Genesis 1:27

Summary

Genesis 1:27 narrates the creation of humankind in a triple structure: the verb "create" occurs three times, the word "image" twice, and the object moves from the singular "him" to the plural "them," unfolded as "male and female."

Key words

• i.yiv.Ra' ("he created", H1254) — narrative form opening the verse.
• Tze.lem ("[the] image of", H6754) — the noun occurs twice, in construct.
• za.Khar ("male", H2145) — masculine singular adjective.
• ne.ke.Vah ("female", H5347) — feminine singular adjective.

What the text says

The verse chains three clauses on the same verb: first i.yiv.Ra' ("he created", H1254) in narrative form ("and then he created"), then ba.Ra' ("he created", H1254) twice in the perfect — completed action. The first object is 'a.Dam ("humankind", H0120), here with the definite article: "the human."

The phrase "in his image" uses tzal.M ("own image", H6754) with a third person suffix; the second clause repeats the noun in construct: Tze.lem ("[the] image of", H6754) plus 'E.lo.Him ("God", H0430). The object of that second clause is singular — the suffix glossed "it" on the object marker —; the third clause shifts to the plural — the suffix glossed "them" —, and that plural is spelled out as za.Khar ("male", H2145) and ne.ke.Vah ("female", H5347), two adjectives joined by the conjunction.

Differences between versions

Where the Hebrew repeats ba.Ra' ("he created", H1254) three times, the provided LXX uses ἐποίησεν ("he made") three times; the Vulgate ("creavit") and the RV1909 ("crió") keep a verb of creating. In addition, Swete's text lacks an equivalent of "in his image" in the first clause: it moves from "God made the human" straight to "according to [the] image of God he made him," so the image phrase appears only once, against twice in the Hebrew, the Vulgate ("ad imaginem suam: ad imaginem Dei"), and the RV1909 ("á su imagen, á imagen de Dios").