Genesis 1:26-27

 

Genesis 1:26-27

26. And 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 thing that creepeth upon the earth.

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

comments:

The are a few things I would like to comment on here. One is that where it says in verse 26, "Let us make man in our image," I believe it is literally referring to the species or family of "mankind", that is, humankind as spoken of in earlier times, and thus except where only one specific "man" is indicated (such as when Adam is named and spoken of as an individual) we can consider "man" to be short for "mankind" and speaking of humanity in general (thus also not speaking only of "men" as in, male humans, but including all humans of any gender). For example, when it is said "let them have dominion over…" and even uses the plural "them", it is speaking of a role for humankind. Note that I emphasize it is all humankind included; I do not believe it was ordained by God for any race or gender to have dominance in a way that would put any other race or gender down. I believe all humankind to be equal from the beginning, created in God's image, and all of us being God's children.

As for humankind being created in God's image: I believe that to be literally true. God may have a form that could be said to be different, "spiritual", "higher", or "more advanced" in whatever ways it may be, but I believe that God created humankind to have a "humanoid" form of appearance because that is the form that God has. I know many people may believe differently, and I believe everyone has a right to believe as they do; I am stating what I believe.

I also believe that "Let us make man in our image" is also an indication that God was not a solitary, lone intelligent spirit floating endlessly in a void before creating life on Earth. I don't believe that "us" and "our" in this instance is something akin to using the "royal we" for someone to refer to one's self in the plural. At the very least, I believe that as God may be termed the father of humankind, there was at least one other who may be referred to as the mother of humankind. Creating humans (male and female) in God's image was to create them with a humanoid form; creating them in "our" image was to create humans with a male form in the image of a male, and humans with a female form in the image of a female.

Note on gender: I am here referring only (and very strictly, narrowly, only) to physical gender as determined by the genetic makeup of a human person. Except in cases of genetic anomaly, humans (as with all mammals and many other forms of life on Earth) are genetically either male or female. Everything else that people currently, popularly refer to as matters of "gender" are topics that I firmly believe to be different matters entirely, and should not be confused by using the term "gender" to refer to them (though modern English is woefully, inadequately, lacking in terms to use for some of these matters). I may elaborate more on another occasion, but for now I just want to say that I don't think anyone can fully understand my views on this entire topic without first relieving one's self of preconceived notions of labeling things as "masculine" or "feminine", and indeed, by avoiding all forms of stereotyping or of expecting anyone to fit into any category, through avoiding use of labels as much as possible.