Re: "Image FOR God" = Proper translation of Gen 1:26

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Hamilton" <williamehamiltonjr@yahoo.com>
To: "George Murphy" <gmurphy@raex.com>; "Chris Barden"
<chris.barden@gmail.com>; "Janice Matchett" <janmatch@earthlink.net>
Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>; <dickfischer@verizon.net>
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 7:42 PM
Subject: Re: "Image FOR God" = Proper translation of Gen 1:26

>I haven't yet read Morschauer's paper (I just downloaded it from Theology
> Matters -- for those of you who were put off by the mangling of foreign
> characters and the highlighted words, try
> http://www.theologymatters.com/TMIssues/Novdec97.pdf) (BTW has anyone
> looked at
> the following article by James Edwards?)
> Anyway, does he answer what on earth "image _for_ God" means? Maybe I'm
> dense,
> but I have no idea what it means.

In 1 place (p.3, col.1, about 2/3 down) he says "'in the image of/for God' -
best understood as 'in the service of God' ... "

As I read him though (& I've only looked at it quickly) his point is not
just that we should read "for" instead of "in." He also argues that the
Hebrew can be read in a quite different way in which the construction with
the words "image" & "likeness" is reflexive, referring back to God. Thus
the meaning is that "God himself totally created humanity ... " (p.4).

He also argues that these meanings need not be mutually exclusive.

& maybe someone has noted this but the article isn't new. It's from 1997.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
Received on Thu Apr 6 20:55:05 2006