MANUSIA DICIPTAKAN Menurut GAMBAR dan RUPA ALLAH
Alkitab menggambarkan keadaan mula-mula manusia
dengan memakai ungkapan “menurut gambar (Tselem) dan rupa (Demuth) Allah” (Kej
1:26-27;5:1;9:6; I Kor 11:7; Yakobus 3:9). Nah apakah arti Gambar dan Rupa
Allah itu?
Kesamaan itu bukan KESAMAAN JASMANI
Allah adalah Roh sehingga tidak memiliki
anggota-nggota tubuh seperti manusia. Beberapa orang menggambarkan Allah
sebagai manusia yang agung dan luhur, namun pandangan semacam ini salah. Mazmur
17:15 mengatakan, ”… pada waktu bangun aku akan menjadi puas dengan rupa-Mu.”
Namun ayat ini tidak memakusdkan keadaan jasmaniah; lebih tepat kalau dikatakan
bahwa ayat ini menurut konteksnya berbicara mengenai persamaan dalam kebenaran
(baca I Yohanes 3:2-3). Musa telah melihat ”rupa Tuhan” (Bil 12:8), walaupun
wajah Allah tidak dapat dilihat (Kel 33:20). Sekalipun manusia tidak memiliki
kesamaan jasmaniah dengan Allah karena Allah tidak memiliki tubuh jasmaniah,
manusia memang memiliki kesamaan tertentu karena manusia diciptakan dalam
keadaan sehat walafiat, tidak ada bibit-bibit penyakit apapun di dalam dirinya,
dan tidak bisa mati. Pada mulanya Allah merencanakan supaya manusia makan dari
tumbuh-tumbuhan saja (Kej 1:29), tetapi kemudian Ia mengizinkan daging hewan
untuk dimakan (Kej 9:3). Menarik untuk diperhatikan bahwa ketika Allah
mengizinkan manusia memakan daging, Allah sama sekali tidak memberikan
peraturan mengenai hewan haram dan hewan halal meskipun perbedaan antara yang
haram dan yang halal sudah diketahui (Kej 7:2). Peraturan itu diberi kemudian
untuk mengatur perilaku satu bangsa saja dan hanya berlaku untuk jangka waktu
tertentu (Imamat 11; Markus 7:19; Kisah 10:15; Roma 14:1-12; Kolose 2:16)
Kesamaan yang dimaksud dengan Gambar dan Rupa Allah yaitu:
Kesamaan itu adalah Kesamaan Mental
Charles Hodge pernah mengatakan,
Allah adalah Roh, jiwa manusia adalah roh juga.sifat-sifat hakiki dari
roh ialah akal budi, hati nurani dan kehendak. Roh adalah unsur yang mampu
bernalar, bersifat moral, dan oleh karena itu juga berkehendak bebas. Ketika
menciptakan manusia menurut gambarNya, Allah menganugerahkan kepadanya
sifat-sifat yang dimilikinya sendiri sebagai roh. Dengan demikian manusia
berbeda dari semua makhluk lain yang mendiami bumi ini, serta berkedudukan jauh
lebih tinggi daripada mereka. Manusia termasuk golongan yang sama dnegan Allah
sendiri sehingga ia mampu berkomunikasi dengan Penciptanya. Kesamaan sifat
antara Allah dan manusia ini…juga merupakan keadaan yang diperlukan untuk
mengenal Allah dan karen aitu merupakan dasar dari kesalehan kita. Bila kita tidak
diciptakan menurut gambar Allah, kita tidak dapat mengenal Dia. Kita akan sama
dengan binatang-binatang yang akhirnya binasa.
Pernyataan Hodge ini dikuatkan
oleh Alkitab. Dalam pengudusan, manusia “terus-menerus diperbaharui untuk
memperoleh pengetahuan yang benar menurut gambar Khaliknya” (Kol 3:10). Tentu
saja, pembaharuan ini dimulai pada saat kelahiran baru terjadi, tetapi
dilanjutkan dalam pengudusan. Bahwa manusia diberi kemampuan intelektual yang
tinggi tersirat dalam perintah untuk mengusahakan taman Eden serta
memeliharanya (Kej 2:15), juga perintah untuk menguasai bumi beserta segala
isinya (Kejadian 1:26, 28), dan dalam pernyataan bahwa manusia memberi nama
kepada segala binatang di bumi (Kej 2:19-20). Kesamaan dengan Allah ini tidak
dapat dihapus, dan karena kesamaan tersebut memungkinkan manusia memperoleh
penebusan, maka kehidupan manusia yang belum dilahirkan baru juga berharga (Kej
9:6; I Kor 11;&; Yak 3:9).
Kesamaan itu adalah kesamaan Moral
Jadi kesamaan itu terdapat dalam sifat rasional
manusia dan dalam persesuaian moralnya dengan Allah. Hodge mengatakan,
Manusia adalah gambar Allah, sehingga membawa dan mencerminkan kesamaan
ilahi di antara penghuni-penghuni lain di bumi, karena manusia itu roh, unsur
yang cerdas dan berkehendak bebas; dan oleh karena itu sudah sepantasnya
manusia ditetapkan untuk menguasai bumi. Inilah yang biasanya disebut….
sebagai gambar Allah yang hakiki dan bukan yang insidental.
Bahwa manusia memiliki kesamaan semacam itu dengan
Allah sudah jelas dalam Alkitab. Bila dalam pembaharuan manusia baru itu
diciptakan menurut kehendak Allah di dalam kebenaran dan kekudusan yang
sesungguhnya (Efesus 4:24), maka pastilah tepat untuk menyimpulkan bahwa pada
mulanya manusia memiliki baik kebenaran maupun kekudusan. Koteks Ke 1 dan 2
membuktikan hal ini. Hanya atas dasar inilah manusia dapat bersekutu dengan
Allah, yang tidak dapat memandang kelaliman (Habakuk 1:13)
Kesamaan itu adalah kesamaan Sosial
Sifat Allah yang sosial itu didasarkan pada kasih
sayangNya. Yang menjadi sasaran kasih sayangNya adalah Oknum-Oknum lain di
dalam KetritunggalanNya. Karena Allah memiliki sifat sosial, maka Ia
menganugerahkan kepada manusia sifat sosial. Akibatnya, manusia senantiasa
mencari sahabat untuk bersekutu dengannya. Pertama-tama, manusia menemukan
persahabatan ini dengan Allah sendiri. Manusia ”mendengar bunyi langkah TUHAN
Allah, yang berjalan-jalan dalam taman itu pada waktu hari sejuk” (Kej 3:8).
Hal ini menyatakan secara tak langsung bahwa manusia berkomunikasi dengan Allah
Penciptanya. Allah telah menciptakan manusia untuk diriNya sendiri, dan manusia
menemukan kepuasan tertinggi dalam persekutuan dengan Tuhannya. Akan tetapi,
disamping itu Allah juga menganugerahkan persahabatan manusiawi. Ia menciptakan
wanita, karena sebagaimana dikatakanNya sendiri, "Tidak baik, kalau
manusia itu seorang diri saja. Aku akan menjadikan penolong baginya, yang
sepadan dengan dia” (Kej 2:18). Jelaslah bahwa manusia diciptakan dengan sifat
sosial, sebagaimana Allah mempunyai sifat sosial. Kasih dan perhatian sosial
manusia bersumber langsung dari unsur ini dalam watak manusia.
Genesis 1:26
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.
[In
our image, after our likeness] What is said above refers only to the body
of man, what is here said refers to his soul. This was made in the image and
likeness of God. Now, as the Divine Being is infinite, he is neither limited by
parts, nor definable by passions; therefore he can have no corporeal image
after which he made the body of man. The image and likeness must necessarily be
intellectual, his mind, his soul, must have been formed after the nature and
perfections of his God. The human mind is still endowed with most extraordinary
capacities, it was more so when issuing out of the hands of its Creator. God
was now producing a spirit, and a spirit, too, formed after the perfections of
his own nature. God is the fountain whence this spirit issued, hence, the
stream must resemble the spring which produced it. God is holy, just, wise,
good, and perfect; so must the soul be that sprang from him: there could be in
it nothing impure, unjust, ignorant, evil, low, base, mean, or vile. It was
created after the image of God; and that image, Paul tells us, consisted in
righteousness, true holiness, and knowledge, Eph 4:24; Col 3:10. Hence, man was
wise in his mind, holy in his heart, and righteous in his actions. Were even
the word of God silent on this subject, we could not infer less from the lights
held out to us by reason and common sense. The text tells us he was the work of
‘ELOHIYM (OT:430), the Divine Plurality, marked here more distinctly by the
plural pronouns US and OUR; and to show that he was the masterpiece of God’s
creation, all the persons in the Godhead are represented as united in counsel
and effort to produce this astonishing creature.
Gregory Nyssen has
very properly observed that the superiority of man to all other parts of
creation is seen in this, that all other creatures are represented as the
effect of God’s word, but man is represented as the work of God, according to
plan and consideration: "Let US make MAN in our IMAGE, after our LIKENESS.
See his Works, vol. i., p. 52, c. 3.
[And let them
have dominion] Hence we see that the dominion was not the image. God created
man capable of governing the world, and when fitted for the office, he fixed
him in it. We see God’s tender care and parental solicitude for the comfort and
well-being of this masterpiece of his workmanship, in creating the world
previously to the creation of man. He prepared everything for his subsistence,
convenience, and pleasure, before he brought him into being; so that, comparing
little with great things, the house was built, furnished, and amply stored, by
the time the destined tenant was ready to occupy it.
It has been
supposed by some that God speaks here to the angels, when he says, "Let us
make man, but to make this a likely interpretation these persons must prove:
1. That angels
were then created.
2. That angels
could assist in a work of creation.
3. That angels
were themselves made in the image and likeness of God.
If they were
not, it could not be said, in OUR image, and it does not appear from any part
in the sacred writings that any creature but man was made in the image of God. See the note on Ps 8:5
(from Adam
Clarke’s Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft)
Gen 1:26-30
In our image (selem), after our likeness
(demut). Though these two synonyms have separate meanings, there is here
seemingly no effort to present different aspects of God’s being. It is clear
that man, as God made him, was distinctly different from the animals already
created. He stood on a much higher plateau, for God created him to be immortal,
and made him a special image of His own eternity. Man was a creature with whom
his Maker could visit and have fellowship and communion. On the other hand, the
Lord could expect man to answer him and be responsible to him. Man was
constituted to have the privilege of choice, even to the point of disobeying
his Creator. He was to be God’s responsible representative and steward on the
earth, to work out his Creator’s will and fulfill the divine purpose. World
dominion was to be granted to this new creature (cf. Ps 8:5-7). He was
commissioned to subdue (kabash), "tread upon") the earth, and to
follow God’s plan in filling it with people. This sublime creature, with his
unbelievable privileges and heavy responsibilities, was to live and move in
kingly fashion.
(from The
Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1962 by Moody
Press)
Genesis 1:26-28
The creation
We have here the
second part of the sixth day’s work, the creation of man, which we are, in a
special manner, concerned to take notice of, that we may know ourselves.
Observe,
I. That man was
made last of all the creatures, that it might not be suspected that he had
been, any way, a helper to God in the creation of the world: that question must
be for ever humbling and mortifying to him, Where wast thou, or any of thy
kind, when I laid the foundations of the earth? Job 38:4. Yet it was both an
honour and a favour to him that he was made last: an honour, for the method of
the creation was to advance from that which was less perfect to that which was
more so; and a favour, for it was not fit he should be lodged in the palace
designed for him till it was completely fitted up and furnished for his
reception. Man, as soon as he was made, had the whole visible creation before
him, both to contemplate and to take the comfort of. Man was made the same day
that the beasts were, because his body was made of the same earth with theirs;
and, while he is in the body, he inhabits the same earth with them. God forbid
that by indulging the body and the desires of it we should make ourselves like
the beasts that perish!
II. That man’s
creation was a more signal and immediate act of divine wisdom and power than
that of the other creatures. The narrative of it is introduced with something
of solemnity, and a manifest distinction from the rest. Hitherto, it had been
said, "Let there be light," and "Let there be a firmament,"
and "Let the earth, or waters, bring forth" such a thing; but now the
word of command is turned into a word of consultation, "Let us make man,
for whose sake the rest of the creatures were made: this is a work we must take
into our own hands." In the former he speaks as one having authority, in
this as one having affection; for his delights were with the sons of men, Prov
8:31. It should seem as if this were the work which he longed to be at; as if
he had said, "Having at last settled the preliminaries, let us now apply ourselves
to the business, Let us make man."
Man was to be a creature different from all that had been hitherto made. Flesh
and spirit, heaven and earth, must be put together in him, and he must be
allied to both worlds. And therefore God himself not only undertakes to make
him, but is pleased so to express himself as if he called a council to consider
of the making of him: Let us make man. The three persons of the Trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, consult about it and concur in it, because man,
when he was made, was to be dedicated and devoted to Father, Son and Holy
Ghost. Into that great name we are, with good reason, baptized, for to that
great name we owe our being. Let him rule man who said, Let us make man.
III. That man was made in God’s image and
after his likeness, two words to express the same thing and making each
other the more expressive; image and likeness denote the likest image, the
nearest resemblance of any of the visible creatures. Man was not made in the
likeness of any creature that went before him, but in the likeness of his
Creator; yet still between God and man there is an infinite distance. Christ
only is the express image of God’s person, as the Son of his Father, having the
same nature. It is only some of God’s honour that is put upon man, who is God’s
image only as the shadow in the glass, or the king’s impress upon the coin.
God’s image upon man consists in these three things:-
1. In his nature and constitution, not
those of his body (for God has not a body), but those of his soul. This
honour indeed God has put upon the body of man, that the Word was made flesh,
the Son of God was clothed with a body like ours and will shortly clothe ours
with a glory like that of his. And this we may safely say, That he by whom God
made the worlds, not only the great world, but man the little world, formed the
human body, at the first, according to the platform he designed for himself in
the fulness of time. But it is the soul, the great soul, of man, that does
especially bear God’s image. The soul is a spirit, an intelligent immortal
spirit, an influencing active spirit, herein resembling God, the Father of
Spirits, and the soul of the world. The spirit of man is the candle of the
Lord. The soul of man, considered in its three noble faculties, understanding,
will, and active power, is perhaps the brightest clearest looking-glass in
nature, wherein to see God.
2. In his place and authority: Let us
make man in our image, and let him have dominion. As he has the government of
the inferior creatures, he is, as it were, God’s representative, or viceroy,
upon earth; they are not capable of fearing and serving God, therefore God has
appointed them to fear and serve man. Yet his government of himself by the
freedom of his will has in it more of God’s image than his government of the
creatures.
3. In his purity and rectitude. God’s
image upon man consists in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, Eph
4:24; Col 3:10. He was upright, Eccl 7:29. He had an habitual conformity of all
his natural powers to the whole will of God. His understanding saw divine
things clearly and truly, and there were no errors nor mistakes in his
knowledge. His will complied readily and universally with the will of God,
without reluctancy or resistance. His affections were all regular, and he had
no inordinate appetites or passions. His thoughts were easily brought and fixed
to the best subjects, and there was no vanity nor ungovernableness in them. All
the inferior powers were subject to the dictates and directions of the superior,
without any mutiny or rebellion. Thus holy, thus happy, were our first parents,
in having the image of God upon them. And this honour, put upon man at first,
is a good reason why we should not speak ill one of another (James 3:9), nor do
ill one to another (Gen 9:6), and a good reason why we should not debase
ourselves to the service of sin, and why we should devote ourselves to God’s
service. But how art thou fallen, O son of the morning! How is this image of
God upon man defaced! How small are the remains of it, and how great the ruins
of it! The Lord renew it upon our souls by his sanctifying grace!
IV. That man was
made male and female, and blessed with the blessing of fruitfulness and
increase. God said, Let us make man, and immediately it follows, So God created
man; he performed what he resolved. With us saying and doing are two things;
but they are not so with God. He created him male and female, Adam and Eve-Adam
first, out of earth, and Eve out of his side, ch. 2. It should seem that of the
rest of the creatures God made many couples, but of man did not he make one?
(Mal 2:15), though he had the residue of the Spirit, whence Christ gathers an
argument against divorce, Matt 19:4-5. Our first father, Adam, was confined to
one wife; and, if he had put her away, there was no other for him to marry,
which plainly intimated that the bond of marriage was not to be dissolved at
pleasure. Angels were not made male and female, for they were not to propagate
their kind (Luke 20:34-36); but man was made so, that the nature might be
propagated and the race continued. Fires and candles, the luminaries of this
lower world, because they waste, and go out, have a power to light more; but it
is not so with the lights of heaven: stars do not kindle stars. God made but
one male and one female, that all the nations of men might know themselves to
be made of one blood, descendants from one common stock, and might thereby be
induced to love one another. God, having made them capable of transmitting the
nature they had received, said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and
replenish the earth. Here he gave them,
1. A large
inheritance: Replenish the earth; it is this that is bestowed upon the children
of men. They were made to dwell upon the face of all the earth, Acts 17:26.
This is the place in which God has set man to be the servant of his providence
in the government of the inferior creatures, and, as it were, the intelligence
of this orb; to be the receiver of God’s bounty, which other creatures live
upon, but do not know it; to be likewise the collector of his praises in this
lower world, and to pay them into the exchequer above (Ps 145:10); and, lastly,
to be a probationer for a better state.
2. A numerous
lasting family, to enjoy this inheritance, pronouncing a blessing upon them, in
virtue of which their posterity should extend to the utmost corners of the
earth and continue to the utmost period of time. Fruitfulness and increase
depend upon the blessing of God: Obed-edom had eight sons, for God blessed him,
1 Chron 26:5. It is owing to this blessing, which God commanded at first, that
the race of mankind is still in being, and that as one generation passeth away
another cometh.
V. That God gave
to man, when he had made him, a dominion over the inferior creatures, over the
fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air. Though man provides for neither,
he has power over both, much more over every living thing that moveth upon the
earth, which are more under his care and within his reach. God designed hereby
to put an honour upon man, that he might find himself the more strongly obliged
to bring honour to his Maker. This dominion is very much diminished and lost by
the fall; yet God’s providence continues so much of it to the children of men
as is necessary to the safety and support of their lives, and God’s grace has
given to the saints a new and better title to the creature than that which was
forfeited by sin; for all is ours if we are Christ’s, 1 Cor 3:22.
(from Matthew
Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database.
Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
Gen 1:24-31
The image of God consists, therefore,
in the spiritual personality of man, though not merely in unity of
self-consciousness and self-determination, or in the fact that man was created
a consciously free Ego; for personality is merely the basis and form of the
divine likeness, not its real essence. This consists rather in the fact, that
the man endowed with free self-conscious personality possesses, in his spiritual
as well as corporeal nature, a creaturely copy of the holiness and blessedness
of the divine life. This concrete essence of the divine likeness was shattered
by sin; and it is only through Christ, the brightness of the glory of God and
the expression of His essence (Heb 1:3), that our nature is transformed into
the image of God again (
Col
3:10; Eph 4:24).
A likeness to the angels cannot be
inferred from Heb 2:7, or from Luke 20:36. Just as little ground is there for
regarding the plural here and in other passages (Gen 3:22; 11:7; Isa 6:8;
41:22) as reflective, an appeal to self; since the singular is employed in such
cases as these, even where God Himself is preparing for any particular work
(cf. Gen 2:18; Ps 12:5; Isa 33:10). No other explanation is left, therefore,
than to regard it as pluralis majestatis,-an interpretation which comprehends
in its deepest and most intensive form (God speaking of Himself and with
Himself in the plural number, not reverentiae causa, but with reference to the
fullness of the divine powers and essences which He possesses) the truth that
lies at the foundation of the trinitarian view, viz., that the potencies
concentrated in the absolute Divine Being are something more than powers and
attributes of God; that they are hypostases, which in the further course of the
revelation of God in His kingdom appeared with more and more distinctness as
persons of the Divine Being. On the words "in our image, after our
likeness" modern commentators have correctly observed, that there is no foundation
for the distinction drawn by the Greek, and after them by many of the Latin
Fathers, between eikoo’n (NT:1504) (imago) and homoi’oosis (NT:3669)
(similitudo), the former of which they supposed to represent the physical
aspect of the likeness to God, the latter the ethical; but that, on the
contrary, the older Lutheran theologians were correct in stating that the two
words are synonymous, and are merely combined to add intensity to the thought:
"an image which is like Us" (Luther); since it is no more possible to
discover a sharp or well-defined distinction in the ordinary use of the words
between tselem (OT:6754) and d¦muwt (OT:1823), than between b¦ and k¦. tselem
(OT:6754), from tseel (OT:6738), lit., a shadow, hence sketch, outline, differs
no more from d¦muwt (OT:1823), likeness, portrait, copy, than the German words
Umriss or Abriss (outline or sketch) from Bild or Abbild (likeness, copy). b¦
and k¦ are also equally interchangeable, as we may see from a comparison of
this verse with Gen 5:1 and 3. (Compare also Lev 6:4 with Lev 27:12, and for
the use of b¦ to denote a norm, or sample, Ex 25:40; 30:32,37, etc.) There is
more difficulty in deciding in what the likeness to God consisted. Certainly
not in the bodily form, the upright position, or commanding aspect of the man,
since God has no bodily form, and the man’s body was formed from the dust of
the ground; nor in the dominion of man over nature, for this is unquestionably
ascribed to man simply as the consequence or effluence of his likeness to God.
Man is the image of God by virtue of his spiritual nature. of the breath of God
by which the being, formed from the dust of the earth, became a living soul.
(Note: "The breath of God became the soul of man; the soul of man
therefore is nothing but the breath of God. The rest of the world exists
through the word of God; man through His own peculiar breath. This breath is
the seal and pledge of our relation to God, of our godlike dignity; whereas the
breath breathed into the animals is nothing but the common breath, the
life-wind of nature, which is moving everywhere, and only appears in the animal
fixed and bound into a certain independence and individuality, so that the
animal soul is nothing but a nature-soul individualized into certain, though still
material spirituality."-Ziegler.)
"And they
(’aadaam (OT:120), a generic term for men) shall have dominion over the
fish," etc. There is something striking in the introduction of the
expression "and over all the earth," after the different races of
animals have been mentioned, especially as the list of races appears to be
proceeded with afterwards. If this appearance were actually the fact, it would
be impossible to escape the conclusion that the text is faulty, and that chayat
(OT:2416) has fallen out; so that the reading should be, "and over all the
wild beasts of the earth," as the Syriac has it. But as the identity of
"every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" (h’rts (OT:776))
with "every thing that creepeth upon the ground" (h’dmh) in v. 25 is
not absolutely certain; on the contrary, the change in expression indicates a
difference of meaning; and as the Masoretic text is supported by the oldest
critical authorities (LXX, Sam., Onk.), the Syriac rendering must be dismissed
as nothing more than a conjecture, and the Masoretic text be understood in the
following manner.
(from Keil &
Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic
Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
