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Commentary
REPRODUCTION? REPLICATION? REPLENISHMENT?
If you read the first chapter of Genesis with fresh eyes,* you may notice an insistent, almost annoying repetition of the phrase “according to its kind.” Then you get to the creation of man, and the phrase in English translations is usually “in our image.” Was the author’s intent to draw our attention to a SIMILARITY or to a DIFFERENCE in God’s creation of man vis-a-vis the creation of all other things? [Look at the Hebrew and ask yourself—or better yet, ask a Hebrew scholar—if the words are radically different]
If you look at some commentaries on the passage, you’re likely to find that they consider the mention of plants’ SEED as an indication of God’s provision for replenishment. Are they correct?
So what’s in view here? Reproduction? Replication? Replenishment? All the above? And how does this affect our behavior in the world today?
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*for example, eyes unclouded by a debate over creation and evolution
