In The Image Of God

The Image of God in Man—Is Woman Included?

“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind (adam) in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion….’ And God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Gen 1:26-27 clarifies that the Hebrew term adam stands for the generic species of humanity which is composed of men and women. If there is any doubt in this interpretation, Gen 5:2-3 declares and defines again: “When God created humankind, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them humankind when they were created.” The “image of God in man and woman” opens us to transcend both the masculine and feminine metaphors for God which abound in the Bible and to transcend our historical selves and social institutions in recognition of the Holy One. It would appear that whatever one’s interpretation of the “image” and “likeness” of God, one would have to recognize that the biblical text makes explicit that in our resemblance to the Divinity and in our dominion over the earth and animals, men and women share a common human dignity.”

–Horowitz, Maryanne Cline. “The Image of God in Man—Is Woman Included?” Harvard Theological Review, vol. 72, no. 3-4, 1979, pp. 175–206., doi:10.1017/s0017816000020010.