Volume > Issue > Note List > Every Man a King

Every Man a King

One good reason for keeping clear in our minds (as suggested above) that God is not pudding-ish but personal is this: We are made in His image, and we are meant to live as persons, not as puddings. Genesis says (9:6; 1:26-28) that man is made “in the image of God,” and the notion is so familiar that even we who believe it devoutly may begin to take it for granted. So it’s good to be reminded that in that phrase we are paid a supreme compliment and raised to a high station. A writer in Bible Review (Feb. 1999) points out that this verbal formula about the “image of God” occurs often in ancient inscriptions from such neighbors of Israel as Assyria and Egypt. But in those texts this lineage is claimed only for kings and pharaohs: The ruler is said to be in the “image of Enlil” or in the “image of Bel” or in the “image of Marduk” or in the “image of Amun.” But in the Old Testament, says the writer, such a relationship to the divine “is applied not just to the king but to all mankind.” The employment in Genesis of this “regal vocabulary,” says scholar Nahum Sarna, means that “each person bears the stamp of royalty.”

Enjoyed reading this?

READ MORE! REGISTER TODAY

SUBSCRIBE

You May Also Enjoy

Cardinal Scola Exchanges Views With a Muslim Leader

Obscurity doesn't necessarily connote profundity, either. Nor does simplicity, of course, but at least it will be understood.

Sinner Swaggart & Our Smugness

In our parlors, with our educated tongues, we deplore not only the Swaggarts of this world but all who attend them, and all who aren't quite "up" to us.

When Luxuries Become Necessities & Necessities Become Luxuries

The affluent of today are likeliest to enjoy the pleasures of a yeoman of yore. This, perhaps more than anything now, sets apart the “haves” from the “have-nots.”