Messages That Matter By Dr. Andrew Corbett

The Latin term 'imago Dei' means "the image of God". It is considered one of the most influential anthropological concepts about what it means to be human. It occurs in various forms only four times in the first nine chapters of Genesis but is considered the chief reason for the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights declaring the inherent equality of all human beings, and the reason that human life is treated as exceptional by all nations around the world. This important motif is introduced in Genesis 1:26-27 without definition or explanation, yet it has spawned hundreds of thousands of books and articles exploring its consequences and significance. Dr. Brent Strawn, in the Cambridge Companion to Genesis, makes the point that no where in Genesis is the "imago Dei" (image of God) ever singular. From its literary establishment in Genesis 1:27 it is plural ("male and female") and throughout "the unfolding of the book" it continues to be revealed as a plural. After the depiction of the Fall in Genesis 3, fr