Gênesis 1

Gênesis 1

Constable - "Image" and "likeness" are essentially synonymous terms. Both indicate personality, moral, and spiritual qualities that God and man share (i.e., self-consciousness, God-consciousness, freedom, responsibility, speech, moral discernment, etc.) These distinguish humans from the animals. Some writers have called the image of God man's "spiritual personality." (Genesis 1) Believer's Study Bible - "Image" and "likeness" are synonyms (cf. Ge 5:1; 9:6), the former perhaps stressing representation, and the latter, similarity. This says nothing about man's physical nature, but it points solely to the spiritual and moral nature of mankind, i.e., mind, emotion, and will. The body is designed for giving expression to this spiritual and moral selfhood. God created mankind so that it would be capable of fellowship with Him. Human life, even after the Fall, is specially endowed and, therefore, is precious in the eyes of God and protected by the ordained institutions of society (Ge 9:6). (The Believer's Study Bible) And let them rule (radah - Ge 1:28) over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth - Man is given complete dominion over the earth, thus distinguishing him from the rest of creation (to think man evolved to rule over those he evolved from is utter folly!) Note man's rule was to be over both "the earth" (Ps 8:6 You have put all things under his feet) and all the living creatures on the earth. This was God's gift to man who was to be His steward not an autonomous sovereign. Man was to care for the earth and its creatures, developing and utilizing the earth's resources, not despoiling or depleting them for selfish ends. Matthew