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: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Wisdom of Solomon 2:23
Deuterocanon
21 Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them, 22 and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hoped for the wages of holiness, nor discerned the prize for blameless souls; 23 for God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of his own eternity, 24 but through the devil's envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it.
Date: 100-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Notes and References
"... As indicated in Wisdom of Solomon 2:23–24, the image of God is rooted in the divine qualities of eternity and immortality ... It is possible that wordplay is involved in the way the author of the Wisdom of Solomon describes how “God created the human being in the image of God’s own being (idiotes) or perhaps of God’s own eternity (aidiotes)”. To come to grips with this enigmatic remark, one should keep in mind that it forms part of the conclusion of a speech describing the folly of the wicked who do not comprehend the goal or destiny of God’s creation of humankind, namely “incorruption” (1:16–2:24). “To sustain the bold claim for immortality, the author appeals to the powerful ‘image of God’ in the Genesis narratives” ..."
Bosman, Hendrik
"Figuring God and Humankind: The Imago Dei in View of Anthropologies in the Old Testament" in Claassens, L. Juliana M., and Klaas Spronk, editors. Fragile Dignity: Intercontextual Conversations on Scriptures, Family, and Violence
(p. 50) Society of Biblical Literature, 2013
* 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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