Was “The First Man Adam” Made In God’s Image?

Hey there,

​Y​our study translates Gen 1:27 as creating is God man in his image, which contradicts all other translation. Can you please elaborate on your interpretation. It makes more sense but are there any references,​ etc. to back up this interpretation.

Gen 1:27 And creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates
male and female He creates them.

God bless,

S____

Hi S____​,

Thank you for your question. You quoted:

Gen 1:27 And creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them.

​Just for your information, that translation is the Concordant Literal Version (CLV). Most literal versions of the bible will agree that the verb ‘created’, as it is translated in the King James, is not a completed action, but God is still in the process of continuing the process of His creation.

Then you ask:

Can you please elaborate on your interpretation. It makes more sense but are there any references etc to back up this interpretation?

​Oh, ​y​es, there are many references to back up that translation for anyone who is given, as Christ puts it, “eyes that see and ears that hear the mysteries of the kingdom of God”

Mat 13:3  And he [Jesus] spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
Mat 13:4  And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
Mat 13:5  Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
Mat 13:6  And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
Mat 13:7  And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
Mat 13:8  But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
Mat 13:9  Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

The Purpose of the Parables

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

​Here we have our Lord Himself informing us that He speaks to the multitudes of those who come to hear His words in parables “lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should “[be] converted, and… [be] heal[ed]”.

​Those are Christ’s words in answer to His disciples’ question “Why do you speak to the multitudes in parables?” His answer is just as true today as it was when our Lord spoke these words. His parables, until this very day,​ are working their blinding work to such a degree that the average Sunday school teacher teaches, with no contradiction from any minister, that Christ spoke in parables to make His message so clear that a child could understand His message. I myself believed that lie for many years, and was completely blinded to the words, ‘Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to [the multitudes of Christianity] it is not given.’

​With that knowledge, the answer to your question becomes much easier to understand. God and His Son are not, at this time, working to save this world. Christ Himself told us the opposite is true at this time, and that He is working in this age to “blind those who [think they] see”:

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

​These Pharisees typify the religious establishment of that day, and it is the religious establishment of today who “say [they] see [and] therefore [their] sin remains”.

In answer to your question, any Hebrew scholar knows that…

Gen 1:27 And creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them.

​…is written in the Hebrew ‘qal‘ stem, which accounts for over 2/3 (66.7%) of the Hebrew verbs in the Old Testament. Here is a cut and paste from e-sword concerning the qal verb stem in the Old Testament Hebrew:

H8851
Qal
Qal is the most frequently used verb pattern. It expresses the “simple” or “causal” action of the root in the active voice.

Examples:

He sat,  he ate,  he went,  he said,  he rose,  he bought

This form accounts for 66.7% of the verbs parsed.

​The qal stem in the active voice is the English equivalent of the present progressive. It is an ongoing process as the Lord Himself tells us:

Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

​The fact that God was only beginning to make man in His image at the end of the sixth day is very clear in these New Testament statements:

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; 

​There are other translations which use the correct verb tense to show the creation of Adam and Eve was not complete when they were formed as flesh. One such translation is Young’s Literal Translation which correctly indicates this creation is still in progress and won’t be completed in the person of Adam until he is ‘perfected’, that spiritual creation which is changed from physical to spiritual.

Gen 1:27 And God prepareth (in other words, He is preparing) the man in His image; in the image of God prepared him, a male and a female He prepared them.

​God’s elect were selected for that calling “in Christ Jesus before the world began”. Clearly God knew long before He created Adam and Eve that they would eat of the tree of the forbidden fruit and would need a Savior, whom He had already prepared and had already “slain from the foundation of the world”. Look at just a few of the things God knew “from the foundation of the world”:

Mat 13:35  That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. 

Mat 25:34  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 

Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;

Heb 4:3  For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 

Our Creator “calls those things which be not as though they were”.

Rom 4:17  (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 

​Knowing this great Truth, it becomes clear that flesh and blood were never intended to inherit the kingdom of God from “before the world began”:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 

​We are even told that from the beginning “the first man… Adam” was intended to first ‘bear the image of the earthy”, as a necessary “predestined” evil which God is working after the counsel of His own will, which will is that in the end “all in Adam [will] bear the image of the heavenly”:

1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

It is earlier in this same chapter we are informed:

1Co 15:21  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

I hope all these scriptures help you to see that the six-day creation was just the beginning of the work God is doing with mankind as He is making mankind in “the image of the heavenly”. Even “the last Adam” who at this time is contained “in earthen vessels” within us, must still relinquish these bodies of flesh and blood, and at the resurrection, put on a new spiritual body which has no place for the corruption which is this “flesh and blood” of His prototype of “the last Adam”, Christ. It is “in Christ” that we were predestinated to be called and chosen “before the world began”.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

​Our heavenly Father is doing “all things… according to the good pleasure of His will”, not according to our fabled ‘free will’.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Your brother in Christ,

Mike