Here’s what nobody tells you when you show up to Sunday service, grab your bulletin, and settle in for forty-five minutes of inspiration: the most important thing God ever said about you is sitting in a Hebrew word most Christians have never heard, and it’s been low-key rewiring everything since page one.
Genesis 1:26. You know it. You’ve heard it. “Let Us make man in Our image.”
Except the word translated “image” is not the word you think it is. And it will absolutely change how you see things.
Lock in!
The Word Tzelem
The Hebrew word is tzelem (tselem, צֶלֶם, pronounced TSEH-lem). It shows up seventeen times in the Hebrew Bible. It gets translated as “image” throughout the creation narrative. But here’s what your English translation isn’t showing you: many scholars note a connection between tzelem and the Hebrew word tzel (צֵל), which means shadow.
Not image as in portrait. Shadow as in the thing cast by something real.
A shadow is not the original. It FOLLOWS the original. It moves when the original moves. It reflects the shape of the thing casting it, even if imperfectly. And you cannot have a shadow without a source of light and a body standing between that light and the ground.
That connection to tzel gives tzelem a fascinating layer of meaning. That is you.
What the Text Actually Says
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness! Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the flying creatures of the sky, over the livestock, over the whole earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the land.’” (Genesis 1:26, TLV)
“God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27, TLV)
Notice that the text repeats itself three times in one verse. Three times. God created humankind in His image. In the image of God. He created him.
That repetition is not just a happy little accident. In Hebrew literature, repetition signals weight. The writer wants you to feel the gravity of this. Humanity stands at the center of the earthly creation account.
But let’s get back to the word itself, because tzelem has a whole complicated life outside of Genesis 1.
The Word’s Double Life
Here is where it gets genuinely interesting. The same word tzelem that describes your creation in God’s image is the same word used elsewhere in Scripture for idols.
Numbers 33:52 uses tzelem for the carved images Israel was commanded to destroy. Ezekiel 23:14 uses it for painted images of men. Second Kings 11:18 uses it when the people tear down the images of Baal in the temple.
So the word for “the image of God stamped on every human being” is the same word used for a carved idol.
Pause there for a second without rushing past it. You ready?
Ok, now I’m gonna preach!
An idol is a physical representation of something divine. It is made to show people what the divine looks like, to put a face on the invisible, to stand in a place and say: this is what that is.
In the ancient Near East, kings would place their tzelem, their image, throughout their territory as a sign of their rule and their presence. The image said: the king was here. The king claims this. The king is represented in this place.
And then God does something audacious. He fills the earth not with carved stone or painted murals but with tzelem-bearing human beings. YOU are the living tzelem of the living God. You are not a statue in His temple. You are a walking, breathing representation of His presence in the earth.
That was the original job description. And nobody told us.
The New Testament Thread
The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures used widely in the first century, translates tzelem with the Greek word eikon (εἰκών, pronounced ay-KOHN). You’ve seen this word. Paul picks it up in Colossians and does something stunning with it:
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (Colossians 1:15, TLV)
The word translated “image” there is eikon. The same Greek word the Septuagint used for tzelem.
Paul is threading the needle deliberately. Yeshua is the perfect tzelem. The complete, uncorrupted, fully realized image of the invisible God. What we bear as a shadow, imperfectly, Yeshua embodies completely.
And here’s the part that should make you catch your breath: when you are in Messiah, when His Spirit lives in you, the image you were created to bear starts being restored in you. The tzelem you were always meant to be is being recovered through the One who is the perfect eikon of the Father.
Romans 8:29 calls it being conformed to the image of the Son. Conformed to the eikon. To the tzelem. You were made to reflect God in the earth, that reflection got distorted, and now the whole story of redemption is about God restoring in you the thing He stamped on you at creation.
I’m about to throw my shoe! (If you know, you know!)
Verse Mapping Aid
Tzelem (צֶלֶם, TSEH-lem) is closely related to the Hebrew word tzel (צֵל), meaning shadow. The noun refers to a replica, image, or representative figure, and can describe either an idol (a physical image representing a deity) or the image of God stamped on human beings. It appears seventeen times in the Hebrew Bible, concentrated heavily in the creation account (Genesis 1:26, 27; 9:6) and in passages about idolatry. In Genesis 5:3, Adam passes his own tzelem to his son Seth, the same language used of God in Genesis 1, which suggests the image is genuinely transmittable through lineage.
The Greek equivalent in the Septuagint is eikon (εἰκών, ay-KOHN), the root of our English word “icon.” Paul uses eikon in Colossians 1:15 to describe Yeshua as the perfect image of the invisible God, and in Romans 8:29 and 2 Corinthians 3:18 to describe the believer’s ongoing transformation into that same image. The trajectory of the word across Scripture moves from creation (you are made as God’s representative in the earth) through distortion (the image is marred but not erased) to restoration (the image is being recovered through Yeshua, the true eikon).
Key passages: Genesis 1:26–27, Genesis 5:3, Genesis 9:6, Psalm 39:6, Colossians 1:15, Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18.
My Final Thoughts
I think a lot of people are walking around with a completely deflated theology of themselves, and I don’t mean that in a self-help way. I mean it in a Genesis way.
We know the Fall. We know the brokenness. What we sometimes forget is that Genesis 1 came before Genesis 3, and the tzelem God stamped on humanity didn’t disappear when everything went sideways. It got marred. It got buried under a lot of noise. But it didn’t get erased.
Genesis 9:6 is after the flood, after the catastrophic rupture of Genesis 3, and God is still talking about human beings as tzelem-bearers. The image remained. Which means the ground for your dignity, your calling, your purpose in the earth is not your performance. It’s not your spiritual track record. It’s not how consistently you’ve shown up. It goes all the way back to the moment God decided the earth needed a shadow-caster who looked like Him.
You were made to be a representation of God’s presence in your specific place, in your specific life. That’s no metaphor. That’s a Hebrew word with roots and history and weight. And Yeshua didn’t come to give you something brand new. He came to recover what was always yours.
Bible Study Questions
In the ancient Near Eastern context, kings would place images of themselves throughout their territory to declare ownership and presence. How does understanding this practice change the way you read Genesis 1:26–27?
The word tzelem is used for both the image of God in humanity AND for idols in the Hebrew Bible. What do you think that overlap is meant to communicate about the role human beings were created to play in the world?
Genesis 9:6 uses tzelem language after the Fall to argue for the sanctity of human life. What does the persistence of the image after Genesis 3 tell us about how God views human beings even in their brokenness?
Reflection Questions
If you were made to be a living representation of God’s presence in a specific place, what would it look like for you to take that more seriously in your daily life?
Paul says in Romans 8:29 that believers are being conformed to the image (eikon/tzelem) of the Son. What does that transformation actually feel like from the inside? Where do you see it happening in your own life?
How has a deflated or distorted view of yourself affected the way you’ve lived out your faith? Where might the theology of tzelem push back on that?
Action Challenges
This week, identify one relationship or space in your life where you’re not showing up as a tzelem-bearer. What would it look like to represent God’s presence there, practically and specifically?
Read Genesis 1:26–27, Genesis 9:6, Colossians 1:15, and 2 Corinthians 3:18 together as a unit. Write a one-paragraph summary of what the arc of this word tells you about God’s intentions for humanity from creation to redemption.
Find one person this week who seems to be struggling with their sense of worth or dignity. Without using any theological jargon, say or do something that reflects tzelem theology back to them. Report back in the comments.
If this study stirred something in you, share it with a friend who needs a bigger theology of themselves, not a pep talk but an actual biblical foundation for their worth.
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About the Author
Diane Ferreira is a Jewish believer in Yeshua, a published author, speaker, seminary student, wife, and proud mom. She is the founder of She’s So Scripture and She Opens Her Bible. She is the author of several books, including The Proverbs 31-ish Woman, which debuted as Amazon’s #1 New Release in Religious Humor, as well as Holy, Hormonal and Holding On.
She is currently pursuing her graduate degree in Jewish Studies in seminary, with her favorite topics being the early church and Biblical Hebrew. Diane writes and teaches from a unique perspective, bridging her Jewish heritage with vibrant faith in the Messiah to bring clarity, depth, and devotion to everyday believers.
When she’s not writing, studying, or teaching, you’ll find her curled up with a good book, crocheting something cozy, traveling, or playing her favorite video games.
Tree of Life (TLV) – Scripture taken from the Holy Scriptures, Tree of Life Version*. Copyright © 2014,2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society. Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.
I’m a “shadow-caster”! 🥰
So good!!