Texts in Conversation
Sirach 17 echoes Genesis by reaffirming that humans were created in the image of God and granted authority over animals. Sirach develops this theme while retelling the narrative of creation and covenant in its interpretation of the Torah.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 1:26
Hebrew Bible
26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.” 27 God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 17:3
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
1 The Lord created mankind out of earth, and turned them back to it again. 2 He gave them days by number, and a set time, and gave them authority over the things that are on it. 3 He endowed them with strength proper to them, and made them according to his own image. 4 He put the fear of man upon all flesh, and gave him dominion over beasts and birds.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... According to early Jewish interpretation that employs language reminiscent of Genesis 1 and Psalm 8, the relationship between humans and the image of God should be understood as being similar to the correspondence between an original and a copy ... This reference to humankind’s having been created in the image of God forms part of Sirach 17:1–14, in which the creation narratives of Genesis 1 and 2 are merged with the Sinai tradition on the giving of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19–20). Emphasis is placed on the assumption that the image of God implies human authority over animals, and that this is comparable to the sovereignty of God in the heavens ..."
Hendrik Bosman, “Figuring God and Humankind: The Imago Dei in View of Anthropologies in the Old Testament,” in Fragile Dignity: Intercontextual Conversations on Scriptures, Family, and Violence, ed. L. Juliana Claassens and Klaas Spronk, SemeiaSt 72 (Atlanta: SBL, 2013), 50.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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