Lexicon

G1504 - eikon

Strong's: G1504 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: i-kone' Part of speech: feminine noun Hebrew equivalents (LXX): H6754 - tselem (צֶלֶם, "image", in Genesis 1:26-27); also H1823 - demuth (דְּמוּת, "likeness"). NT occurrences: ~23

Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG)

Image, likeness, statue, physical representation; profile; engraved figure on a coin (Matthew 22:20).
Representation, manifestation, that which makes visible the otherwise-invisible original. The image is not merely similar to its source but derives from and makes-present the source.
Type, pattern (rare), symbolic foreshadowing.

The English word "icon" derives directly from this lexeme, retaining the sense of representational image.

Theological force, two domains

The word's theological work happens in two distinct (and connected) domains:

1. Christological, Christ as the image of the invisible God. Christ is the eikōn theou, the visible manifestation of the otherwise-invisible Father. The claim is bilateral:

The Son is derivative from the Father (eternally generated; truly of the Father).
The Son makes visible what otherwise cannot be seen (John 1:18 "no one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him").

This is a representation that participates in its source, not a mere copy. Christ doesn't resemble God the way a portrait resembles its subject; He is the divine being in visible form. Hebrews 1:3's charaktēr tēs hypostaseōs (the exact representation of His nature) is the sister concept.

2. Anthropological, humans as the image of God (Genesis 1.27). Humans are kat' eikona theou, according to the image of God. The Pauline/NT development:

Humans bear the imago Dei (1 Corinthians 11:7; James 3:9).
The imago is marred by the Fall but not destroyed.
The imago is restored in believers progressively, through union with Christ, the perfect imago (Romans 8:29 "to be conformed to the image of His Son"; 2 Corinthians 3:18 "transformed into the same image"; Colossians 3:10 "renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him").

Christology and anthropology converge: humans are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27); Christ is the image of God (Colossians 1.15); restoration of fallen humans is conformity to Christ (Romans 8:29). Christ is both the original imago (eternal) and the restored imago (incarnate model).

Notable verses

Christ as imago Dei

Colossians 1.15, "He is the eikōn of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation"
2 Corinthians 4:4, "the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the eikōn of God"
Hebrews 1:3, "He is the radiance of His glory and the charaktēr (exact representation) of His hypostasis" (related concept, different lexeme)
John 14:9, "he who has seen Me has seen the Father"
John 1:18, "no one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God… has explained Him"

Humans as imago Dei

Genesis 1:26-27 (LXX kat' eikona), "Let Us make man in Our eikōn"
Genesis 9:6, murder forbidden because of imago Dei
1 Corinthians 11:7, "man… is the eikōn and glory of God"
James 3:9, "with [the tongue] we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God"

Restoration / sanctification, conformity to Christ's image

Romans 8:29, "predestined to become conformed to the eikōn of His Son"
2 Corinthians 3:18, "we all… are being transformed into the same eikōn from glory to glory"
Colossians 3:10, "renewed to a true knowledge according to the eikōn of the One who created him"
1 Corinthians 15:49, "as we have borne the eikōn of the earthly, we will also bear the eikōn of the heavenly"

Idolatry, false images

Romans 1:23, "exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an eikōn in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals"
Revelation 13:14-15; 14:9, 11; 15:2; 16:2; 19:20; 20:4, the eikōn of the beast (the antichrist's idolatrous image)

Coins / political authority

Matthew 22:20, "whose eikōn and inscription is this?" (Caesar's denarius)
Mark 12:16; Luke 20:24, parallels

Patristic / scholarly note

The patristic doctrine of the imago Dei is one of the most developed Christian anthropological themes. Irenaeus (Against Heresies IV.16.2; V.16.2, c. AD 180) distinguishes "image" (the original endowment, marred by Fall but not lost) from "likeness" (the dynamic conformity to God, lost at Fall, restored in Christ). Athanasius (On the Incarnation 11-13, c. AD 318) takes Christ's incarnation as the restoration of the marred imago. Augustine (De Trinitate 12-14) locates the imago specifically in the rational soul's threefold structure (memory, intellect, will), corresponding analogously to the Trinity.

The Eastern Orthodox iconographic tradition takes its name and theological warrant from this lexeme: icons are not idols (which is what was condemned at Hieria, AD 754) but images of the imaged-One, Christ, who Himself is the imago of the Father. The Iconoclast Controversy (8th-9th c.) and its resolution at Nicaea II (AD 787) hinges on this distinction.

Modern conservative scholarship (Anthony Hoekema, Created in God's Image, 1986; David VanDrunen, Bioethics and the Christian Life, 2009) develops the imago Dei doctrine for contemporary ethics, pro-life, anti-discrimination, human dignity grounded in this lexeme's theological weight.

Verses in this codex

See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here. Top-cited references: Colossians 1.15, Genesis 1.27 (LXX uses same word).