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Argy Lacedom ~

Although I'm very sure that Moses and his contemporaries freely pictured God anthropomorphically, the "image of God" in which God made man does (as you said that apologists say) refer to God's characteristics and qualities rather than some physical image. The point that a physical image is /not/ what is meant is, istm, implicit in the adjacent phrase that God created man male and female; everyone knows that physically, male human beings and female human beings are different. (What about the idea of a humanoid-shape? Well, humans are not the only creatures with such shapes, and the existence of apes was probably no news to the Biblical writers.)

AL: ... "For example, what are the attributes christians usually attribute to God? . . . "The attributes of God most commonly mentioned are: almighty, eternal, holy, immense, immortal, immutable, incomprehensible, ineffable, infinite, intelligent, invisible, just, loving, merciful, most high, most wise, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, patient, perfect, provident, self-dependent, supreme, true" . . . How many of these apply to humans?"

Let's see here. Remembering that we're talking about man as created by God, and not man as he exists corrupted by the effects of the Fall, Adam is a pretty good model of quite a few of those divine qualities. Adam's not almighty (after all, technically there can only be one Almighty) but he is mighty, with dominion over the animals and the earth. Adam's not uncreated but he is an immortal creature, destined for eternity, possessing an indivisible soul. Adam, as created by God, is holy and intelligent, just and loving, and merciful. The idea is not that man is equal to God, but created in the image of God, the way that a sculpture of a person is the image -- in a lesser medium -- of the person on whom it is modeled. Qualities that are possessed and expressed by God altogether spiritually are by man possessed and expressed via physical media.

Yours in Christ,

Waterrock