Man And The Image

Ἀλλ' ἐπαναλάβωμεν πάλιν τὴν θείαν φωνὴν, Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν ἡμετέραν. Ὡς μικρά τε καὶ ἀνάξια τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου μεγαλοφυΐας τῶν ἔξωθέν τινες ἐφαντάσθησαν, τῇ πρὸς τὸν κόσμον τοῦτον συγκρίσει μεγαλύνοντες, ὡς ᾤοντο, τὸ ἀνθρώπινον. Φασὶ γὰρ μικρὸν εἶναι κόσμον τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν τῷ παντὶ στοιχείων συνεστηκότα. Οἱ γὰρ τῷ κόμπῳ τοῦ ὀνόματος τοιοῦτον ἔπαινον τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ χαριζόμενοι φύσει, λελήθασιν ἑαυτοὺς τοῖς περὶ τὸν κώνωπα καὶ τὸν μῦν ἰδιώμασι σεμνοποιοῦντες τὸν ἄνθρωπον. Καὶ γὰρ κἀκείνοις ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων τούτων ἡ κρᾶσίς ἐστι, διότι πάντως ἑκάστου τῶν ὄντων ἢ πλείων ἢ ἐλάττων τις μοῖρα περὶ τὸ ἔμψυχον θεωρεῖται, ὧν ἄνευ συστῆναί τι τῶν αἰσθήσεως μετεχόντων, φύσιν οὐκ ἔχει. Τί οὖν μέγα, κόσμου χαρακτῆρα καὶ ὁμοίωμα νομισθῆναι τὸν ἄνθρωπον; οὐρανοῦ τοῦ περιερχομένου, γῆς τῆς ἀλλοιουμένης, πάντων τῶν ἐν τούτοις περικρατουμένων τῇ παρόδῳ τοῦ περιέχοντος συμπαρερχομένων; Ἀλλ' ἐν τίνι κατὰ τὸν ἐκκλησιαστικὸν λόγον τὸ ἀνθρώπινον μέγεθος; Οὐκ ἐν τῇ πρὸς τὸν κτιστὸν κόσμον ὁμοιότητι, ἀλλ' ἐν τῷ κατ' εἰκόνα γενέσθαι τῆς τοῦ κτίσαντος φύσεως. Τίς οὖν ὁ τῆς εἰκόνος λόγος; ἴσως ἐρεῖς·πῶς ὡμοίωται τῷ σώματι τὸ ἀσώματον; πῶς τῷ ἀϊδίῳ τὸ πρόσκαιρον; τῷ ἀναλλοιώτῳ τὸ διὰ τροπῆς ἀλλοιούμενον; τῷ ἀπαθεῖ τε καὶ ἀφθάρτῳ τὸ ἐμπαθὲς καὶ φθειρόμενον; τῷ ἀμιγεῖ πάσης κακίας τὸ πάντοτε συνοικοῦν ταύτῃ καὶ συντρεφόμενον; Πολὺ γὰρ τὸ μέσον ἐστὶ, τοῦ τε κατὰ τὸ ἀρχέτυπον νοουμένου, καὶ τοῦ κατ' εἰκόνα γεγενημένου. Ἡ γὰρ εἰκὼν, εἰ μὲν ἔχει τὴν πρὸς τὸ πρωτότυπον ὁμοιότητα, κυρίως τοῦτο κατ ονομάζεται. Εἰ δὲ παρενεχθείη τοῦ προκειμένου ἡ μίμησις, ἄλλο τι, καὶ οὐκ εἰκὼν ἐκείνου τὸ τοιοῦτόν ἐστι. Ἅγιος Γρηγόριος Νύσσης, Περὶ Κατασκευής Ἀνθρωπου, Κεφάλιον ΙϚ' Source: Migne PG 44.177d-180b

But let us attend again to the Divine voice: 'Let us make man in our image and in our likeness ' 1 How paltry and unworthy of the majesty of man are the fancies of some apart from us, who think they magnify mankind by comparing it to this world. For they say that man is a little world composed of the same elements of the universe. Those who by a boastful name bestow on human nature such praise, forget that they are honouring man with the attributes of the gnat and the mouse. For even they are composed of these four elements, since certainly the part, greater or less, which is seen of a living thing, is composed of those elements without which it has not the nature by which any sensitive creature could exist. What, then, is great in thinking man to be a representation and likeness of the world, of the heaven that passes away, of the earth that changes, of everything they contain, which pass away with the departure of that which encompasses them? But in what is the greatness of man according to the teaching of the Church? Not in his likeness to the created world, but in his being the image of the nature of the Creator. What then, is the definition of the image, do you say? How is the incorporeal likened to the corporeal? How is the temporal like the eternal? How is that which is mutable because of change like that which is immutable? How is that which is subject to passion and corruption like the impassible and incorruptible? How is that which is constantly amid evil like that which is absolutely free from evil? There is a great gulf between that which is conceived in the archetype and that which has been made in its image. For the image is properly called if it keeps its likeness to the prototype, but if the imitation is perverted from its subject it is something else, it is no longer an image of that subject. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, On The Making of Man, Chap 16 1 Gene 1.26