Image IM'AGE, n. [L. imago.] 1. A representation or similitude of
any person or thing, formed of a material substance; as an image wrought
out of stone, wood or wax. Whose is this image and superscription? Mat
22. 2. A statue. 3. An idol; the representation of any person
or thing, that is an object of worship. The second commandment forbids
the worship of images. 4. The likeness of any thing on canvas;
a picture; a resemblance painted. 5. Any copy, representation or
likeness. The child is the image of its mother. 6. Semblance;
show; appearance. The face of things a frightful image bears.
7. An idea; a representation of any thing to the mind; a conception;
a picture drawn by fancy. Can we conceive Image of aught
delightful, soft or great? 8. In rhetoric, a lively description
of any thing in discourse, which presents a kind of picture to the
mind. 9. In optics, the figure of any object, made by rays of light
proceeding from the several points of it. Thus a mirror reflects the
image of a person standing before it, as does water in a vessel or
stream, when undisturbed. IM'AGE, v.t. To imagine; to copy
by the imagination; to form a likeness in the mind by the fancy or
recollection. And image charms he must behold no more.
image
n 1: an iconic mental representation; "her imagination forced
images upon her too awful to contemplate" [syn: image,
mental image]
2: (Jungian psychology) a personal facade that one presents to
the world; "a public image is as fragile as Humpty Dumpty"
[syn: persona, image]
3: a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or
abstraction) produced on a surface; "they showed us the
pictures of their wedding"; "a movie is a series of images
projected so rapidly that the eye integrates them" [syn:
picture, image, icon, ikon]
4: a standard or typical example; "he is the prototype of good
breeding"; "he provided America with an image of the good
father" [syn: prototype, paradigm, epitome, image]
5: language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense [syn:
trope, figure of speech, figure, image]
6: someone who closely resembles a famous person (especially an
actor); "he could be Gingrich's double"; "she's the very
image of her mother" [syn: double, image, look-alike]
7: (mathematics) the set of values of the dependent variable for
which a function is defined; "the image of f(x) = x^2 is the
set of all non-negative real numbers if the domain of the
function is the set of all real numbers" [syn: image,
range, range of a function]
8: the general impression that something (a person or
organization or product) presents to the public; "although
her popular image was contrived it served to inspire music
and pageantry"; "the company tried to project an altruistic
image"
9: a representation of a person (especially in the form of
sculpture); "the coin bears an effigy of Lincoln"; "the
emperor's tomb had his image carved in stone" [syn: effigy,
image, simulacrum]
v 1: render visible, as by means of MRI
2: imagine; conceive of; see in one's mind; "I can't see him on
horseback!"; "I can see what will happen"; "I can see a risk
in this strategy" [syn: visualize, visualise, envision,
project, fancy, see, figure, picture, image]
image I. nounEtymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, short for imagene,
from Latin imagin-, imago; perhaps akin to Latin imitari to
imitate Date: 13th century 1. a reproduction or imitation
of the form of a person or thing; especially an imitation in solid
form ;statue2.a. the optical counterpart of an object produced by an optical
device (as a lens or mirror) or an electronic device b. a visual
representation of something: as
(1) a likeness of an object produced on a photographic material
(2) a picture produced on an electronic display (as a television
or computer screen)
3.a. exact likeness ;semblance <God created man
in his own image — Genesis 1:27 (Revised Standard Version)>
b. a person strikingly like another person <she is the
image of her mother>
4.a. a tangible or visible representation ;incarnation <the image of filial devotion> b.archaic an illusory form ;apparition5.a.(1) a mental picture or impression of something <had a
negative body image of herself> (2) a mental conception
held in common by members of a group and symbolic of a basic attitude
and orientation <a disorderly courtroom can seriously tarnish a
community's image of justice — Herbert Brownell>
b.idea, concept6. a vivid or graphic representation
or description 7.figure of speech8. a popular conception
(as of a person, institution, or nation) projected especially through the mass
media <promoting a corporate image of brotherly love and concern
— R. C. Buck> 9. a set of values given by a mathematical function
(as a homomorphism) that corresponds to a particular subset of the domain
II. transitive verb (imaged; imaging)
Date: 14th century 1. to call up a mental picture of ;imagine2. to describe or portray in language especially in a
vivid manner 3.a. to create a representation of; also to form an image
of <imaged Jupiter's rings> <image the bone using
X rays> b. to represent symbolically
4.a.reflect, mirrorb. to make appear ;project
• imagernoun
image n. & v. --n. 1 a representation of the external form of an object, e.g. a statue (esp. of a saint etc. as an object of veneration). 2 the character or reputation of a person or thing
as generally perceived. 3 an optical appearance or counterpart produced by light or other radiation from an object reflected in a mirror, refracted through a lens, etc. 4 semblance, likeness (God
created man in His own image). 5 a person or thing that closely resembles another (is the image of his father). 6 a typical example. 7 a simile or metaphor. 8 a a mental representation. b
an idea or conception. 9 Math. a set formed by mapping from another set. --v.tr. 1 make an image of; portray. 2 reflect, mirror. 3 describe or imagine vividly. 4
typify. Derivatives: imageable adj. imageless adj. Etymology: ME f. OF f. L imago -ginis, rel. to IMITATE
image
(images)Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1. If you have an image of something or someone, you have a picture or idea of them in
your mind.
The image of art theft as a gentleman's crime is outdated...N-COUNT: usu with supp
2. The image of a person, group, or organization is the way that they appear to other
people.
The tobacco industry has been trying to improve its image.N-COUNT: oft with poss
3. An image is a picture of someone or something. (FORMAL)
...photographic images of young children...N-COUNT
4. An image is a poetic description of something. (FORMAL)
The natural images in the poem are meant to be suggestive of realities beyond themselves.N-COUNT
5. If you are the image of someone else, you look very much like them.
Marianne's son was the image of his father.PHRASE: V inflects
6.
spitting image: seespitsee alsomirror image
image
ˈɪmɪdʒ n. & v. --n. 1 a representation of the external form of
an object, e.g. a statue (esp. of a saint etc. as an object of veneration). 2
the character or reputation of a person or thing as generally perceived. 3 an
optical appearance or counterpart produced by light or other radiation from
an object reflected in a mirror, refracted through a lens, etc. 4 semblance,
likeness (God created man in His own image). 5 a person or thing that closely
resembles another (is the image of his father). 6 a typical example. 7 a simile
or metaphor. 8 a a mental representation. b an idea or conception. 9 Math. a
set formed by mapping from another set. --v.tr. 1 make an image of; portray. 2
reflect, mirror. 3 describe or imagine vividly. 4 typify. øøimageable
adj. imageless adj. [ME f. OF f. L imago -ginis, rel. to IMITATE]
Image \Im"age\, n. [F., fr. L. imago, imaginis, from the root of
imitari to imitate. See Imitate, and cf. Imagine.]
1. An imitation, representation, or similitude of any person,
thing, or act, sculptured, drawn, painted, or otherwise
made perceptible to the sight; a visible presentation; a
copy; a likeness; an effigy; a picture; a semblance.
Even like a stony image, cold and numb. --Shak.
Whose is this image and superscription? --Matt.
xxii. 20.
This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna.
--Shak.
And God created man in his own image. --Gen. i. 27.
2. Hence: The likeness of anything to which worship is paid;
an idol. --Chaucer.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, . .
. thou shalt not bow down thyself to them. --Ex. xx.
4, 5.
3. Show; appearance; cast.
The face of things a frightful image bears.
--Dryden.
4. A representation of anything to the mind; a picture drawn
by the fancy; a conception; an idea.
Can we conceive Image of aught delightful, soft, or
great? --Prior.
5. (Rhet.) A picture, example, or illustration, often taken
from sensible objects, and used to illustrate a subject;
usually, an extended metaphor. --Brande & C.
6. (Opt.) The figure or picture of any object formed at the
focus of a lens or mirror, by rays of light from the
several points of the object symmetrically refracted or
reflected to corresponding points in such focus; this may
be received on a screen, a photographic plate, or the
retina of the eye, and viewed directly by the eye, or with
an eyeglass, as in the telescope and microscope; the
likeness of an object formed by reflection; as, to see
one's image in a mirror.
Electrical image. See under Electrical.
Image breaker, one who destroys images; an iconoclast.
Image graver, Image maker, a sculptor.
Image worship, the worship of images as symbols; iconolatry
distinguished from idolatry; the worship of images
themselves.
Image Purkinje (Physics), the image of the retinal blood
vessels projected in, not merely on, that membrane.
Virtual image (Optics), a point or system of points, on one
side of a mirror or lens, which, if it existed, would emit
the system of rays which actually exists on the other side
of the mirror or lens. --Clerk Maxwell.
Image \Im"age\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Imaged; p. pr. & vb. n.
Imaging.]
1. To represent or form an image of; as, the still lake
imaged the shore; the mirror imaged her figure. ``Shrines
of imaged saints.'' --J. Warton.
2. To represent to the mental vision; to form a likeness of
by the fancy or recollection; to imagine.
Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore, And
image charms he must behold no more. --Pope.
IMAGE
im'-aj (tselem; eikon): Its usage falls under 3 main heads.
(1) "Image" as object of idolatrous worship (translations about a dozen words,
including maccekhah, "molten image" (De 9:12, etc.); matstsebhah,
in the King James Version translated "image" or "pillar," in the Revised
Version (British and American) always "pillar" (Ex 23:24, etc.); pecel,
"graven image" (Ex 20:4, etc.); tselem, "image" (2Ki 11:18,
etc.); eikon, "image" (e.g. Re 14:9));
(2) of man as made in the image of God; (3) of Christ as the image of God. Here
we are concerned with the last two usages. For "image" in connection with
idolatrous practices, see IDOLATRY; IMAGES; PILLAR; TERAPHIM, etc.
I. Man as Made in the Divine Image.
1. In the Old Testament:
To define man's fundamental relation to God, the priestly writer in Ge uses two
words: "image" (tselem) and "likeness" (demuth); once employing both together
(Ge 1:26; compare Ge 5:3), but elsewhere one without the other,
"image" only in Ge 1:27; 9:6, and "likeness" only in 5:1. The priestly
writer alone in the Old Testament uses this expression to describe the nature
of man, though the general meaning of the passage Ge 1:26 f is echoed
in Ps 8:5-8, and the term itself reappears in Apocrypha (Sirach 17:3;
The Wisdom of Solomon 2:23) and in the New Testament (see below).
The idea is important in relation to the Biblical doctrine of man, and has
figured prominently in theological discussion. The following are some of
the questions that arise:
(1) Is there any distinction to be understood between "image" and
"likeness"? Most of the Fathers, and some later theologians, attempt to
distinguish between them.
(a) Some have referred "image" to man's bodily form, and "likeness" to his
spiritual nature (Justin Martyr, Irenaeus).
(b) Others, especially the Alexandrian Fathers, understood by the "image"
the mental and moral endowments native to man, and by the "likeness" the
Divine perfections which man can only gradually acquire by free development
and moral conflict (Clement of Alexandria and Origen), or which is conferred
on man as a gift of grace.
(c) This became the basis of the later Roman Catholic distinction between
the natural gifts of rationality and freedom (= the image), and the
supernatural endowments of grace which God bestowed on man after He had
created him (the likeness = donum superadditum). The former remained after
the Fall, though in an enfeebled state; the latter was lost through sin,
but restored by Christ. The early Protestants rejected this distinction,
maintaining that supernatural righteousness was part of the true nature and
idea of man, i.e. was included in the "image," and not merely externally
superadded. Whatever truth these distinctions may or may not contain
theologically, they cannot be exegetically inferred from Ge 1:26,
where (as is now generally admitted) no real difference is intended.
We have here simply a "duplication of synonyms" (Driver) for the sake of
emphasis. The two terms are elsewhere used interchangeably.
(2) What, then, is to be understood by the Divine image? Various answers
have been given.
(a) Some of the Fathers (influenced by Philo) supposed that the "image" here
= the Logos (called "the image of the invisible God" in Col 1:15), on
the pattern of whom man was created. But to read the Logos doctrine into the
creation narrative is to ignore the historic order of doctrinal development.
(b) That it connotes physical resemblance to God (see (1), (a) above; so in
the main Skinner, ICC, in the place cited.). It may be admitted that there
is a secondary reference to the Divine dignity of the human body; but this
does not touch the essence of the matter, inasmuch as God is not represented
as having physical form.
(c) That it consists of dominion over the creatures (Socinian view; so
also Gregory of Nyssa, Chrysostom, etc.). This would involve an unwarranted
narrowing of the idea. It is true that such "dominion" is closely associated
with the image in Ge 1:26 (compare Ps 8:6-8). But the "image
of God" must denote primarily man's relation to his Creator, rather than
his relation to the creation. Man's lordship over Nature is not identical
with the image, but is an effect of it.
(d) It is best to take the term as referring to the whole dignity of man,
in virtue of his fundamental affinity to God. It implies the possession by
man of a free, self-conscious, rational and moral personality, like unto that
of God--a nature capable of distinguishing right and wrong, of choosing the
right and rejecting the wrong, and of ascending to the heights of spiritual
attainment and communion with God. This involves a separation of man from
the beast, and his supremacy as the culmination of the creative process.
(3) Does the term imply man's original perfection, lost through sin? The
old Protestant divines maintained that the first man, before the Fall,
possessed original righteousness, not only in germ but in developed form, and
that this Divine image was destroyed by the Fall. Exegetically considered,
this is certainly not taught by the priestly writer, who makes no mention
of the Fall, assumes that the image was transmitted from father to son
(compare Ge 5:1 with 5:3), and naively speaks of post-diluvian
men as created in the image of God (Ge 9:6; compare 1Co 11:7;
Jas 3:9). Theologically considered, the idea of the perfect holiness of
primitive man is based on an abstract conception of God's work in creation,
which precludes the idea of development, ignores the progressive method of
the Divine government and the essential place of effort and growth in human
character. It is more in harmony with modern conceptions
(a) to regard man as originally endowed with the power of right choice,
rather than with a complete character given from the first; and
(b) to think of the Divine image (though seriously defaced) as continuing
even in the sinful state, as man's inalienable capacity for goodness and his
true destination. If the Divine image in man is a self-conscious, rational
and ethical personality, it cannot be a merely accidental or transitory
attribute, but is an essential constituent of his being.
2. In the New Testament:
Two features may be distinguished in the New Testament doctrine of the Divine
image in man:
(1) man's first creation in Adam,
(2) his second or new creation in Christ.
As to (1), the doctrine of the Old Testament is assumed in the New
Testament. Paul makes a special application of it to the question of the
relation of husband and wife, which is a relation of subordination on the
part of the wife, based on the fact that man alone was created immediately
after the Divine image (1Co 11:7). Thus Paul, for the special purpose
of his argument, confines the meaning of the image to man's lordly authority,
though to infer that he regards this as exhausting its significance would be
quite unwarranted. Man's affinity to God is implied, though the term "image"
is not used, in Paul's sermon to the Athenians (Ac 17:28 f, man the
"offspring" of God). See also Jas 3:9 (it is wrong to curse men,
for they are "made after the likeness of God").
(2) More characteristic of the New Testament is the doctrine of the new
creation.
(a) The redeemed man is said to be in the image of God (the Father). He is
"renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Col
3:10), i.e. of God the Creator, not here of Christ or the Logos (as some)
(compare Eph 4:24, "after God"). Though there is here an evident
reference to Ge 1:26 f, this does not imply that the new creation in
Christ is identical with the original creation, but only that the two are
analogous. To Paul, the spiritual man in Christ is on a higher level than
the natural ("psychical") man as found in Adam (compare especially 1Co
15:44-49), in whom the Divine image consisted (as we have seen) in
potential goodness, rather than in full perfection. Redemption is infinitely
more than the restoration of man's primitive state.
(b) The Christian is further said to be gradually transformed into the image
of the Son of God. This progressive metamorphosis involves not only moral and
spiritual likeness to Christ, but also ultimately the Christian's future glory,
including the glorified body, the "passing through a gradual assimilation of
mind and character to an ultimate assimilation of His doxa, the absorption
of the splendor of His presence" (Sanday and Headlam, Romans, 218; see Ro
8:29; 1Co 15:49; 2Co 3:18; and compare Php 3:21; 1 Joh 3:2).
II. Christ the Image of God.
In 3 important passages in English Versions of the Bible, the term "image"
defines the relation of Christ to God the Father; twice in Paul: "the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2Co 4:4);
"who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation"
(Col 1:15); and once in He: "who being the effulgence of his glory,
and the very image of his substance" (Col 1:3). These statements,
taken in their contexts, register the highest reach of the Christology of
the Epistles.
1. The Terms:
In the two Pauline passages, the word used is eikon, which was generally the
Septuagint rendering of tselem (Vulgate: imago); it is derived from eiko,
eoika, "to be like," "resemble," and means that which resembles an object
and represents it, as a copy represents the original. In Heb 1:3
the word used is charakter, which is found here only in the New Testament,
and is translated in Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) figura,
the King James Version "express image," the Revised Version (British and
American) "very image," the Revised Version, margin "impress." It is derived
from charasso, "to engrave," and has passed through the following meanings:
(1) an engraving instrument (active sense);
(2) the engraved stamp or mark on the instrument (passive sense);
(3) the impress made by the instrument on wax or other object;
(4) hence, generally, the exact image or expression of any person or thing
as corresponding to the original, the distinguishing feature, or traits
by which a person or thing is known (hence, English words "character,"
"characteristic"). The word conveys practically the same meaning as eikon;
but Westcott distinguishes them by saying that the latter "gives a complete
representation, under conditions of earth, of that which it figures," while
charakter "conveys representative traits only" (Westcott on Heb 1:3).
2. Meaning as Applied to Christ:
The idea here expressed is closely akin to that of the Logos doctrine in Joh
(1:1-18). Like the Logos, the Image in Paul and in He is the Son of God,
and is the agent of creation as well as the medium of revelation. "What a
word (logos) is to the ear, namely a revelation of what is within, an image
is to the eye; and thus in the expression there is only a translation, as it
were, of the same fact from one sense to another" (Dorner, System of Ch. D.,
English translation, III, 178). As Image, Christ is the visible representation
and manifestation of the invisible God, the objective expression of the
Divine nature, the face of God turned as it were toward the world, the exact
likeness of the Father in all things except being the Father. Thus we receive
"the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ"
(2Co 4:6). He is the facsimile of God.
3. To What State Does It Refer?:
Is Christ described as the Image of God in His preincarnate, His incarnate,
or else His exalted state? It is best to say that different passages refer
to different states, but that if we take the whole trend of New Testament
teaching, Christ is seen to be essentially, and in every state, the Image
of God.
(a) In Heb 1:3 the reference seems to be to the eternal, preincarnate
Son, who is inherently and essentially the expression of the Divine
substance. So Paul declares that He subsisted originally in the form of God
(en morphe theou huparchon, Php 2:6).
(b) In Joh 1:18; 12:45; 14:9, though the term image is not used,
we have the idea of the historical Jesus as a perfect revelation of the
character and glory of God.
(c) In the two Pauline passages (2Co 4:4; Col 1:15), the reference is
probably to the glorified, exalted Christ; not to His pre-existent Divine
nature, nor to His temporal manifestation, but to His "whole Person, in
the divine-human state of His present heavenly existence" (Meyer). These
passages in their cumulative impressions convey the idea that the Image is
an inalienable property of His personality, not to be limited to any stage
of His existence.
4. Theological Implications:
Does this involve identity of essence of Father and Son, as in the Homoousion
formula of the Nicene Creed? Not necessarily, for man also bears the image of
God, even in his sinful state (see I above), a fact which the Arians sought
to turn to their advantage. Yet in the light of the context, we must affirm
of Christ an absolutely unique kinship with God. In the Col passage, not only
are vast cosmic and redemptive functions assigned to Him, but there is said
to dwell in Him "all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (1:19; 2:9). In He
not only is the Son the final revelation of God to men, the upholder of the
universe, and the very image of the Divine nature, but also the effulgence
(apaugasma) of God's glory, and therefore of one nature with Him as the ray
is of one essence with the sun (1:1-3). The superiority of the Son is thus
not merely one of function but of nature. On the other hand, the figure of
the "image" certainly guards against any Sabellian identification of Father
and Son, as if they were but modes of the one Person; for we cannot identify
the pattern with its copy, nor speak of anyone as an image of himself. And,
finally, we must not overlook the affinity of the Logos with man; both are the
image of God, though the former in a unique sense. The Logos is at once the
prototype of humanity within the Godhead, and the immanent Divine principle
within humanity.
5. Relation to Pre-Christian Thought:
Both in Paul and in He we have an echo of the Jewish doctrine of Wisdom,
and of Philo's doctrine of the Logos. In the Alexandrine Book of Wisdom,
written probably under Stoic influence, Divine Wisdom is pictorially
represented as "an effulgence (apaugasma) from everlasting light, and an
unspotted mirror of the working of God, and an image (eikon) of His goodness"
(7 26). Philo repeatedly calls the Logos or Divine world-principle the
image (eikon, charakter) of God, and also describes it as an effulgence of
God. But this use of current Alexandrian terminology and the superficial
resemblance of ideas are no proof of conscious borrowing on the part of the
apostles. There is this fundamental distinction, that Philo's Logos is not
a self-conscious personality, still less a historical individual, but an
allegorical hypostatizing of an abstract idea; whereas in Paul and He, as
in John, the Divine archetype is actually realized in a historical person,
Jesus Christ, the Son and Revealer of God.
D. Miall Edwards
image
I. n.1. Statue.
2. Idol, object of worship.
3. Likeness, effigy, figure, similitude, resemblance, picture, representation of an
object (real or fancied).
4. Trope, figurative expression.
II. v. a.1. Form an image of.
2. Fancy, picture. See imagine.
image
ˈɪmɪdʒ n.
1 likeness, representation, picture, sculpture, statue, effigy, figure, portrait,
simulacrum; icon or ikon, idol, graven image, fetish, tiki: Images of BolÂvar can be seen in
every town square in Venezuela. The tribesmen still worshipped golden images of their gods.
2 epitome, duplicate, copy, counterpart, facsimile, replica, double, twin, Doppelgänger,
clone, Colloq spitting image or spit and image, (dead) ringer: He's the image of father. He
stared at his image in the mirror.
3 impression, concept, conception, perception, idea, perception, notion, mental picture:
You are quite different from my image of you.
4 epitome, representative, model, (typical) example, essence, archetype, embodiment,
incarnation, personification, materialization, reification, corporealization: For us, she was
the very image of what a leader should be.
5 figure (of speech), trope, metaphor, allusion, simile, symbol: The poem contains images
that are obscure unless you know Greek myths.
6 form, appearance, likeness, guise, semblance, aspect, mould, cast: Man claims to be
created in God's image.
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