What Does Genesis 1:27 Mean in the King James?
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
God’s image is spoken over the one human whole, and that whole is explicitly male and female.
THE MEANING
You are included in the human whole called אָדָם (adam, humanity): the image is spoken over humanity, and that humanity is named male and female. Bodily difference belongs within one shared creation and one shared image.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the divine image belongs only to the male: the verse names the human whole as male and female within the same act of creation.
THE ROOT
אָדָם
adam
GROWS FROM
אדם
Humanity, with a word-family connection to ground and soil.
“man” in this verse is adam. אָדָם (adam, humanity) is linked in Hebrew to אֲדָמָה (adamah, ground or soil) and אָדֹם (adom, red). The human is earth-connected, and the verse’s collective adam includes both male and female in the shared image.
ALSO GROWS
adamah: ground, soil
אֲדָמָה
The shared consonants connect humanity with the ground, keeping the image-bearing human embodied and earth-linked.
adom: red
אָדֹם
This related word keeps the color of soil in the human word-family.
THE PATTERN
The divine image belongs to humanity as a whole, across male and female.
Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.THE THREAD
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.Genesis 9:6 uses the same Hebrew noun צֶלֶם (tselem, image) as Genesis 1:27. Here the image stands beside human blood and its threatened taking, holding the shared image-bearing humanity in view even where violence enters the passage.
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