King Adam in Genesis 1

Genesis 1 describes not Adam, but all of humanity, male and female, as joint grantees of a dominion over fish, fowl, and beast:

וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ

בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתוֹ

זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה בָּרָא אֹתָם׃

וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם אֱלֹהִים

וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם אֱלֹהִים

פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ

וּמִלְאוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ וְכִבְשֻׁהָ

וּרְדוּ בִּדְגַת הַיָּם

וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם

וּבְכָל־חַיָּה הָרֹמֶשֶׂת עַל־הָאָרֶץ׃

God created humankind in his image;
in the divine image he created him.
Male and female he created them.

And God blessed them
and God said to them:

Be fruitful and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it;

and hold sway over the fish of the sea,
the fowl of heaven,
and all living things which move on land. (Gen 1:27-28)

The greater and lesser lights are also granted dominion, over day and over night:

וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים אֶת־שְׁנֵי הַמְּאֹרֹת הַגְּדֹלִים

אֶת־הַמָּאוֹר הַגָּדֹל לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַיּוֹם

וְאֶת־הַמָּאוֹר הַקָּטֹן לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַלַּיְלָה

God made the two great lights,
the greater light to dominate the day,
and the lesser light to dominate the night. (Gen 1:16)

In these passages, the language of rule and subjugation is borrowed from the realm of social hierarchy and applied by analogy to the relationship of (1) the sun and the moon to night and day and (2) humanity to fish, fowl, and beast. It is possible that Gen 1:16, 27-28 avoids describing the sun and moon and humanity in royal terms insofar as one of the hallmarks of the passage is that God alone operates by fiat.¹ The exercise of dominion by third parties occurs under delegation from him.

In Gen 1, it is to God and deity that humanity is compared. To be precise, humanity is like deity. A strict identity is not asserted. In Psalm 8, the thought is not appreciably different. Humanity is described as a near-replica of deity, and also, relative to the fact that humanity is nearly divine, God is said to crown humanity with glory and honor.

Psalm 8 sails in the slipstream of Gen 1 insofar as God’s glorification of humanity is exemplified in God’s granting humanity a domain of hierarchy, the grant already described in Gen 1:27-28:

וַתְּחַסְּרֵהוּ מְּעַט מֵאֱלֹהִים

וְכָבוֹד וְהָדָר תְּעַטְּרֵהוּ׃

תַּמְשִׁילֵהוּ בְּמַעֲשֵׂי יָדֶיךָ

כֹּל שַׁתָּה תַחַת־רַגְלָיו׃

צֹנֶה וַאֲלָפִים כֻּלָּם

וְגַם בַּהֲמוֹת שָׂדָי׃

צִפּוֹר שָׁמַיִם

וּדְגֵי הַיָּם

עֹבֵר אָרְחוֹת יַמִּים׃

You made him lack  little  of deity;
you crown him  with glory  and honor.

You give him dominion  over your hands’  work;
you set  everything  beneath his feet:

all cattle  large  and small,
and beasts  of the wild  as well;

fowl  of heaven,
fish  of the sea,
passing over  the paths  of the sea (Ps 8:6-9)

It would be an example of parallelomania should Gen 1 be read as describing Adam in royal terms. That would overdo similarities in function. The terms of humanity’s assignment in Gen 1 are not specifically royal.

Gen 1 describes humanity, male and female, in terms of the divine. They are made in the divine image, “replica-like” (כדמות), vis-à-vis divinity. There can be no doubt, then, that humanity is up to a godlike task. It is logical enough that, like “the greater light” and like “the lesser light,” humankind is granted a domain over which to hold sway.

In Psalm 8, the description is not appreciably different. God crowns humanity with glory and honor insofar as God made humanity a little less than divine. The primary comparison is with divinity, not royalty.

The sense of Psalm 8, if understood in light of Christ, takes one to greater heights: the glory of God, that in which he delights, is a fully alive and fully responsible human being. Irenaeus put it succintly: gloria dei vivens homo – the glory of God is a living human being. That proposition is fully understandable if and only if one remembers that, as Irenaeus emphasized, Christ (the second Adam, not the first) is the model homo vivens.

Even the best theology is bent out of shape if it forgets that Christ is true God and true man. On the one hand, Christ shows us that God’s glory and delight is a living human being. In the bargain, Christ shows us true God. Anything less makes God into a solipsist, incurvatus in se, the opposite of what is implied by the conviction that God is love. On the other hand, Christ shows us that humanity’s glory is to give glory to God and delight in him. In the bargain, Christ shows us true man. Anything less makes humanity solipsistic, the opposite of what is implied by the conviction that we find no rest until we find our rest in him.

Any theology that makes God into an invert is to be rejected. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.

To be continued.

¹ “Fiat,” as in “fiat lux” – Let there be light (Gen 1:3). Genesis is full of fiats in this sense, all of them asserted by God and followed by immediate realization.

Comments

[Richard]

Great stuff!

[Charles Halton]

Good stuff, John. I agree with you that the comparison is to divinity not royalty.