Image and Likeness

A man has become. For even the most wise Paul, using this name for man, says: 'For a man ought not to cover his head, being the image and glory of God' (1 Cor 11:7). It has been shown that being an image is not according to the composite; for the one is incorporeal and a spiritual essence, while the other is a body having been formed. Therefore, it is necessary in another way to take the image and the likeness to have become him.

For God, having made all things and being both ruler and leader of all—for as Creator he is thus both ruler and king—having made man to rule over the beasts, cattle, and birdshas this in such a way is to be learned from the apostolic word: 'But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman' (1 Cor 11:3). Just as the man is ruled by Christ, so the woman is ruled by the man, having him as head.

For according to analogy, the likeness is to be taken, which does not have likeness in the same matters, as we say that the one who has a reason for a physician to produce health, the builder has a reason for constructing a house; for each is a maker of a certain work. Since therefore the man, having become a rational being, imitates God according to his ruling over the things subject to him, by this he is able to be according to the image and likeness of God.

But it is especially possible according to a previously mentioned thought to grasp what is set forth; it has been previously stated that the mind and the soul are man; this, participating in God through His communion, becomes His image, just as we say that the one participating in virtue images it, which even Paul, speaking in Christ, knows and exhorts to be imaged according to Christ: 'until Christ is formed in you' (Gal 4:19), teaching that the thought concerning Christ, being a true soul approaching, characterizes and images it according to Him. 'Let us make man according to our image and likeness' (Gen 1:26); the Son, His only-begotten, is the image of God. Paul teaches this, writing: 'Who is the image of the invisible God' (Col 1:15), an image substantial and unchangeable; 'for He' 'who has seen me has seen the Father' (John 14:9). If it is therefore said concerning God: 'Let...'

Let us make man in our image and likeness; we must not take different images, for there is not one image of the Father and another of the Son. For if he who has seen the Son has seen the Father, and the Son is the character of the subsistence of God according to the blessed Paul, we must not conceive of another image. For nothing of the created things images or characterizes God according to essence. Therefore it is not said: 'Let us make man an image,' but 'according to an image,' which means to be imaged from that image and to imitate it; for man was constructed to be capable of the image.

And it is necessary to understand that there are two things which God says he is making when saying: 'Let us make man in our image and likeness' (Gen 1:26); for I think that the surpassing similarity shows an unchangeable likeness, such that the likeness is an image beyond measure, but not necessarily the image being so precise as to have an unchangeable likeness. Nevertheless, the image would be the beginning and the prelude to the likeness. Therefore, first it is necessary to become according to an image, then according to a likeness; and the first must not be taken by time, especially since it was the first creation of man, but by intention. And that it is so, the written Spirit shows: 'And God made man, in the image of God He made him' (Gen 1:27), without adding 'according to a likeness.'

For the mind, having approached godliness, is first stamped according to the image of God, but later, through progress toward perfection, it becomes according to the likeness of God, as the blessed John says: 'Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be; we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him' (1 John 3:2). For already being according to an image, they hope to become according to a likeness. That this thought is strong, Paul also testifies, exhorting someone to make progress in virtue, saying: 'That you may become according to the image of the Creator,' even though they already are so according to the word of essence. What he therefore says is this: that every man, insofar as he is a creation of God, being receptive of the Word, exists according to an image, being capable, as we have said, of the image and having an aptitude for participation in it; if, however, he should receive this according to energy, just as the man created from the beginning was.