"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Genesis 1: 26–27).
The operative word in this section is the Hebrew verb tsalam. It is the core of the verbal expression “to create in one’s own image.” It means exactly what it says and more. Tsalam in modern Hebrew is used to mean “photocopy.” The word means, as clearly as it is possible to express, to create an exact duplicate of something. So when Genesis, Moses, and Abraham speak of God creating man in God’s own image, it is as literal as can be. This is one of the first lessons of man’s divine Godlike origin. Man is not a graduate of primordial ooze, but is created in the express image of his Father.
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