Primordial Planet Puzzles (Part 6)

The image of God

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Gen 1:26).

Science and Scripture are again in complete agreement: human beings were the last form of living creatures to appear on earth.

 

A “plural” God?

Oddly, God spoke in the first person plural: “let us… in our image… after our likeness…” Apart from the verse above, God’s reference to Himself in the plural is seen in a few other Biblical verses: Genesis 3:22 (“And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us…”); Genesis 11:7 (“Come, let us go down and confuse their language…”); Isaiah 6:8 (“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”).

Some scholars say God referred to Himself in the plural, because the Godhead is said to have three Persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Others suggest the way He spoke was “communicative (including the attendant angels),”⁹⁴ that is, God was speaking for both Himself and the angels in His presence. In Genesis 3:22, the phrase “one of us” in both Hebrew and the literal English translation clearly means one among many. We can only conclude that by “us” God means Himself plus others who were with Him.  

God and “gods.” In the Scriptures, the word “God” is usually translated from the Hebrew elohim (“gods”), the plural form of El and its variants Elah, Eloah, Eloha. Scholars “interpret the –im ending as an expression of majesty (pluralis majestatis) or excellence (pluralis excellentiae), expressing high dignity or greatness…”⁹⁵ Others disagree. “Theologians who dispute this cite the hypothesis that plurals of majesty came about in more modern times. Richard Toporoski, a classical scholar, asserts that plurals of majesty first appeared in the reign of Diocletian (284-305 CE)… The use of the plural as a form of respectful address is quite foreign to Hebrew.”⁹⁶

In Psalm 82, the angels are called “gods” (elohim): “God (Elohim) standeth in the congregation of the mighty (el); he judgeth among the gods (elohim)… I have said, Ye are gods (elohim); and all of you are children of the most High” (Ps 82:1,6).

In Psalm 149:2, the English word “Maker” was actually “Makers” in the Hebrew original, as indicated by the plural verb. It thus should read: “Let Israel rejoice in their Makers; Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.” Similarly, in Ecclesiastes 12:1, “Creator” was “Creators” in the original: “Remember now thy Creators in the days of thy youth…” The pluralization of words in Hebrew requires correct spellings that differ markedly from the singular, so the plurals could not have been mere scribal “slips of the pen.” The plurals had been deliberately written.

God showed Himself to Abraham as three angels. “And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground” (Gen 18:1-2).

In view of the above, did God have angels acting for Him during the Creation? The Angel of the LORD? Moreover, do the terms “image” and “likeness” imply that the Angel of the LORD and the angels have a physical form after which they fashioned man?

Physical resemblance?

The terms “image” and “likeness” may have two implications: First, they could signify that man, or at least a part of him, has been made a spirit like God and the angels. Second, they could mean that man has been patterned after the physical configurations of the Creator (the Angel of the LORD) and the angels, literally.

The terms are used at least once in the Bible in the physical sense: “And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth” (Gen 5:3). The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible explains: “Man’s resemblance to God is analogous to Seth’s resemblance to his father Adam. This makes it certain that physical resemblance must not be excluded.”⁹⁷

The form of angels. If God and the angels were spirits, why did God create the physical universe? Of what use would it be to them? God also planted a garden in Eden, but it was not for Adam, whom He made only to be its gardener (Gen 2:5,8,15). Did God create the material world for His own and the angels’ enjoyment? That is what we are told in Revelation 4:11 – “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” That being the case, the Spirit of God, and those of His angels, needed physical bodies to experience and enjoy the delights of the material universe. Indeed, we read about “the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen 3:8).

The Scriptures hint angels can change their physical forms. In Psalm 68:17 (“The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels [shin’an]…”), the Hebrew word used for angels is shin’an, the root meaning of which is “to change or alter.” This strongly suggests angels can change or alter their forms at will. 

As we know, God and the angels descended to earth from time to time in physical form. Of all organic structures, the human figure appears to be the most suitable and most efficient design for the terrestrial setting. James, Christ’s own brother, reiterates that the human form has been patterned after that of God: “Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God” (James 3:9).

One kind, several forms. If man was created in the “image” and “likeness” of God, how can the appearance of various manlike creatures before Adam be explained?

The Torah account tends to skip over some details to simplify the narrative, as we have seen earlier. On Day 6 amphibians, reptiles and insects are lumped together under just one term: “creeping things” (Gen 1:24-25). It is the same in Leviticus 11:13-23, where true birds, the bat, and flying insects are all bunched in just one word, “fowl.”

Similarly, it looks like Genesis 1:26 has grouped together in one word – “man” – all the different species of subhumans and hominids, different versions and “likenesses” of the same type which eventually culminated in Adam, the crowning glory of God’s creation.

 

Day-Age 6-k:

• Circa 457,763 to 228,882 years ago (Duration: approximately 228,882 years)

 

Homo Neanderthalensis, 300 kya. In 1856 workmen found fossil bones in a limestone cave in the Neander valley (thal), near Dusseldorf, Germany. Anatomist Prof. Schaafhausen declared the bones were human.⁹⁸ The remains were named Neanderthal man.

Over 60 more similar fragments have since been unearthed in other parts of Europe, as well as Asia and Africa. Undoubtedly human, the “Neandertals were larger and more muscular than modern humans and are believed to have lived in Europe and western Asia from 300,000 years ago to as recently as 30,000 years ago.”⁹⁹ The bones indicate a powerful body, though of short stature -- males averaged 1.7 m (5’ 5”) tall and 84 kg (185 lb), females 1.5 m (5’) tall and 80 kg (176 lb).¹⁰⁰ The cranial capacity was about 1,500 cu cm (90 cu in), around 10-15% larger than that of modern men! (The larger brain is thought to be in correlation to the greater muscle mass of the Neanderthals.)

At first scientists thought Neanderthals had a crouching and apelike posture. They later realized some of the bones bore signs of arthritis and rickets. They concluded that Neanderthals actually walked upright, not stooped on bent knees. Recent dental and x-ray studies suggest they matured at a slower rate, but lived longer than people today.

Neanderthals used fire, made stone tools and leather, played music (indicated by a wooden flute), cared for the injured and elderly (bones show survival to old age after suffering wounds, fractures, diseases, even blindness).¹⁰¹ They seemed to have worshipped bears and buried their dead, covering them with flowers.

In 1997, researchers announced they had extracted a small amount of DNA from a Neanderthal fossil. They “compared the Neandertal DNA sequence to sequences in the same region of DNA for 994 modern human lineages, which included Australians, Pacific Islanders, Africans, Asians, Native Americans, and Europeans. The Neandertal DNA sequence differed from all the modern human DNA by either 27 or 28 base pairs. In comparison, modern human sequences in this region of DNA differ from each other on average by 8 base pairs.”¹⁰² The DNA evidence, the World Book says, supports the belief that the Neanderthals were a separate species and not ancestors of modern humans.¹⁰³

 

Day-Age 6-l:

• Circa 228,882 to 114,441 years ago (Duration: approximately 114,441 years)

Day-Age 6-m:

• Circa 114,441 to 57,221 years ago (Duration: approximately 57,221 years.)

 

Homo sapiens, 200-100 kya. In 1868, fossilized human bones were discovered in the Cro-Magnon cave in southwestern France. Anthropologists have classified the evidently more advanced species, which appeared between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago,¹⁰⁴ as Homo sapiens – Latin for “wise human being.”

Also called “Cro-Magnon man,” more than 100 specimens have since been found. A population appears to have lived in Europe from about 40,000 to 10,000 years ago. Cro-Magnon bones closely resemble those of modern men. They indicate a powerfully muscled body of about 166-171 cm (5” 5” to 5’ 7”) tall. They were distinguished from Neanderthals by a high forehead with a slight browridge, a short wide face, and a prominent chin (the first specimen with a well-defined chin). The H. sapiens brain volume was about 1,600 cc (100 cu in), bigger than that of modern men.¹⁰⁵

Finely shaped artifacts reveal the Cro-Magnons had mastered the techniques of making useful objects from stone, bone, shell, and clay, such as tools, trinkets, lamps, needles. They wore fitted clothes, jewelry, and other ornaments.¹⁰⁶ Most notably, they produced beautiful paintings of animals in the caves of southwestern France and northern Spain.

Like Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons buried their dead. This suggests they believed in an other world of spirits. After all, the Creator had spoken to them: “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Gen 1:28). 

No relation. Remains of Cro-Magnons and the older Neanderthals overlap in the fossil record, showing the two species lived alongside each other for a long period of time – no less than 70,000 years. This precludes any notion that Cro-Magnons evolved from Neanderthals.

Neither did modern man. Neanderthals had an ear canal (labyrinth, three hollow rings involved in balance) that was distinctly different in size and location from that of people today. The Word Book notes: “Because the features of the Neandertal's labyrinth do not exist in modern humans, the scientists believe that the muscular hominid belongs to a separate species, or at least is not an ancestor of modern humans.”¹⁰⁷

Researchers have extracted DNA samples from a 40,000-year-old human skeleton (from the Cro-Magnon era) found at Lake Mungo in Australia. The DNA differs from that of living people.¹⁰⁸ The findings reinforce the belief that the earlier species were not ancestors of modern humans. (Of course we know Adam had none, do we not?)

____________________

⁹⁴Names of God, Kabbalah, Wikipedia, Internet
⁹⁵Ibid.
⁹⁶Ibid.
⁹⁷The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, p. 683
⁹⁸David Menton, “Did Humans Really Evolve from Apelike Creatures?”, The New Answers Book 2, 2008, p. 91
⁹⁹Mitochondria, “Neandertals Were Not Close Relations, Say DNA Test,” Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004
¹⁰⁰Human Evolution, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004
¹⁰¹David Menton, “Did Humans Really Evolve from Apelike Creatures?”, The New Answers Book 2, 2008, p. 92
¹⁰²Homo Neanderthalensis, “Neandertals Were Not Close Relations, DNA Testing Finds,” Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Student and Home Edition
¹⁰³Prehistoric people, World Book 2005 (Deluxe)
¹⁰⁴Human being, World Book 2005 (Deluxe)
¹⁰⁵Cro-Magnon, Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Student and Home Edition
¹⁰⁶Cro-Magnon, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004
¹⁰⁷Neanderthals, World Book 2005 (Deluxe)
¹⁰⁸Prehistoric People, loc. cit.

 

(Excerpted from Chapter 4, Primordial Planet Puzzles, THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD: A Primer on the Secrets of Heaven and Earth by M.M. Tauson, Amazon.com)