Introduction

The Gospel of John was written to persuade people to believe in Jesus (20:30–31). The opening verses declare that Jesus is God, stressing his unique relationship with God the Father. The book focuses on seven of Jesus’ signs (miracles), to show his divinity. Jesus called people to believe in him, promising eternal life. He proved he could give life by raising Lazarus (ch. 11) and by his own death and resurrection. John features Christ’s seven “I am” statements, his encounters with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, his Upper Room teachings and washing of the disciples’ feet (chs. 13–16), and his high priestly prayer (ch. 17). It includes the most well-known summary of the gospel (3:16). The author was probably the apostle John, writing about a.d. 85.

The Word Became Flesh

1 aIn the beginning was bthe Word, and cthe Word was with God, and dthe Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 eAll things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 fIn him was life,1 and gthe life was the light of men. 5 hThe light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man isent from God, whose name was jJohn. 7He came as a kwitness, to bear witness about the light, lthat all might believe through him. 8 mHe was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 nThe true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet othe world did not know him. 11 He came to phis own,2 and qhis own people3 rdid not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, swho believed in his name, the gave the right uto become vchildren of God, 13 who wwere born, xnot of blood ynor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And zthe Word abecame flesh and bdwelt among us, cand we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son4 from the Father, full of dgrace and etruth. 15 (fJohn bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, g‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 16 For from hhis fullness we have all received, igrace upon grace.5 17 For jthe law was given through Moses; kgrace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 lNo one has ever seen God; mthe only God,6 who is at the Father’s side,7 nhe has made him known.

The Testimony of John the Baptist

19 And this is the otestimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, p“Who are you?” 20 qHe confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? rAre you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you sthe Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am tthe voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight8 the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, u“Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, v“I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even whe who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Behold, the Lamb of God

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, xthe Lamb of God, who ytakes away the sin zof the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, a‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but bfor this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John cbore witness: d“I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and eit remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but fhe who sent me to baptize gwith water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, hthis is he who baptizes gwith the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son9 of God.”

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, ithe Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, j“What are you seeking?” And they said to him, k“Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.10 40 lOne of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus11 was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found mthe Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of nJohn. You shall be called oCephas” (which means pPeter12).

Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

43 qThe next day Jesus decided rto go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now sPhilip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found tNathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom uMoses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus vof Nazareth, wthe son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, x“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, yan Israelite indeed, zin whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to him, “How ado you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, b“Rabbi, cyou are the Son of God! You are the dKing of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you,13 you will see eheaven opened, and fthe angels of God ascending and descending on gthe Son of Man.”

The Wedding at Cana

2 On hthe third day there was a wedding at iCana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with jhis disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, k“Woman, lwhat does this have to do with me? mMy hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

6 Now there were six stone water jars there nfor the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty ogallons.1 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted pthe water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested qhis glory. And rhis disciples believed in him.

12 After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and shis brothers2 and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

13 tThe Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus uwent up to Jerusalem. 14 vIn the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make wmy Father’s house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, x“Zeal for your house will consume me.”

18 So the Jews said to him, y“What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, z“Destroy this temple, and in three days aI will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple,3 and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about bthe temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, chis disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed dthe Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Jesus Knows What Is in Man

23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name ewhen they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus fon his part did not entrust himself to them, because ghe knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for ghe himself knew what was in man.

The Plural Language Associated with the Image of God

Problematic Interpretations of the Plurality

The plurality in the expression “let us create humankind in our image” may point to plurality within God. Christians see the Trinity in this language. However, an ancient Israelite or Jew never would have presumed this (Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 27–28; Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, 133–34). This option reads the New Testament back into the Old—the language does not specify (or limit) the plurality to three persons. The Old Testament uses the language of divine plurality in contexts that, were the Trinity to be imported into the passage, would result in its members being corrupt and wicked (Psa 82; Heiser, “Monotheism, Polytheism, Monolatry, or Henotheism?”).

Plurality may be an example of the “plural of majesty,” a grammatical use of the plural to point to “a fullness of attributes and powers” (Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 28). However, the plural of majesty is not used with pronouns or verbal forms, the latter of which is present in Gen 1:26 and 11:7.

In reference to Isaiah 6:8, the plural language in Gen 1:26 may be a self-deliberation or self-encouragement. This perspective is akin to the “editorial we.” The plurality describes how people deliberate with themselves. However, it is difficult to see how this view can work with the meaning of the image as God’s representative. It is also difficult to cohere this view with Psa 8, in which humanity is said to have been created a little lower than elohim (Psa 8:5). That the word elohim is to be taken as a plural is evident from its citation in Heb 2:7, where the writer quotes the passage from the Septuagint, which renders elohim as “angels.”

Some look to humanity as the referent of the plurality. Bray writes, “A more awkward question is raised by the use of the plural in Gen 1:26, implying as it does that man, as the image of God, somehow reflects a plurality in God” (Bray, “The Significance of God’s Image in Man,” 197).

An Announcement to the Heavenly Host

In Genesis 1:26, God, the lone speaker, is probably announcing His intention to create humankind to the members of His heavenly host (Psa 82; 89:5–8). Wenham writes, “From Philo onward, Jewish commentators have generally held that the plural is used because God is addressing his heavenly court” (Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 27).

As humans, we use this sort of language with regularity. A mother could announce to her family, “let’s make dinner”—and then proceed to do so herself, for their benefit, without their involvement in the event. This is more coherent than a mere rhetorical self-reference since it involves the audience, though without necessarily requiring their active participation. This is also the most coherent explanation for the other plurality language we have touched upon (Gen 11:7; Isa 6:8). God among his heavenly host is a familiar biblical description (Deut 33:1–2; Psa 68:17; 1 Kgs 22:19–23).

Bray notes: “More probable is the idea that God is here speaking to the heavenly hosts, though this raises such questions as whether angels are also created in the image of God, whether angels took part in the work of man’s creation” (Bray, “The Significance of God’s Image in Man,” 198). Clines asserts that this view “would imply that man was made in the image of the elohim as well as of God Himself (‘in our image’); it would mean that the elohim shared in the creation of man (‘let us make’)” (Clines, “The Image of God in Man,” 66).

The text is clear that the angels did not participate in the creation of humankind. The singular suffix (“so God created humankind in His image”) makes that point as well. There is no contradiction if “let us create” is taken as an announcement of the single Creator to a group.

Angelic beings are also divine imagers—representatives of their Creator. While humans image God on earth, angelic beings image God in the spiritual world. They do God’s bidding in their own sphere of influence. The Old Testament and New Testament describe angelic beings with administrative terminology, such as:

• “Prince” (Dan 10:13, 20–21)

• “Thrones” (Col 1:16)

• “Rulers” (Eph 3:10)

• “Authorities” (1 Pet 3:22; Col 1:16)

First Kings 22:19–23 illustrates the heavenly bureaucracy at work. Angelic beings were created before the earth, and therefore before humans (Job 38:7–8). The notion that God decided to make humans to represent Him and His will on earth mirrors what God had already done in the spiritual world. God announces that, as things are in the heavenly realm, so they will be on earth. Humanity is lesser than angelic beings. However, humans are not their representatives, but are destined to rule over angels and to inherit the nations ruled by some of the sons of God (1 Cor 6:3; Rev 2:26).

The Image of God in the New Testament

The functional view of the image described argues that the phrase means humans are created as God’s image. Taking that understanding to the New Testament’s image of God language brings the meaning and importance of the image doctrine in New Testament theology into clear focus.

Paul argues that believers are destined to be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29). We are to live as God would, to represent him and his character. Paul elsewhere refers to Jesus as the image of God (2 Cor 4:4). The writer of Hebrews uses the same verbiage, calling Jesus “the express image of God” (Heb 1:3). As humans gave visible form to God, so Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15). Jesus was truly incarnate, becoming human to atone for humankind, but also an example for humankind (Phil 2:6–10; 1 Pet 2:21).

These New Testament passages convey that Jesus was the imager of God. As Jesus imaged God, we must image Jesus. In so doing, we fulfill the rationale for our creation. This process is gradual: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18). Paul also links our resurrection to Jesus as the image of God in 1 Cor 15:49.

Bibliography

Beauregard, Mario, and Sue O’Leary. The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul. New York: Harper One, 2007.

Bray, Gerald. “The Significance of God’s Image in Man.” Tyndale Bulletin 42:2 (1991).

Clines, D. J. A. “The Image of God in Man.” Tyndale Bulletin 19 (1968): 53–103.

Foerst, Anne. “Cog, a Humanoid Robot, and the Question of the Image of God.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 33 (1998): 91–111.

Gordon, Cyrus.” ‘In’ of Predication or Equivalence.” Journal of Biblical Literature 100 (1981): 612–13.

Green, Joel, and Stuart Palmer, eds. In Search of the Soul: Four Views of the Mind-Body Problem. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2005.

Grenz, Stanley. “Jesus as the Imago Dei: Image of God Christology and the Non-Linear Linearity of Theology.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 47, no. 4 (Dec 2004).

Griffin, Donald R. Animal Thinking. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985.

———. Animal Minds: Moving Beyond Cognition to Consciousness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Gunkel, H. Genesis. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1964.

Hamilton, Victor P. The Book of Genesis: Chapters 1–17. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990.

Heiser, Michael S. “Monotheism, Polytheism, Monolatry, or Henotheism? Toward an Assessment of Divine Plurality in the Hebrew Bible.” Bulletin for Biblical Research 18:1 (2008).

Herzfeld, Noreen. “Creating in Our Own Image: Artificial Intelligence and the Image of God.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 37:2 (2002).

Humbert, P. Etudes sur le récit du paradis et de la chute dans la Genèse. Secrétariat de l’Université: Neuchâtel, 1940.

Jackelén, Antje. “The Image of God as Techno Sapiens.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 37, no. 2 (2002): 289–302.

Johnson, Aubrey R. The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1964.

Joüon, Paul, and Takamitsu Muraoka. A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew. 2 vols. Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 2003.

O’Meara, Thomas F. “Christian Theology and Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life.” Theological Studies 60, no. 1 (1999).

Overstreet, R. Larry. “Man in the Image of God: A Re-Appraisal.” Criswell Theological Review 3, no. 1 (Fall 2005): 43–70.

Pearce, John M. Animal Learning and Cognition. 3rd ed. New York: Psychology Press, 2008.

Peters, Ted. “The Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life for Religion.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 369 (2011): 499–507.

Putz, Oliver. “Moral Apes, Human Uniqueness, and the Image of God.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 44, no. 3 (2009): 613–24.

Sands, Paul. “The Imago Dei as Vocation.” Evangelical Quarterly 82, no. 1 (2010): 28–41.

Savage-Rumbaugh, Sue, Duane M. Rumbaugh, and Kelly McDonalds. “Language Learning in Two Species of Apes.” Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 9 (1985): 653–65.

Waltke, Bruce K., and M. O’Connor. An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1990.

Wenham, Gordon J. Genesis 1–15. Word Biblical Commentary 1. Dallas: Word, 1987.

Westermann, C. Genesis 1–11. London: SPCK, 1984.

Michael S. Heiser

Imalkue (Ἰμαλκουε, Imalkoue). “The Arab” with whom the Seleucid King Alexander Balas left his son, young Antiochus, during his battle with Demetrius II (1 Macc 11:39). He may have been the son of Zabdiel (1 Macc 11:16–17).

Imlah (יִמְלָא, yimla'). Father of Micaiah the prophet (1 Kgs 22:8–9; 2 Chr 18:7–8).