence:

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And 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 heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Gen 1:26-28)

-Kolton Ballance