Genesis 1:26-2:1
26 Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
2.1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Sermon Quotes & References:
Never has so much been packed into one phrase. For those coming out of Egypt, the first to hear of this image-bearing, the news was electric. They had only ever heard that Pharaoh imaged a god and he alone had access to the gods; the rest of the people were Pharaoh’s servants or slaves. But then an entire slave nation was told they shared a unique connection to the God who is over all gods. Ed Welch, Shame Interrupted
The Bible does not begin with the creation of a special race of people. When the first human is introduced into the story he is simply called ‘adam’, which means ‘humankind’. Adam and Eve are not Hebrews or Egyptians or Canaanites. Their ‘race’ is not identifiable; they are neither Negroid nor Caucasian, nor even Semitic. They become the mother & father of all peoples. The division of humankind into peoples and races is not even mentioned until Genesis 10. Adam and Eve are non-ethnic and non-national. They represent all people, not some people. All people of all races are thus created in the image of God. Therefore, the quality that distinguishes humankind from the animals and from the rest of creation is shared by all the races of the earth. Daniel Hays, From Every People & Nation: A Biblical Theology Of Race