Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky . . .” Genesis 1:26 NASB
Image – Now we know that tselem (image) is associated culturally with the representation of the god in an idol. Of course, idols are prohibited in Israel. That means that the Man, who is the tselem of God, cannot be worshipped. He is human insofar as he acts as God would act, but that does not make him a god. It only makes him God’s representative.
Perhaps we can gain some additional insight by noticing the pictograph of tselem. Tselem is the letters Tsade-Lamed-Mem. The pictograph is “Desire (need) – control (authority) – Chaos.” Doesn’t this picture display exactly the action of God assigned to Man? Man is given authority (and has the need) to control chaos. Just as the Spirit hovered over the deep and brought order to existence, so Man is responsible as God’s representative to bring divine order to creation. Tselem is a word about purpose, not about attributes. Man is human when he exercises control as God would exercise control. From a tribal perspective, to be human is to exercise the authority of God as His representative. This imagery fits precisely the prime directive of Genesis: to be fruitful, to rule over and subdue.
This tribal identification language is erased when we shift the meaning of the word tselem from its Egyptian-Hebrew context to the Greek context of Christianity. With Greek categories, “image” becomes a word about substance rather than purpose. That’s because Greek metaphysics populates the world with things rather than actions. In the Greek paradigm, the substance of being human is described with attributes that are attached to the thing that occupies time and space. It is as if “human” is an outline of some entity present in the world which must then be filled with characteristics like reason, choice, conscience, gender, speech, etc. Notice that in this Greek paradigm I can remove some of these attributes and still claim that the entity remains human. For example, I can take away choice (by compelling you to act in a certain way) but that does not remove your status as human. In the Greek world, you are still human because you have other attributes of humanity and you have the potential of choice.
But what happens to the idea of being human if I remove the purpose in the Hebrew paradigm? To be human is to act purposefully as God would act. If I remove this purpose, there is no human being left. The action is the essence of being. Just as I am not a “man” if I am not married, I am not a human being if I do not represent God’s purpose. Purpose defines me, not characteristics.
The Genesis account as tribal identification tells me that if I am exercising control and authority over chaos as God’s representative I am human. If I am not doing this, I am not human. Now we see why God provides Torah. Torah is instruction in how to fulfill my purpose. Torah is not regulation or legislation. Torah is the elaboration of what it means to exercise authority over chaos. Following Torah is fulfilling my purpose. Following Torah makes me human.
Those who adopt the Greek paradigm will object to this conclusion. They will claim that even if I don’t obey the 613 Torah commandments, I am still a human being. After all, I continue to look like a human being, to speak like a human being, to function like a human being. But they have missed the point. Appearing human is not grounds for claiming biblical humanity. Biblical humanity defines the term as representing God’s power. Appearances do not count! In the African tribe, a 40 year old male might look like a man, but as long as he is not married, he is not a man. In the Hebrew tribe, as long as I do not participate in God’s purpose for the world, I am not human.
It is my belief that many homo sapiens have been the victims of identity theft. They have been robbed of their true purpose and been seduced by a Greek paradigm that portrays them as human when the biblical evidence says otherwise. Consequently, they do not see the need for examining their very being in the world. They do not see the place of Torah as human becoming. They do not realize that they are not part of the tribe. To put it in African terms, they think they are men because they have reached puberty. But they are wrong, and being wrong about this will cost them dearly.
Topical Index: human being, tselem, Torah, Genesis 1:26