Imaging the Invisible God: A Biblical Anthropology of Genesis 1-3 and Exodus 32-34

Abstract

This investigation takes a fresh approach to one of the most commented upon passages in the Bible. The imago Dei of Genesis 1:26-27 is foundational to Jewish and Christian anthropology, and as such has played a vital role in exegetical, theological, philosophical, and even political
reflection through the centuries. In the modern era, critical biblical scholarship posed a challenge to the traditional Christian understanding that the image of God in humanity consisted of "interior faculties" like intellect and will. Emphasizing the primary meaning of the term ṣelem ("statue")and its Semitic cognates, many drew analogies with the religious and symbolic significance of ancient Near Eastern (ANE) cult statuary, to surmise that the image was primarily corporeal. Modern exegesis has generally abandoned the traditional Christian view, and emphasized various
kinds of "relations" which the image of God (ṣelem ʾělōhîm) entails: humanity as God's "representative" on earth, often with kingly and priestly overtones, associations which have been supported by extensive historical research into ANE royal ideology.

This study proceeds with an awareness of the historical and philological data, but subordinates it to a literary and canonical framework that is open to theological reflection. New dimensions of the question appear through a close reading of Genesis 1-3 and Exodus 32-34, employing a conceptual corollary to the image of God with an established status in exegesis and theology, namely, imitatio Dei. Within this heuristic, more subtle features of humanity's God-imaging capacity come into relief. Imaging God can be seen not simply as an ontological status (as in Christian tradition), or as a set of relations corresponding to ANE cult statuary (as in modern exegesis), but as capturing a
biblical anthropology whereby humanity is capable of either cooperating with or deviating from the creational patterns and religious duties established by God's wisdom.

In Exodus, Moses imitates the LORD's wrathful and merciful response to Israel's rebellion in conspicuous ways, eventually emerging from the sacred tent shining with light. Moses' qualities sharply contrast with the people who demand a "false image" of God, resulting not in imitation but in degradation (Ex 32:6). In Gen 1, humanity's godlikeness is the culmination of God's ordered and beautiful creation, while in Gen 2-3 likeness to God becomes problematic, mysteriously linked to human knowledge, choice, and ambition (3:5, 22). The "double commission" of Gen 1:28 to
procreate and order creation expresses human godlikeness, and mirrors God's own process of bringing life and order to the cosmos through the six days of creation. This double commission is embellished in finer detail in Genesis 2 (2:15, 24), becomes tested in Genesis 3:1-6, and is
eventually reshaped by the LORD God (3:16-24).

This literary and theological appreciation of Genesis 1-3 and Exodus 32-34 develops what may be called, in view of their respective places in the canonical sequence of Scripture, a "fundamental biblical anthropology." The two passages reveal a dynamic ambiguity in human nature created in imagine Dei, an ambivalence which an imitatio Dei model helps illuminate, a canonical perspective helps situate, and biblical theological analysis and reflection deepens and specifies.