Abstract
The image of God in the New Testament represents a mix of traditions from the Hebrew Bible, early Judaism, and Hellenistic popular philosophy. Throughout these traditions the theme is integrally connected to the search for meaning in human existence. The Priestly Writer, Philo, and Paul understood the image of God as a means of both affirming God's sovereign authority over all creation and addressing the challenges of competing authorities in the world. Study of the theme provides a window into early Christian experience and how such experience emboldened Christians to follow Jesus in the proclamation of the Kingdom of God.
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