Those sitting on the west side agreed, but added that the pure state
God breathed into Adam is something God has been continually breath-
ing into everyone else ever since. That pure state, then, is present in
human beings inasmuch as they are vessels that receive it. Their capacity
as receiving vessels makes human beings images and likenesses of God.
[ 4 ] Those sitting on the south side were the third to take a turn. They
said, “The image of God and the likeness of God are two different
things, although they have been united in human beings ever since cre-
ation. From some kind of inner light we see that we all have the power to
destroy the image of God in ourselves, but not the likeness of God. We
can glimpse this as though through a veil from the fact that Adam kept
the likeness of God after he lost the image of God. After the curse it says,
‘See how this human being knows good and evil, like one of us’ (Genesis
3 : 22 ); and later on, Adam is called the likeness of God, but not the image
of God (Genesis 5 : 1 ). We will leave it, however, to our friends sitting on
the east side, who therefore have better light, to say what the image of
God and the likeness of God really are.”
[ 5 ] When it had grown quiet, those sitting on the east side rose from
their chairs and looked up toward the Lord. Then they sat back down and
said, “An image of God is a vessel for God. God is love itself and wisdom
itself; therefore the image of God is our openness to love and wisdom from
God. The likeness of God, on the other hand, is the perfect likeness and
the full appearance that love and wisdom are in us as if they were com-
pletely our own. We all utterly feel as if we have love and wisdom on our
own, as if we intend what is good and understand what is true by our-
selves. In reality, though, not a bit of it comes from us; it is from God.
God alone has love and wisdom on his own, because God is love itself and
wisdom itself. The likeness or the appearance that love and wisdom or
goodness and truth are in us as our very own makes us human and enables
us to have a partnership with God and therefore to live to eternity. It flows
from this that what makes us human is our ability on the one hand to
intend what is good and understand what is true completely as if we were
on our own, and our capacity on the other hand for knowing and believ-
ing that we are doing this with God’s help. As we come to know and
believe that we are getting help from God, God puts his image in us. God
does not put his image in us, however, if we believe that we are doing it on
our own without God’s help.”
[ 6 ] When they had said this, a passion from their love for truth
came over them, which led them to say the following: “How could any
singke
(singke)
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