"in the image of God...male and female he created them": Three Ancient Interpretations of Genesis 1:26-28

Abstract

For Christians, nearly every influential religious writer from the first century onwards included scriptural interpretation in his/her philosophizing and apologetics. Thinking about the Church, about the Christian life, about the foundations of the faith, required wrestling with the Bible. For the Old Testament, that meant reckoning with Jewish interpretation as well; the text was not passed on to the Christians "clean," but already carried accepted interpretations which would have to be accommodated to the Christian message or dealt with in some satisfactory way. With this interest in the history of interpretation, I would like to discuss three influential interpreters of Genesis 1:26-28. This text is particularly evocative for modern interpreters and commentators, and such writers first brought the text to my attention. Feminist interpreters, especially, draw attention to the plural language of verse 26 ("Let us make man") and to its implications about the nature of God. Some have asked whether the plural statement followed by the description of humans created in God's image, "male and female," does not imply something traditionally unexpected about the nature of God -- a duality, or a male-female tension within the deity. In examining three ancient interpreters of the text, I am curious abut their evaluations of the nature of God, especially as that nature is reflected in humanity. Explorations of God's nature and of human likeness to it -- "in the image of God" -- must necessarily involve each writer in the integral questions of faith. What of humanity is akin to God: minds, souls, spirits? Does the recognition of that likeness, in whatever form, dictate how religious lives should be lived? Does the definition of that likeness also delineate which aspects of humanity are therefore to be disciplined or discouraged? And, in the end, will the ancient interpreters raise the same sorts of questions commentators raise about the text today? [From Introduction]