Genesis 1:27: what it means to be created in the image of God
27And God created man to his own image; to the image of God he created him; male and female, he created them.
Three short lines with the same verb repeated and a turn from singular to plural. The repetition is the device: the text insists rather than explains.
Short answer
Genesis 1:27 states that the human being was created in the image of God, and says so three times in three lines. What the image consists of is never explained. The text declares the condition, and it is precisely that refusal to define which lets the verse carry so much weight.
- Written by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 2 min read
This is the verse most quoted in arguments about human dignity, and the one most quoted by people who disagree about nearly everything else. The reason lies in its form: it asserts without qualifying, and so leaves no room for an exception.
It is also the high point of the first creation account. Everything before it sets the stage; here, for the first time, the text changes rhythm and starts to sound like poetry.
Where this verse appears
We are on the sixth day. The preceding verses carry the deliberation — let us make — and the mention of dominion over the other living creatures. This verse is the carrying out of that.
The structure has three parts that say almost the same thing, with one difference at the end: the first two speak in the singular, and the third turns plural to place male and female inside the same statement.
What it says
The claim is about what a human being is, not about what one achieves. No condition of behaviour, age, health, usefulness or faith is attached. The image is declared before any personal story has started.
What the text never does is define the image. Readers across traditions point to reason, to the capacity for relationship, to the responsibility of representing God before creation — and the discussion stays open because the verse does not close it. Saying the matter is settled means adding to the text.
The last line places male and female inside the same sentence as the image. Whatever reading anyone takes of the rest of the chapter, this point is explicit: the two are named together, in the same declaration, with no hierarchy inside it.
What to do with it today
This is a verse for days of shame. If you are measuring your own worth today by your output, your body, or what you managed to get done this week, it works against every one of those criteria.
It works the same way on how you see other people. The claim is not about likeable persons; it is about the whole species, including the ones you cannot stand and the ones who can no longer give anything back.
A prayer to carry with you
God, I forget what I am whenever I start scoring what I produce. Keep your image in me, and help me see it in the person I would rather look away from. Amen.