Image

[Idol]

IM'AGE. We are told that God "created man in his own image," Gen 1:26-27, and Christ is said to be "the image of God." Col 1:15; Heb 1:3. The term used of our Lord imports a complete likeness, like that which exists between a seal and its impression when the original is perfectly preserved in the representation. Used of man, the term refers especially to man's knowledge and capacity to comprehend God, Col 3:10; to his original holiness, Eph 4:24, thus being like God in the tone of his moral nature; and to his dominion over the creatures of the earth. Gen 1:28. The word is usually employed to denote an object of idolatrous worship. See Man, Idol.

IM'AGE. We are told that God "created man in his own image," Gen 1:26-27, and Christ is said to be "the image of God." Col 1:15; Heb 1:3. The term used of our Lord imports a complete likeness, like that which exists between a seal and its impression when the original is perfectly

preserved in the representation. Used of man, the term refers especially to man's knowledge and capacity to comprehend God, Col 3:10; to his original holiness, Eph 4:24, thus being like God in the tone of his moral nature; and to his dominion over the creatures of the earth. Gen 1:28. The word is usually employed to denote an object of idolatrous worship. See Man, Idol.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. An imitation, representation, or similitude of any person, thing, or act, sculptured, drawn, painted, or otherwise made perceptible to the sight; a visible presentation; a copy; a likeness; an effigy; a picture; a semblance. Even like a stony image, cold and numb. Shak. Whose is this image and superscription Matt. xxii. 20. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna. Shak. And God created man in his own image. Gen. i. 27.

2. Hence: The likeness of anything to which worship is paid; an idol. Chaucer. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, . . . thou shalt not bow down thyself to them. Ex. xx. 4, 5.

3. Show; appearance; cast. The face of things a frightful image bears. Dryden.

4. A representation of anything to the mind; a picture drawn by the fancy; a conception; an idea. Can we conceive Image of aught delightful, soft, or great Prior.

5. A picture, example, or illustration, often taken from sensible objects, and used to illustrate a subject; usually, an extended metaphor. Brande & C.

6. The figure or picture of any object formed at the focus of a lens or mirror, by rays of light from the several points of the object symmetrically refracted or reflected to corresponding points in such focus; this may be received on a screen, a photographic plate, or the retina of the eye, and viewed directly by the eye, or with an eyeglass, as in the telescope and microscope; the likeness of an object formed by reflection; as, to see one's image in a mirror. Electrical image. See under Electrical. -- Image breaker, one who destroys images; an iconoclast. -- Image graver, Image maker, a sculptor. -- Image worship, the worship of images as symbols; iconolatry distinguished from idolatry; the worship of images themselves. -- Image Purkinje (Physics), the image of the retinal blood vessels projected in, not merely on, that membrane. -- Virtual image (Optics), a point or system of points, on one side of a mirror or lens, which, if it existed, would emit the system of rays which actually exists on the other side of the mirror or lens. Clerk Maxwell.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

1. To represent or form an image of; as, the still lake imaged the shore; the mirror imaged her figure. "Shrines of imaged saints." J. Warton.

2. To represent to the mental vision; to form a likeness of by the fancy or recollection; to imagine. Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore, And image charms he must behold no more. Pope.