Genesis 1:27
What does Genesis 1:27 mean?
God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
The short answer
Genesis 1:27 is the Bible's first statement about what a human being is. After days of creating light, sky, sea, land, and living creatures, God makes something different: a creature made "in his own image." The verse repeats the point twice, the way Hebrew poetry underlines what matters most, and then adds the crucial detail — "male and female he created them."
A small piece of Hebrew makes a big difference here. The word translated "man" is adam, and as John Goldingay points out, it means "human being," not a male person. It doesn't become the personal name Adam until later, in Genesis 3. So Genesis 1:27 isn't saying God created a man in his image and a woman as an afterthought. It's saying God created humanity in his image, and that humanity comes in two forms, male and female — both fully human, both fully image-bearers.
That's why Frances Taylor Gench calls this verse arguably the most weighty theological statement on gender in the whole Bible. The verse doesn't rank the sexes or assign the image of God to one and reflection of it to the other. It places male and female side by side in the same sentence, sharing the same status before the same Creator. Gench notes that later readings — including Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 11 — can blur this by staying silent about women bearing God's image, and she argues that being clear about what Genesis 1 actually says is essential before evaluating those later texts.
What does the "image of God" mean? The chapter itself gives clues: humans are made to know God, to represent him in the world, and to care for creation. But before Genesis says anything about what humans do, it says what they are — creatures who, together as male and female, reflect their Maker.
What scholars say
Goldingay answers a translation question — why adam should be rendered "human being" rather than "man," since Genesis 1:27 itself spells that humanity out as male and female. Gench then presses what's at stake theologically, arguing that this verse is arguably the Bible's weightiest statement on gender, and that Paul's silence in 1 Corinthians 11 about women bearing God's image obscures it.
“Throughout Genesis 1–2 I have translated the word adam as “human being” rather than “man,” because that is what the word means; in Genesis 1:27 it is spelled out as “male and female.” The word will be used without “the” as the name “Adam” for the first time in Genesis 3. In Genesis 2, the first human being of course is a man and not a woman, but in a sense we do not know this yet, and neither does he. We and he are about to discover it. He becomes male as opposed to female only when there is another person who stands over against him (that more literal meaning of “suitable for him”), who is different from him in gender.”
“Does not this claim misrepresent the first creation story, which states pointedly that male and female together reflect God’s image and likeness? “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). Jouette Bassler describes Paul’s argument as “a misreading of Genesis 1:27”—an observation with which I agree. Don’t you agree too? As Bassler observes, he does not deny that women are created in God’s image, “but Paul also does not affirm it, and this silence is significant.” 65 Indeed, it obscures, and even distorts, the first and arguably most theological statement on record in the biblical canon on matters of gender. Clarity about what Genesis 1 is affirming is crucial to any evaluation of Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 11.”
What it means for you
This verse settles something before you've done anything to earn it: your worth isn't achieved, it's given. You bear God's image simply by being human — and so does every person you meet, whatever their sex, status, or story.
That has practical teeth. It means no one gets to treat a woman as a lesser reflection of God, or a man as more divine by default. It means contempt for another person is contempt for someone stamped with God's likeness. If you've ever wondered whether you matter, Genesis 1:27 is the Bible's opening answer: you were made on purpose, in the image of the One who made everything.
Genesis 1 in context
Genesis 1 unfolds as an ordered week of creation. God speaks, and light, sky, seas, land, plants, sun and moon, fish, birds, and animals come into being, each declared good. Genesis 1:27 comes at the climax of the sixth day, when God deliberates ("Let us make man in our image") before creating humanity. Immediately after, God blesses the man and woman together, entrusting both with fruitfulness and care of the earth, and pronounces the finished creation "very good." Humanity is creation's crown, not its afterthought.