Origins – Session 4

Eyes to see, ears to hear.

Our fourth session already – and I was really pleased that the ‘full class’ discussion times were gaining momentum.

The aim of this session was to dig deeper into why the authors of Genesis 1 chose such contentious word, tslem, (in Hebrew obviously!) to describe humanity given that most often tslem is used to describe idols. Why not use a less loaded word; there were certainly other options. We suggested that this must have been a deliberate choice, or else something of an oversight. We left this hanging at the end of session 3.

In session 4 we saw that the Hebrews, surrounded by polytheistic cultures as they were, stuck their necks out and wrote their creation account as a polemic (argument) against the practices and beliefs of those cultures. We saw that the Hebrew Bible is very clear concerning the nature of dumb and detestable idols, and that the Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures were too. It was just that later had views completely out of sync with Israel.

To the Hebrews creation was a temple, but a temple it seems with no cult statue (idol). There are no animal deities, nor was anything in creation deified (such as the sun or moon). Humanity are not created as slaves or from the carcass of a fight between gods. Rather humanity is the animated image-idol, the icon, of Yahweh, placed within the temple, imbued with power and authority to re-present God’s sovereign presence to the creation.

So tselm is used because it is loaded with implications about the nature and purpose of humanity.

Here is the powerpoint

Origins 8 – Ears to hear, eyes to see