Basil of Caesarea : It is not They made. Here Scripture avoids the plurality of the Persons. After having enlightened the Jew, it dissipates the error of the Gentiles in putting itself under the shelter of unity, to make you understand that the Son is with the Father, and guarding you from the danger of polytheism. He created him in the image of God. God still shows us His co-operator, because He does not say, in His image, but in the image of God. If God permits, we will say later in what way man was created in the image of God, and how he shares this resemblance. Today we say but only one word. If there is one image, from whence comes the intolerable blasphemy of pretending that the Son is unlike the Father? What ingratitude! You have yourself received this likeness and you refuse it to your Benefactor! You pretend to keep personally that which is in you a gift of grace, and you do not wish that the Son should keep His natural likeness to Him who begot Him. But evening, which long ago sent the sun to the west, imposes silence upon me. Here, then, let me be content with what I have said, and put my discourse to bed. I have told you enough up to this point to excite your zeal; with the help of the Holy Spirit I will make for you a deeper investigation into the truths which follow. Retire, then, I beg you, with joy, O Christ-loving congregation, and, instead of sumptuous dishes of various delicacies, adorn and sanctify your tables with the remembrance of my words. May the Anomœan be confounded, the Jew covered with shame, the faithful exultant in the dogmas of truth, and the Lord glorified, the Lord to Whom be glory and power, world without end. Amen. — The Hexaemeron, Homily 9: The Creation of Terrestrial Animals Bede : And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him. What was said before, in His image, He doubled for the sake of confirmation, by adding, in the image of God He created him, so that He might more diligently impress upon us what kind of beings we were made by God, and more closely fix in our minds the hope of receiving the image of God, lest, walking in the image of God, we be vainly troubled, hoarding uncertain riches, but instead look for the Lord with longing, when we shall come and appear before His face, certain that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. But now it is said, in the image of God He created him, when it was said earlier, let us make in our image, it signifies not that this plurality of persons makes us believe in multiple gods, but that we accept one God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, on account of which it was said, in our image, and on account of which it is said, in the image of God. — Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron) Bede : Male and female He created them. It will be explained more fully in the following, from where and how God made the first humans. But now, for the sake of brevity, it is only mentioned that they were created, so that the work of the sixth day and the dedication of the seventh day along with the rest may be explained, and thus freely from time both this and other omitted matters that were worthy of mention may be said. However, God first created one male and one female alone, not like the other animals, which He created not single but multiple in each kind, so that by this He might bind the human race more closely together with the bond of charity, because it would remember that it was all born of one parent; for the sake of which union the sacred Scripture, when it said: "And God created man, in the image of God He created him," immediately added: "Male and female He created them," it did not wish to add: "in the image of God He created them," for the female too was created in the image of God, according to that which she also possessed a rational mind; but Scripture did not think it necessary to add this about her, considering that in the unity of conjunction it left it to be understood in her as well, and indeed it signified that it should be understood in the entire human race that originates from them. For every man even now, to the extent that he uses reason, has in himself the image of God; whence John says: "He was the true light which illuminates every man coming into this world" (John 1:9). For it is the light about which the Psalmist glories in the Lord, saying: "The light of Your countenance has been signed upon us, O Lord" (Psalms 4:7). And indeed rightly in this place it is mentioned that male and female were created, although the manner of the same creation is not yet referred to, so that the discourse of divine blessing may have a fitting place, about which it follows: — Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron) Ephrem the Syrian : Then Moses said, "male and female He created them," (Gen1:27) to make known that Eve was inside Adam, in the rib that was drawn out from him. Although she was not in his mind she was in his flesh, she was in his flesh with him, and she was also in soul and spirit with him, for God added nothing to that rib that He took out except the structure and the adornment. If everything that was suitable for Eve, who came to be from the rib, was complete from the rib alone, it is well said that "male and female He created them." Ephrem the Syrian : Then Moses said, "Male and female he created them," to make known that Eve was already inside Adam, in the rib that was drawn out from him. Although she was not in his mind she was in his body, and she was not only in his body with him but also in soul and spirit with him, for God added nothing to that rib that he took out except the structure and the adornment. If everything that was suitable for Eve, who came to be from the rib, was complete in and from that rib, it is rightly said that "male and female he created them." — COMMENTARY ON Genesis 1.29.2 Gregory of Nyssa : We must, then, examine the words carefully: for we find, if we do so, that that which was made "in the image" is one thing, and that which is now manifested in wretchedness is another. "God created man," it says; "in the image of God created He him." There is an end of the creation of that which was made "in the image": then it makes a resumption of the account of creation, and says, "male and female created He them." I presume that every one knows that this is a departure from the Prototype: for "in Christ Jesus," as the apostle says, "there is neither male nor female." Yet the phrase declares that man is thus divided. Thus the creation of our nature is in a sense twofold: one made like to God, one divided according to this distinction: for something like this the passage darkly conveys by its arrangement, where it first says, "God created man, in the image of God created He him," and then, adding to what has been said, "male and female created He them,"—a thing which is alien from our conceptions of God. — ON THE MAKING OF MAN 16 Gregory of Nyssa : I think that by these words Holy Scripture conveys to us a great and lofty doctrine; and the doctrine is this. While two natures—the Divine and incorporeal nature, and the irrational life of brutes—are separated from each other as extremes, human nature is the mean between them: for in the compound nature of man we may behold a part of each of the natures I have mentioned,—of the Divine, the rational and intelligent element, which does not admit the distinction of male and female; of the irrational, our bodily form and structure, divided into male and female: for each of these elements is certainly to be found in all that partakes of human life. That the intellectual element, however, precedes the other, we learn as from one who gives in order an account of the making of man; and we learn also that his community and kindred with the irrational is for man a provision for reproduction. For he says first that "God created man in the image of God" (showing by these words, as the Apostle says, that in such a being there is no male or female): then he adds the peculiar attributes of human nature, "male and female created He them."… For this reason, I say, He formed for our nature that contrivance for increase which befits those who had fallen into sin, implanting in mankind, instead of the angelic majesty of nature, that animal and irrational mode by which they now succeed one another. — ON THE MAKING OF MAN 16.7-9; 17.4 John Chrysostom : Consider when this happened. After their disobedience, after their loss of the garden, then it was that the practice of intercourse had its beginning. You see, before their disobedience they followed a life like that of the angels, and there was no mention of intercourse. How could there be when they were not subject to the needs of the body? So at the outset and from the beginning the practice of virginity was in force, but when through their indifference disobedience came on the scene and the ways of sin were opened, virginity took its leave for the reason that they had proved unworthy of such a degree of good things, and in its place the practice of intercourse took over for the future. — HOMILIES ON Genesis 18.12 Origen of Alexandria : This indeed I see as even more eminent in the condition of man, which I do not find said elsewhere: "And God made man, according to the image of God he made him." Which we find ascribed neither to heaven nor to earth nor to the sun or moon. This man, surely, whom he says was made "according to the image of God," we do not understand to be corporeal. For the fashioning of the body does not contain the image of God, nor is the corporeal man said to have been made, but formed, as is written in what follows. For it says: "And God formed man," that is, molded him "from the mud of the earth." But he who was made "according to the image of God" is our interior man, invisible and incorporeal and incorrupt and immortal. For in such things as these the image of God is more rightly understood. But if anyone thinks that he who was made "according to the image and likeness of God" is corporeal, he seems to introduce God himself as corporeal and of human form; which to think concerning God is most manifestly impious. Indeed these carnal men, who are ignorant of the understanding of divinity, if anywhere in the Scriptures they read concerning God that "heaven is my seat, but the earth is the footstool of my feet," suspect that God is of so huge a body that they think he, sitting in heaven, stretches out his feet all the way to the earth. But they think this because they do not have those ears which can worthily hear the words of God concerning God which are reported through Scripture. For that which says: "Heaven is my seat," is thus worthily understood concerning God, so that we may know that in those whose "citizenship is in heaven" God rests and resides. But in those who still bear an earthly purpose, the last part of his providence is found, which is figuratively indicated in the appellation of feet. If any of these perhaps take up zeal and desire to be made heavenly by the perfection of life and the height of understanding, they too are made seats of God, having first become heavenly through their warfare and manner of life; who also say: "He raised us up with Christ, and made us sit together in the heavenly places." But those too whose "treasure is in heaven" can be called heavenly and seats of God, since "there is their heart, where their treasure is." And God not only rests upon them, but also dwells in them. But if anyone can become so great that he can say: "Or do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?", in this one God not only dwells, but also walks about. And therefore all the perfect, having become heavenly or made heavens, "declare the glory of God," as it says in the Psalm. Indeed for this reason the Apostles too, who were heavens, are sent to declare the glory of God, and receive the name "Boanerges," "which is sons of thunder," so that through the power of thunder we may believe that they are truly heavens. "God made," then, "man, according to the image of God he made him." It behooves us to see what this image of God is, and to inquire to the likeness of whose image man was made. For he did not say: God made man according to his own image or likeness: but: "according to the image of God he made him." What, then, is that other image of God, to the likeness of whose image man was made, except our Savior? who is "the firstborn of all creation"; concerning whom it is written that he is "the splendor of eternal light, and the express figure of the substance of God"; who also himself says concerning himself: "I in the Father, and the Father in me," and "He who has seen me has seen the Father also." For just as he who has seen someone's image sees him whose image it is, so also through "the Word of God," which is the image of God, one sees God. And thus it will be true, which he said: "He who has seen me has seen the Father also." To the likeness of this image, then, man was made, and therefore our Savior, who is the image of God, moved with mercy for man, who had been made to his likeness, seeing him, his own image having been laid aside, to have put on the image of the evil one, himself moved with mercy, having assumed the image of man, came to him, as the Apostle also testifies, saying: "Though he was in the form of God, he did not consider it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and being found in habit as a man, he humbled himself even unto death." Whoever, therefore, come to him and strive to be made partakers of the rational image, through their progress "are renewed daily according to the interior man" to the image of him who made them; so that they can be made "conformed to the body of his brightness," but each one according to his powers. The Apostles reshaped themselves to his likeness so much that he himself said of them: "I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and to your God." For he had already asked the Father for his disciples, that the former likeness might be restored to them, when he says: "Father, grant that, as I and you are one, so these too may be one in us." Let us therefore always gaze upon this image of God, so that we may be able to be reshaped to his likeness. For if man, made according to the image of God, contrary to nature, gazing upon the image of the devil, was made like him through sin, much more, gazing upon the image of God, to whose likeness he was made by God, he will receive through the Word and through his power that form which had been given him by nature. And let no one, seeing his likeness to be more with the devil than with God, despair that he can again recover the form of the image of God, because the Savior did not come "to call the just, but sinners to repentance." Matthew was a tax collector, and surely his image was like the devil, but coming to the image of God, our Lord and Savior, and following it, he was transformed to the likeness of the image of God. "James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother," "were fishermen" and "men without letters," who surely then bore a likeness rather to the image of the devil, but these too, following the image of God, were made like him, as also the other Apostles. Paul was a persecutor of that very image of God; but as soon as he was able to behold its beauty and comeliness, having seen it he was so far reshaped to its likeness that he said: "Or do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?" — HOMILIES ON Genesis 1.13 Origen of Alexandria : "Male and female he made them, and God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and have dominion over it." It seems worthy in this place to inquire according to the letter how, the woman not yet having been made, Scripture says: "Male and female he made them." Perhaps, as I think, on account of the blessing with which he blessed them, saying: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth," anticipating what was going to be, he says: "Male and female he made them," since indeed man could not otherwise increase and multiply except with the woman. Therefore, so that his blessing might without doubt be believed to be about to be, he says: "Male and female he made them." For in this way man, seeing that the consequence of increasing and multiplying was from the fact that a woman was joined to him, could bear a more certain hope in the divine blessing. For if Scripture had said: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and have dominion over it," without adding this, that "male and female he made them," surely he would have proved incredulous of the divine blessing, just as Mary too, at that blessing with which she was blessed by the angel, said: "How shall I know this? since I do not know a man." Or perhaps because all things that were made by God are said to be joined and fitted together, as heaven and earth, as sun and moon: so, then, that it might be shown that man too is the work of God and was not brought forth without harmony or fitting conjunction, therefore anticipating he says: "Male and female he made them." These things indeed have been said to that question which can be raised according to the letter. — HOMILIES ON Genesis 1.14 Origen of Alexandria : But let us also see through allegory how man, made according to the image of God, is male and female. Our interior man consists of spirit and soul. The spirit is called male, the soul can be named female. If these have concord and agreement between themselves, being in harmony with each other, they increase and multiply and beget sons, good senses and useful understandings or thoughts, through which they fill the earth and have dominion over it; that is, they convert the sense of the flesh, subjected to them, to better instituted ways and rule over it, namely when the flesh in no way grows insolent against the will of the spirit. But now if the soul, joined to the spirit and coupled, so to speak, in its marriage, sometimes turns aside to bodily pleasures and inclines its sense to the delight of the flesh, and sometimes indeed seems to obey the salutary admonitions of the spirit, but sometimes yields to carnal vices, such a soul, as though stained by the adultery of the body, is said neither to increase nor to multiply lawfully, since indeed Scripture designates the sons of adulterers as imperfect. For such a soul, which, having deserted the conjunction of the spirit, prostrates itself wholly to the sense of the flesh and to bodily desires, as though turned away from God will impudently hear that "you have made yourself the face of a harlot, you have become without shame toward all." Therefore as a harlot she will be punished, and her sons are commanded to be prepared for slaughter. — HOMILIES ON Genesis 1.15 Tertullian : For with whom did He make man? and to whom did He make him like? (The answer must be), the Son on the one hand, who was one day to put on human nature; and the Spirit on the other, who was to sanctify man. With these did He then speak, in the Unity of the Trinity, as with His ministers and witnesses. In the following text also He distinguishes among the Persons: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him." Genesis 1:27 Why say "image of God?" Why not "His own image" merely, if He was only one who was the Maker, and if there was not also One in whose image He made man? But there was One in whose image God was making man, that is to say, Christ's image, who, being one day about to become Man (more surely and more truly so), had already caused the man to be called His image, who was then going to be formed of clay—the image and similitude of the true and perfect Man. — Against Praxeas