And God created mankind in
His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. (Genesis
1:27)
This
is one of the most famous verses in the Bible because it contains one of the most
powerful memes in the history of mankind – humans are created in the image of God.
Memetics, a very new
discipline, is transforming the way we view information, its transmission and influence
on human behavior. It has important implications for understanding the Bible
and the religious institutions that base their authority upon it. The following
will provide you with an overview of the meaning of “meme:”
(1) the
unit of cultural heredity analogous to the gene
(2) the
internal representation of knowledge
(3) the
complex idea that forms itself into a distinct memorable unit
(4) it
is spread by vehicles that are physical manifestations of the meme
(5) a
unit of information in a mind whose existence influences events
(6) a
unit of information that causes copies of itself to be created in other minds.[i]
Memes are idea
complexes and meme vehicles are their tangible expressions.[ii] If
we use the example of a computer, genes are like the hardware and memes are
like the software.
The
original meme in the above verse was written in Hebrew. If you haven’t downloaded
and learned how to use our FREE
Hebrew-English Transliterator CLICK
HERE for Part 1 & CLICK HERE for Part 2. These are
very short exercises that teach you how to use the BHC Hebrew-English Transliterator. It will transform the way you
study your Bible. So, get your BHC Transliterator
and use it as we examine the Hebrew word that was translated “in the image of” in Genesis 1:27 above:
In
order to understand how to translate it, we must learn how Hebrew words are constructed.
Now
let’s take another look at the Hebrew word above using this information:
In
order to determine the meanings, we must look up the meanings of the prefix and
the root word separately in our lexicon. The Hebrew Lexicon we use and
recommend is A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic
Lexicon of the Old Testament by William L. Holladay. For more information about
it, or how to order your copy -- CLICK
HERE.
Now
let’s look at the prefix using the BHC Hebrew-English Transliteration:
It
is letter #3 that is called “Vet.” It is a form of letter #2,
Bet. A Vet is transliterated “V”
and a Bet “B.” Look beneath
the name “Bet” on the Transliterator and you will find “32,” which is the number of
the page this letter first appears in the Holladay lexicon. In our studies,
I refer to the location of words by
page and column (a = left column; b = right column). The prefix above
is found on page 32a where we
find the following options for translating it:
1. in
2. among
3. as
4. within
5. on
6. on
the
7. in
8. according
to
9. into
10. by
11. N/A
12. (together) with
13. from
14. more
than
15. with
an; through (by)
16. for
17. N/A
18. because
of, for the sake of
19. N/A
20. when
It
is absolutely essential for you to understand that when you read any translation
of the Bible you are only aware of the choice the translators chose from a
number of other options. In other words, the choice made by the translators for
the “Vet” prefix was “in,” but readers of their translation are completely
unaware of the other nineteen (19) options they could have chosen. The more you
learn to work with the Hebrew and Greek words of your Bible, the more you will realize
exactly how often the theologies of the translators influence the choices they
make. Anyway, glance over the above options for this prefix again and consider
how different choices would have changed the translation.
Now
let’s turn our attention to the root word:
It
is found in Holladay’s on page 306b.
There are two separate entries for this word -- I & II.
I will use the transliteration of the root word TzELEM to indicate the two
options:
I. TzELEM
1. statue
a. 2 Kings 11:18a
– “And all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal, and tore it
down. They thoroughly broke in pieces its altars and images . . .”
b. Numbers 33:52
– “then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before
you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places.”
2. image,
model
a. 1 Samuel 6:5a – “Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your rats that ravage
the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel. . .”
b. Ezekiel 23:14 -- “But she increased her harlotry; she looked
at men portrayed on the wall, images
of Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion.”
3. image
(Genesis 1:26a) – “God said, “Let Us make man in Our image . . .”
II. TzELEM
1. Shadow,
something shadowy, form without substance.
a. Psalm 39:6 (7) – “Man is a mere phantom
as he goes to and fro . . .”
b. Psalm 73:20 –
“As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise,
O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.”
Traditionally,
all translators that I am aware of chose option
#1 for the translation for the prefix “in” and option #I “image” for the translation of the root word.
But,
there is a factor that I believe translators failed to fully consider when
choosing their options – context.
Context
is defined as that which precedes and/or follows any part of a discourse and
can throw light on the meaning.
There
are no references in the context to the physical description of God. But there
are two verses that provide information we need to make a more informed
decision about which option to choose:
(1) Genesis 1:2b
– “And the Spirit of God
was hovering over the face of the waters.”
(2) Genesis 2:7
-- “And the Lord God
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of
life; and man became a living soul.”
Two
different Hebrew words are used in the above verses for Spirit and breath,
but they share the meaning of “form
without substance.” They are the best description of God in the context
before and after Genesis 1:27. Based on the linguistic principles that we call
the BHC Linguistic Method, “Spirit” is the most
contextually accurate option for the root word. When we use the same
principles to determine the best option for the prefix, our choice is “with.” Now let’s use this
information to update our translation of Genesis 1:27:
And God created mankind with
His own Spirit, with the Spirit of God He created them; male and female He created them. (Genesis
1:27)
In
many ancient cultures, their meme for the creation of humans transmitted the
idea that humans are created to serve gods and goddesses, and are lower in
value than animals. The traditional meme
from the verse above – humans are created
in the image of God – produced a very different view about humans – they were created in God’s image. Humans
are created a little lower than God, but above all other creatures.
I
believe that our more contextually accurate translation of the meme will have
an even more powerful impact – especially
when people either look in the mirror at themselves or when they interact with
others and see every human as a creature “with His Spirit” – male and female,
regardless of race, tribe or religion.
Of
course, every human also has an Earth-soul
– and it affects the choices we make
-- but we will have to discuss that in a future blog.
Consider
the content of this study and the way I provide you with as much factual
information as possible, so you can learn how to acquire and use new skills and
tools that allow you to understand how the words that appear in your Bibles
were chosen. I believe this prepares you much better than simply telling you
what choices I would make. Being chained to one translation of the Bible keeps
you from growing and maturing spiritually.
Help
fund our work so we will be able to provide you with a much greater number of
studies like this. Your financial support will help make it possible. Donate today and
help make this possible -- CLICK HERE. We have the information in our
databases, but need to be able to hire people to help us prepare and publish
the information. Become a financial partner with BHC today.
SHALOM
& Be Empowered!
[i] Virus
of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme by Richard Brodie © 1996; Hays House, Inc., New York,
NY; pp. 6-11.
[ii] Memes in Digital Culture by Limor
Shifman © 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology; The MIT Press, Cambridge,
MA; p. 38.
