MAN IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF THE ELOHIM

1. MAN IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF THE ELOHIM • ‘And God said’ • The Hebrew word for ‘God’ is Elohim • ‘Let us make man’ • The Hebrew word from ‘man’ is Adam • ‘In our image’ • The Hebrew word for ‘Image’ is Tselem, which means bodily shape or form • ‘After our likeness’ • The Hebrew word for ‘likeness’ is Demuth, which means mental constitution or capacity • While ‘image’ then has reference to form or shape, ‘likeness’ has regard to mental constitution. In form and capacity he was made like to the angels though in nature he was inferior to them. • Elpis Israel – Page 39

2. MAN THE IMAGE AND GLORY OF GOD • IMAGE • Man was made to look like the angels (Elohim) in bodily shape. • LIKENESS • Man was given a mental and moral capacity to develop a character like the angels (Elohim) and thus show forth the glory of God. Cp. 1 Corinthians 11:7 where Paul quotes Genesis 1:26 but substitutes the word glory for likeness. • NATURE • Man was made “a little lower than the angels” (Psalm 8:5) but with the hope that when Christ returns he may become “equal to the angels and die no more” (Luke 20:36).

3. THE FORMATION OF WOMAN Having been formed in the image and after the likeness of the Elohim, Adam, being like them though of inferior nature, required an object, which should be calculated to evoke the latent resemblance’s of his similitude to theirs… A purely intellectual and abstractly moral society, untempered by domesticism, is an imperfect state, It may be very enlightened, very dignified and immaculate; but it would also be very formal, and frigid as the poles. A being might know all things, and he might scrupulously observe the divine law from a sense of duty; but something more is requisite to make him amiable, and beloved by either God or his fellows… Well aware of this, Yahweh Elohim said: “It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a help fit for him.” Elpis Israel – Page 47

4. THE FORMATION OF WOMAN To give being to such a creature it was necessary she should be formed out of man. This necessarily is found in the law, which pervades the flesh. If the feeblest member of the body suffer, all the other members suffer with it; that is, pain even in the little finger will produce distress throughout the system. Bone sympathizes with bone, and flesh with flesh, in all pleasurable, healthful, and painful feelings. Hence, to separate a portion of Adam’s living substance, and from it to build a woman, would be to transfer to her the sympathies of Adam’s nature; and though by her organization able to maintain an independent existence, she would never lose from her nature a sympathy with his, in all its intellectual, moral, and physical manifestations. According to this natural law then, the Lord Elohim made woman in the likeness of the man, out of his substance. Elpis Israel - Page 48

5. THE FORMATION OF WOMAN In the formation of a companion for the first man, the Lord Elohim created her upon a different principle. She was to be a dependant creature; and a sympathy was to be established between them, by which they should be attached inseperably. It would not have been fit, therefore, to have given her an independent origin from the dust of the ground. Had this been the case, there would have been about the same kind of attachment between man and woman as subsists among the creatures below them. The woman’s companionship was designed to be intellectually and morally sympathetic with the “image and glory of God”, whom she was to revere as her superior. The sympathy of the mutually independent earthborns of the field, is purely sensual; and in proportion as generations of mankind lose their intellectual and moral likeness to the Elohim, and fall under the dominion of sensuality; so the sympathy between men and woman evaporates into mere animalism. She was not simply to be the mother of all living but to reflect the glory of man as he reflected the glory of God. Elpis Israel - Page 48