1. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image (Hebrew: ṣelem), according to our likeness (Hebrew: dᵊmûṯ). They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth." So God created man in his own image (Hebrew: ṣelem); he created him in the image (Hebrew: ṣelem) of God; he created them male and female. (Gen 1:26-27, CSB)

When you make something "in your image (Hebrew: ṣelem) according to your likeness (Hebrew: dᵊmûṯ)," what does that mean? The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, and a reference, like BlueletterBible.org, can help you understand the meaning of Hebrew words.

a) Take your phone out and search "Blueletterbible.org." Type into the search box "Gen 1." Scroll down until you find "Genesis 1:26." Find the word "image" within that verse. Click "tools" and scroll down past "INTERLINEAR" until you come to a table with "English" and "Strong’s." This is called a lexicon.

A lexicon is a language dictionary. In our case, this dictionary shows you what Hebrew word was translated into the English for "image." Notice that Hebrew looks very different from English.

b) Scroll down the verse until you find "image." Next to it you see the Hebrew word ṣelem and if you click the Strong’s Number "H6754," the lexicon / dictionary will show you lots of things like how the Hebrew word is spelled in English and how its pronounced (click "LISTEN").

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible was made by a group supervised by Dr. James Strong. Taking 35 years to complete, it was published in 1890! It is an index for every Hebrew and Greek word used in the Bible to help a person find a specific verse that the word is used in.

c) If you scroll down a little and click "Show Strong’s Info," you’ll see the definition of the Hebrew word.

What does ṣelem (image) mean? What does dᵊmûṯ (likeness) mean?

2. This is the document containing the family records of Adam. On the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God; he created them male and female. When they were created, he blessed them and called them mankind. Adam was 130 years old when he fathered a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. (Gen 5:1-3, CSB)

Just as God created Adam and made him in the image of God, the sons of human beings were created in the image of their respective fathers. There is a parallel between the image of God and the image of Man. Was Seth the firstborn son of Adam and Eve?