What is the general interpretation of God creating the humans "in his image"?

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[To be expanded]

One aspect that I found recently, has to do with how some groups see it, that Jesus was the only one creature directly created by God, and that the creation of all other physical and spirit things and entities, so to say, was a collaboration instead of work done by one person alone.

Now this new aspect I found is that, according to the Bible, Eve ("the woman") was basically taken (or made) directly out of Adam, whereas the existence of all other human beings is the result of the collaboration between Adam and Eve, which is how new people come into existence nowadays (i.e. babies are being born). This is perhaps one aspect of how the relationship of Adam and Eve reflects/mirrors the relationship between God and Jesus.

So "image" can mean a reflection of one or more personal qualities of an individual, but it may also mean a reflection of a relationship between two or more individuals.

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God has communicable attributes and incommunicable attributes. To be tautological, to be made in the image of God is to exhibit some or all of the communicable attributes of God.

An example of an incommunicable attribute is omniscience; people are finite and God is infinite, therefore we cannot possess all knowledge.

The list of communicable attributes is a matter of debate. It includes:

  • free will (with boundaries hotly debated)
  • the ability to love
  • a spiritual nature (soul)
  • intelligence (memory, language, logic, planning, etc)
  • creative ability (though not ex nihilo)
  • morality
  • authority (over lower creatures)
  • glory and honour

As one example, the Psalms support the idea that God has given man glory, honor and authority:

When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?

5 You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas. (Psalm 8:3-8)

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