Genesis 1:26

Hebrew Bible

25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the cattle according to their kinds, and all the creatures that creep along the ground according to their kinds. God saw that it was good. 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.

Isaiah 40:18

Hebrew Bible

16 Not even Lebanon could supply enough firewood for a sacrifice; its wild animals would not provide enough burnt offerings. 17 All the nations are insignificant before him; they are regarded as absolutely nothing. 18 To whom can you compare God? To what image can you liken him? 19 A craftsman casts an idol; a metal smith overlays it with gold and forges silver chains for it. 20 To make a contribution one selects wood that will not rot; he then seeks a skilled craftsman to make an idol that will not fall over.

 Notes and References

"... No longer is darkness primordial and merely accommodated through creation into a new order of things. Now darkness too, no less than light, is a creation of the God of Israel. And no longer is God responsible only for the good that there is. Now he is the creator of evil as well, and no more is the existence of evil a blemish on his claim to absolute mastery over all that is. The message of the prophet here is that the God who created evil and alone is responsible for it is also about to annihilate it, to break the back of Israel's oppressors and to restore Israel to her former and promised glory. Chaos is now not simply passive before God, but dependent upon him, and he is not able simply to use it, but even to "de-create" it. Moshe Weinfeld believes that a number of affirmations in the anonymous collection now called Second Isaiah were intended as critiques of the Priestly creation story. Thus, when the prophet asks, "To whom, then, can you liken God, I What form compare to Him?", (Isaiah 40:18) Weinfeld interprets this as a statement of opposition to the idea that humanity is "the image" or "like­ ness" of God, as asserted in Genesis 1:26-27 ..."

Levenson, Jon Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence (p. 124) Princeton University Press, 1994

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