Human Dignity and Bioethics

The Mystery of the Human Soul | 77
perfection in the created hierarchy.
After these passages in Genesis, the only other books in the Old
Testament that directly address human dignity are Psalms, Wisdom,
and Ecclesiasticus. Psalm 8 does not include the phrase “image of
God,” but it uses the unmistakable language of Genesis to describe
man’s lofty place in the universe. The psalmist expresses his wonder
that God created the vast heavens and yet cares above all for the human
creature: “What is man that thou art mindful of him?…. Yet
thou hast made him a little less than God [or a little less than the
angels or divine beings] and dost crown him with glory and honor.
Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands”. (Psalms
8:4-8) These lines are a classic example of Biblical minimalism: Man’s
dignity and glory are expressed with loving wonder, and man’s dominion
over the lower animals is asserted. But no reason is given
for God’s favor. The selection of the human species for special care
is comparable in its mystery to the special election of Israel from
among the myriad tribes and nations, a reflection of the inscrutable
will of YHWH Who Is What He Is without giving reasons.
By contrast, the books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus (included in
most Christian Bibles but not in the Hebrew Bible) supply reasons
for man’s dignity, possibly reflecting Greek philosophical influences.
Wisdom 2:23-24 says, “For God created man for incorruption, and
made him in the image of his own eternity, but through the devil’s
envy, death entered the world.” This is the most explicit identification
of the image of God in man with the attribute of immortality
or divine eternity. The passage in Ecclesiasticus 17:1-12 also follows
the pattern of defining the image of God in terms of attributes: “The
Lord created man out of earth, and turned him back to it again. He
gave to men few days…but granted them authority over things upon
the earth. He endowed them with strength like his own, and made
them in his own image. He placed the fear of them in all living beings
and granted them dominion over beasts…. He gave them ears and a
mind for thinking. He filled them with knowledge and understanding
and showed them good and evil…. [He] allotted to them the
law of life…[and an] eternal covenant.” In this passage, the echoes
of Genesis are evident in the references to human dominion; but the
emphasis on attributes such as God-like strength (a puzzling notion)
and reason or understanding through the senses and language gives a