Genesis 1:26

Genesis 1:26, in plain English

God announces His intention to make humanity in His own image and likeness, to have dominion over all the creatures and the earth itself. This is humanity's purpose from the start—to rule and steward.

Why it's here

Before humanity even exists, you hear God's design and intention for them. You're not yet told what 'image' and 'likeness' mean precisely, but the context makes clear: humans are meant to reflect God's character and exercise rule over creation. This elevated humanity's dignity enormously in the ancient world—humans aren't slaves to the gods; they're made to represent God's authority on earth.

Who's speaking

God is speaking, and the plural 'Us' and 'Our' opens questions about God's nature that will echo through all of Scripture.

Where it sits in the story

This is the hinge moment. Everything created so far points to this: humanity's arrival and unique calling. The rest of Scripture unfolds the implications of what it means to be made in God's image and what happens when humans fail to exercise their rule faithfully.

The scholarly reading

God announces the intention to create humanity in divine image and likeness, with explicit authority over all other creatures.

Language and setting

The plural 'Let Us make' (na'aseh, נַעֲשֶׂה) has generated centuries of interpretive discussion. Jewish interpreters (Rashi, Maimonides) understood this as divine self-deliberation or address to the heavenly court; Christian interpreters from the Patristic period onward (Origen, Augustine, and later the Reformed tradition through Calvin) read this as prefiguring Trinitarian theology, though with caution about eisegesis. The terms tselem (צֶלֶם, image) and demuth (דְּמוּת, likeness) possess distinct force in Hebrew—tselem carries connotations of representation or manifestation, while demuth suggests pattern or correspondence. The dominion language (radah, רָדָה) establishes stewardship as constitutive to human identity.

Voice

God, in deliberative address, announcing the climactic creative act.

Significance

This verse stands as the hinge of the entire creation narrative—everything prior leads to humanity; everything following in Genesis concerns humanity's relationship to creation and to God. The image-bearing formula will recur in 9:6 as the basis for capital punishment law, and echoes throughout Scripture as the theological foundation for human dignity.

24And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, land crawlers, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.

25God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that crawls upon the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”

27So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

28God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”

Read all of Genesis 1 — The story of everything starts here. Before there was anything — light, land, life — there was a voice speaking into the dark.