Enrich your knowledge of the Bible
After the Flood, God made an unconditional covenant with Noah and his descendants. This covenant was very significant. Not only was the sacredness of human life established for the first time, but it was clearly based on the fact that God made man in his own image. Therefore, to shed another man’s blood (Gen 9:6), shows not only contempt for man, but also contempt for God.
The Hebrew word for” image”, צֶלֶם (tzelem), is a beautiful example of how Hebrew, being a root language, works. This word צֶלֶם is related to the Hebrew word for "shadow" צֵל (tzel). A shadow is an imperfect image resembling the real thing which casts it. The “image of God”, tzelem Elohim, can therefore also be understood as tzel Elohim, “God’s shadow”, in the sense that it is an imperfect copy of the perfect real image.
Now we understand what exactly it means to be created “in the image of God”. Even though man’s nature is different from God’s, man is capable of resembling God’s actions: His love, His mercy, His justice. The Hebrew Bible gives us powerful insights inside the stories that we all know and love. Enroll today in the “Discovering the Hebrew Bible” course and uncover the secrets of the Bible.
