Genesis 1:26

Chapter I (The Six Days of Creation)

• Vulgate Text: Genesis 1:1-31 — Full Vulgate text quoted

  "26. And He said: Let Us make man to Our image and likeness; and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the fowl of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moves upon the earth."

• Verse 26: Let Us Make Man in Our Image and Likeness — The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity: "Let Us make" addresses Son and Holy Spirit

  "LET US MAKE MAN IN OUR IMAGE AND LIKENESS."

• Verse 26: Let Us Make Man in Our Image and Likeness — God the Father addresses His Son and the Holy Spirit as colleagues of the same nature

  "Therefore God the Father here addresses His Son, and the Holy Spirit, as His colleagues, of the same nature, power, and operation with Himself."

• Verse 26: Let Us Make Man in Our Image and Likeness — Twelve excellences of man: image of Trinity, microcosm, horizon of the universe

  "Note secondly the excellence of man: for God deliberates and consults about the creation of man as a great thing"

• Verse 26: Let Us Make Man in Our Image and Likeness — Image of God in man: not according to the body (against Anthropomorphites)

  "IN OUR IMAGE AND LIKENESS. — You will ask, in what does this image of God, expressed in man, consist?"

• Verse 26: Let Us Make Man in Our Image and Likeness — Are image and likeness distinguished? Many Fathers say image pertains to nature, likeness to virtues

  "Note secondly, many distinguish "image" here from "likeness," namely so that "image" pertains to nature, and "likeness" to virtues."

• Verse 26: Let Us Make Man in Our Image and Likeness — Image of God situated in the mind of man: man is intellectual, rational

  "I say first: this image of God is situated in the mind of man, that is, in the fact that man occupies the highest rank of things"

• Verse 26: Let Us Make Man in Our Image and Likeness — "And let him rule": man is an animal born to command

  "AND LET HIM RULE. — In Hebrew veiirdu, that is, "and let them rule" or "have dominion," namely both Adam and Eve and their descendants."