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NASB | Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty (subtle, skilled in deceit) than any living creature of the field which the LORD God had made. And the serpent (Satan) said to the woman, "Can it really be that God has said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" [Rev 12:9-11] |
Subject: Distiction in "will" not "rationality" |
Bible Note: Dear Lionstrong, You pretty much stand alone in your thesis that rationality (i.e., the ability to reason) is the sense in which man is made in the image of God. Aristotle might have agreed with you -- but Aristotle didn't believe in the God of the Bible. However, he is the one who first stated that the ability to reason was what distinguished man and beast. Augustine, in "City of God" goes to great length to show that man has a triune nature that reflects the Trinity. From then on, no theologians take your position. Indeed, I do not find a single commentator on these verses in Genesis to hold your position. I'll admit that these facts don't invalidate your argument in and of themselves. But Christian discussion of the Imago Dei over the centuries seem a bit more persuasive... at least to me. ;-) In Him, Doc "In the mind perfect intelligence flourished and reigned, uprightness attended as its companion, and all the senses were prepared and moulded for due obedience to reason; and in the body there was a suitable correspondence with this internal order. But now, although some obscure lineaments of that image are found remaining in us; yet are they so vitiated and maimed, that they may truly be said to be destroyed. For besides the deformity which everywhere appears unsightly, this evil also is added, that no part is free from the infection of sin." --John Calvin "As there are two kinds of attributes in God, according to our way of conceiving of him, his moral attributes which are summed up in his holiness and his natural attributes of strength, knowledge, etc., that constitute the greatness of God; so there is a two-fold imago Dei in man, his moral or spiritual image, which is his holiness and man's natural image, consisting in man's reason and understanding, his natural ability and dominion over the creatures, which is the image of God's natural ability." --Jonathan Edwards "Man's creation in the image of God does not first and foremost entail his rational facilities, but his built-in teleology as a receptacle and reflector for the divine glory-presence." --Geerhardus Vos "Love is central in the image of God." --Anthony Hoekema "From the doctrine that man has been created in the image of God flows the clear implication that that image extends to man in his entirety. Nothing in man is excluded from the image of God. All creatures reveal traces of God, but only man is the image of God. And he is that image totally, in soul and body, in all faculties and powers, in all conditions and relationships. Man is the image of God because and insofar as he is true man, and he is man, true and real man, because and insofar as he is the image of God." --Herman Bavinck |