In the Image of God: Man is called the ‘image of God' because God has stamped him in this way. Not so,?

Question

according to some scholars, who argue that not only the man must have the ‘image,’ but the women as well.
However, while it is clear that the man and the woman do have one form, one distinctive character, one likeness; why is the man said to be in the ‘image of God’ and the women not? Because of what Paul says about the ‘image?’ Which in any event does not pertain to form.
‘For man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man.’ 1 Corinthians: 11-7.
The ‘image’ has rather to do with authority, and this only the man has; the woman has it no longer. For he is subjected to no one, while she is subjected to him; as God said; ‘Your inclination shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.’ Genesis. 3-16.
Therefore the man is in the ‘image of God’ since he had no one above him, just as God has no superior but rules over everything. The woman, however, is ‘the glory of man,’ since she is subjected to him.
This shows that sexual hierarchy becomes an essential part of Christian theology. Not only is Eve the second sex, because she was created after Adam, but through her disobedience she and women after her become distinct from man in that women no longer share God’s Image.

There are many questions one could ask in relation to women in early Judaism and Christianity, most of which strikes me as odd.

Question:
I have my view on this separateness of God’s ‘image’ between men and women, but what is your view on this?
Peace.

Answer 1

Mankind was created in the image of God, not just men, but men and women.



However, in a marriage relationship, a man is to be the head of the duo.



For marriage to remain permanent, couples have to either agree, allow one to take the lead, or go separate ways - which destroys that permanency. So God instructed man to be the head; to have the casting vote when a couple simply cannot come to agreement. (When couples are in agreement, no head is needed).



This is not because man is superior, but because a woman focuses her attention on her children and husband. She is more relationship-oriented than outside world-oriented. She will fight to the death for her family. A man is more objective and can look out for his family while not taking things out on the outside world. For example, a dog bites a boy who sticks his had through a fence. The boys mother will be irrate at the dog owners, but the father - though upset - can acknowledge better that his son is the one who stuck his fingers through the fence. He is more objective than feeling and can therefore make decisions that are best for all parties involved unlike wives, who tend to make decisions that are better for her family and husband.



Plus, women don't like to hear that the man should be the head of a marriage. But no woman wants a man who lets her push him around - she becomes to resent him. And no woman wants to feel like a rude, controlling wife or be seen as such. It's almost as if it were natural for the woman to want the man to be the head.

Answer 2

This is a deeply layered thought/Q. Kudos.



First, what is an image? No image is ever

the exact rendering but is suggestive of the

original - it's a form of a type with certain

attributes relating to the original, certain

capabilities. Sort of like dough squeezed

through a colander, the strands are dough,

but not in the entire form. Sort of like the

dna found in the earlobe is the image of the

whole body, but the earlobe is not the whole

body...but it carries all the attributes of the

body in genetic code form...



Reading Genesis will show two seemingly separate

visuals. In one, Adam [material human form] is created.

This BEING is created to TALK with GOD. To 'commune'

with Creator, of its own free will sovereign dominion choice.

Which works for awhile. But eventually, Adam,

wants another material form to interact with than just the

'Unseen One'. So God puts Adam to 'sleep' and

[scholars get out your pens and books] splits Adam in two

[nope it's not a rib, the word in

Hebrew denotes an entire SIDE OF BEEF, not a rib], so

now man can talk with himself and God, thus duality comes

into being, polarity, opposites. We all have a feminine and

masculine part of our thinking. The feminine [yin in other

cultures] is the part that nourishes, births ideas, gathers,

scans and sees widely, decorates, encourages, is more

inward; while the masculine [yang] protects,

structures ideas, hunts, holds the focus view, travels out,

extends.



The other part of Genesis says clearly that God created

man and woman, or male and female.



Now as to how humankind chooses to delineate tribal/cultural/

political behavior goes to the free choice part.



In marriage: husbands are instructed to 'love' their wives as

Christ has loved the church and wives are instructed to

'respect' their husbands, which is not at all difficult to

see that the two are different sides of the same coin.



When taken just on the surface layer, man woman, society,

it can become a bit confusing. Taken on the deeper layers,

more is revealed.



Moral of the story of the Garden of Eden in overview form:

When double-minded thinking abounds, there is no paradise,

only confusion and manipulation, and regret and dis-ease.

The 'serpent' represents thoughts that would separate from God

communion/communication.



And, back in the 'day', when there were 'less amenities' on the

planet, man needed to 'protect' that which brought forth life in

the form of babies to help the tribe survive, and so, would

be highly esteemed [women]. Every tribe member has its

worth. And how this translates into our thought processes,

is that whatever separates or causes confusion in God relationship

needs to be 'cast out'...



Much misunderstanding around this comes when regular male

homosapiens tries to manipulate and subdue female homosapiens

through the use of Scripture for personal gain, etc.



Cultures have shifted over the centuries and the New Testament

shows that clearly. But it takes time and study and inspiration

of HolySpirit to get down to the basics. We are all equal before

God for God is no respector of persons, meaning that God values

all of us equally, we are the ones who begin the delineation process.



God creates

Man delineates

Christ forgives and harmonizes.



There's so much depth to this Q that it cannot possibly be

answered here in this forum to any satisfactory degree, but



Thanks for asking such a wonderful Q :)

Answer 3

Part of what you say is simply old customs where women were subservient to men and considered property, not people. Various religions say that man is created in the image of god. Of course the real truth is that man has decided he is superior to other animals and therefore special- so some god must have made him special- and it was eventually stretched further into man being created in the image of god, which is just a corruption of the concept that man IS god. The idea that men are somehow superior to women and are "above" them is an archaic concept that needs to go away.

Answer 4

Peace be to this house (Luke 10:5)



If you were of God you would know these things, for Jesus told you of these things, but because you believe in the words of men, you will never know the truth, until is is to late.



1. Man is adam. Man is the English word for adam which is Hebrew. In Hebrew the word for man is adam.



2. Man is not flesh and blood, man is spirit made in the image of his Fathers.



3. The Father's of the spirit called man are the Sons of God, and God the Father.



4. God became God the Father, when God created His Sons, the Sons of God, the angels.



5. God the Father and the Sons of God created sons and those sons were not called angels but were called adam, man in English.



6. The Father and the Sons of God, and the sons called adam created more sons.



7. The sons of sons of the Sons of God the Father were called sons of man (English)



8. The sons of man are flesh and blood.



9. God the Father joined the spirits called adam (man in English) with the flesh bodies called sons of man.



10. The spirit and the flesh were no more two, but one and as one they became known as a living soul.



11. The Christ is spirit, a Son of God, an angel.



12. Jesus was flesh and blood, a son of man.



13 Because the Christ was more than a son, more than adam (man) because the Christ was a Son, an angel, but born into the world as a son of man, Jesus was "The Son of man"



14. Jesus became "the Son of man" no angel of the Father had ever been born of the female as Jesus the Christ had been, and no angel shall ever again be born of the female.



15. The Christ was a Son of God.



16. Jesus was the Son of man.



17. Jesus the Christ or Jesus Christ was both the Son of God and the Son of man.



18. Jesus Christ was God the Father's only Son to ever be born of the female, therefore Jesus the Christ became God the Father,s only begotten (born of the female) Son.



19. We are spirit living in flesh bodies (houses).



20. Children of the God the Father and of the Sons will not be allowed to return to heaven, only those children who have become sons (not Sons), but sons of God the Father will be allowed to return to heaven.



21. The first flesh body created was not that of a Male the first flesh body was that of a Female.



22. God the Father Joined the flesh body of the female with the first spirit called adam.



23. All other spirits born into the world were born through the Female and not taken from any man.



24. We all are adam living in flesh bodies for adam also known as man is spirit.





Remember Mary for she anointed Jesus at the hour of His death. (Matthew 26:13)





.

Answer 5

Well God made men to be dominate and females dependent on the male and this is a proven fact. God loves both male/female the same but God didn't shape humans to be in his image. This was a man made theory invented because the miracles of Jesus were unknown and unbelievable at his time and so men thought he had Godly powers and now he is known as 'God'. What people don't realize or seriously contemplate is prophets like Solomon and Moses had these God given miracles also but people in their times weren't judging them as 'Gods' so this whole theory about trinity and Jesus being God is stupid. The people who believe these man made ideas are ignorant.

Answer 6

One interpretation I've heard is that this business of man's image being that of God's means that man's mind is like God's. And since women were considered inferior to man, then her mind would just be a paler reflection of his.



I recommend reading books by Elaine Pagels, because she talks about early politics among the Judaists, so she can help you make sense of why all this stuff was written as it was written.

Answer 7

Genesis 1

26And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping creeperat creepeth upon the earth.

27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.



In King James era English man or mankind means all people. The Bible clearly says male and female in Gen 1.

Answer 8

There is no way man could have been created in God's image, otherwise God is about 3-4 feet in height.

Just like our early ancestors.

Answer 9

"stamped?" Do you think we're made of sheet metal and punched out on an assembly line?

Sheesh.



There is no evidence that any god of any kind exists, so nothing that has an image to be made from or copied. And natural selection provides a very good explanation of why and how we look the way we do, and our bodies work the way we do. With evidence to back it up.



Peace.

Answer 10

It is extra silly to believe that man was created in their fairy's image, since the sky fairy cannot look like a man, have genitals or a body. What a silly idea. Where is this imaginary being? In their minds, which does not count.

Answer 11

in the image of means that he was alive spiritualy because the spirit of God lived in adam but at the fall the spirit left adam and he died spiritualy, seth adams son was borm in the image of adam, dead spiritualy we are all born into this world dead spiritualy romans 5:12 God was in Christ reconciling the whole world unto himself not counting your sins against you but salvation is when Jesus raises us from our spiritual death to spiritualy life, receiving the offer of life 1 john 5:11,13

Answer 12

Well Sir...



Images are facsimile's, copies, but not the total of actuality. We see only what our brain can interpret from the wavelengths our senses can detect; there are so many wavelengths that mankind cannot witness, but non the less these phenomena have been measured using machines. Gamma rays, X rays, microwaves, infra-red, ultrasound etc.



Mans brain interprets thoughts and images based upon parts of the sensory stream, which itself is only part of the total fabric of our existence. We are blind to the whole, better we realize it, than fool ourselves that we can interpret an "image of totality" to which we call God or Universe.



Mans brain creates images and concepts like God, faith, zero and infinity. The abstract associations which connect to such words form conjectural images, but the mental image is not the actual thing.



In nature, nothing remains constant, everything is affected by cycles: so can you safely put faith in images made using that witnessed in your past?



Can we pose the question together: is the "image of God" mans brains attempt to avoid facing and observing the unknown? Man is afraid of the unknown: man trembles at the notion of death, but cannot face actual death. Man is his notions. To lye in a natural state of humility greatly agitates the brain of mankind, as the brain of man covets the known, seeks security in notions.



Is man content to continue to evolve ideas about "heaven or the big bang", rather than observe the total uncertainty of death, and so be totally sensitive to change? Is that why man is so frustrated, and further motivated to search for images? Is Man is addicted to thinking, like a drug addict gets addicted to cocaine?



Man knows its got him nowhere, but can't stop the evolution of thinking (the mutation of the past into the future during the present).



If the mind of man can observe death without conjecture, death can completely dissolve mans notions, which is the death of his entire ego; however, without the need to clinically expire.

This kind of psychological death is unspeakable: nobody can experience it, because the brain is the only instrument recording events. Everybody is seeking images in order to avoid meeting psychological death. That is why fear persists. We want to be reborn, to escape benality, we crave bliss: so fear is our master, and our image of God is our cage.



The greater the "image of God" within the brain of man, the greater the fear, anger and violence such a man endures and expresses. Either it is inner violence (manifesting as depression, delusion, and paranoia) or its is outer violence (manifesting in arguments, physical confrontation, stealing, speaking dishonesty, murder, blaspheming others etc).



Man calls these images sin, but wishes to remain in the fear that creates them. Man does not have the courage to stand alone, without his notions and images. It takes great courage to stand alone, ending ones particular personality: far more than climbing everest or jumping out of a plane, or even suicide or murder.



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If a person can loosen their devotion to personal psychological notions just a little

[caveat: all notions based upon either premise that God is existing or not existing], it is possible to observe that:

***extreme worship of the "notions/theories/moral-ideas" and all other "images of God or Justice" has caused great conflicts: "within mans brain"; between "theists and theists"; between "atheists and theists", and between "atheists and atheists". These conflicts spread across all boundaries including the boundaries of: race, religion, nationality, ethnic origins, culture, politics, and any distinction one cares to identify with.



Evidence points to great violence resulting from these conflicts, such as: the holocaust, the suicide attacks, the crusades, and the inquisitions, world wars, and scandals (to mention a few).

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Images are illusions, facsimiles, counterfeits. They bring disunity, violence, and conflict: both within oneself, and between self and others. Separation is the product of thought. Thought applied beyond the field of survival skills is the beginning of self deception, and the birth of vanity.



Even these words have no place in reality, because you will attempt to interpret them. Its better to admit you will, so you can move on without driven to grasp at or develop mental images in agreement or criticism of these words.



You in particular ask so many questions about scripture, and in this field you are investing so much attention. You are not alone, most of us have our gardens of images, that we have dutifully constructed into our own little matrix of un-reality. Man cultivates the world in his mental images, and still despite technological developments, man is never at peace in the world.