pilgrimage, we are sojourners with Him. This present world is a vast tabernacle, its great

purpose is the outworking of God's great redemptive purpose, and when this purpose is

achieved, the tabernacle or tent with its sojourning, pilgrimage and limitations, its types,

shadows and ceremonial, will give place to fullness and stability when God shall be all in

The supreme moment in the six days of Gen. 1: is when God ceased to say "Let there

be", "Let the earth bring forth", "Let the waters bring forth" and when the record

suggests a pause and a deliberation.

With these words uttered at his creation, Adam and his descendants appear to be

unique in the universe, for there is not the remotest hint that any creature, anywhere, at

any time, angel, principality or power, was ever thus distinguished. The word "image"

translates the Hebrew word tselem, and this word is translated in every occurrence but

one "image", the exception being Psa. 39: 6 "in a vain show", which Rotherham

more correctly translates "Surely as a shadow doth every man wander" and if the reader

remembers the reference made to the "sojourner" in the preceding article of this series, he

will remember that that reference is taken from Psa. 39: also. The whole Psalm is

written around the transient character of man's earthly life. Tselem "image" is used of

the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream, an image which set forth in symbol the

beginning, end and character of Gentile dominion. It may be that there is nothing

significant in the fact that the Hebrew word is translated sixteen times "image" and once

"vain show", and that the Chaldee word is also translated sixteen times "image" and once

"form", the exceptional translation being in Dan. 3: 19 "the form of his visage was

changed". The root of the word is tsel, meaning "shadow" and is so translated forty-five

times in the O.T. The second term used in Gen. 1: 26 "likeness" is the translation of the

Hebrew demuth. This word is found in Ezek. 1: 8 and 10 where it is used in the

description of the cherubim.

For the moment we turn from this subject to consider another, but one that is vitally

related, and will prove to be illuminating. That subject is the meaning of the name

Adam. The reader of the A.V. may have been led to believe that this word does not occur

until we meet in it Gen. 2: 19, but such is not the case. The Hebrew word adam occurs

in Gen. 1: 26, 27; 2: 5, 7, 8, 15, 16 and 18, where it is translated "man". What is the

meaning of the first name given in the Bible? There can be no question but that the

names in Scripture often have a significance and particularly so in the early chapters.

"Cain" means "gain" and enters into the verb "I have gotten" (Gen. 4: 1). The five other

occurrences in Genesis are translated either "purchase" or "bought".