In God’s image & likeness, part 2 (Genesis 5)

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created. When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. –Genesis 5:1-3

Notice similarities with the Genesis 1 account. This passage repeats that it was God who created mankind, that God made mankind in His own likeness, that He created mankind male and female, and that male and female are both “Man” and both blessed by God. 

WHAT’S NEW?

This passage bears out an additional way people differ from animals. In Genesis 1, other living creatures were said to reproduce “after their kind.” The same was said of plants and trees. It was not said of men and women. Rather, as Genesis 5 says, people beget offspring in their own image. In this way, the distinctiveness of humanity is passed from one generation to the next.

Specifically, Seth is said to be made in Adam’s likeness. The implication is that, as Adam was made in God’s image, and Seth was made in Adam’s image (or likeness), so Seth also bore God’s image.

Seth was born well after the fall and God’s curse, so it is significant that Adam still bore God’s image. Sin had serious consequences for Adam, Eve, and all of their offspring, but it did not fundamentally change the essence of humanity. The image of God in man was not erased.

Reading the entire chapter, we see that Adam had other sons and daughters but only Seth’s genealogy is traced (to the birth of Noah’s sons). None of his siblings or offspring were said to be in Adam’s, God’s, or a father’s likeness, but it is implied that they also bear the image of God, as will be further established in Genesis 9.

Nothing nonhuman comes from human parents, and every human being that has ever existed has been made in God’s image. 

Similarly, nothing disqualifies a person from being an image bearer–whether one is young or old, conscious or unconscious, physically or mentally incapacitated, born or unborn. 

Men and women can do terrible things. We may think of certain acts as "inhuman," or call a person who behaves especially badly an "animal," but human beings do not lose the image of God by sinning egregiously. 

Next: In God's image & likeness, part 3 (Genesis 9)

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Image credits: 

The Creation of Adam by Michaelangelo, Sistine Chapel

Vitruvian Man by Leonardo Da Vinci. Image supplied by janeb13 on Pixabay