Anthropology
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
The study of the biblical doctrine of man is the unfolding of the answer to the question in Psalm 8:4: “What is man that You are mindful of him?” The question is not inquiring about a male human being. “Man” is used in the generic sense of a human being in distinction from a divine being or an angelic being. That is how God Himself used the term “man” in Genesis 5:1–2. That passage includes these words: “Male and female He created them and He blessed them and named them man when they were created.”
From the beginning of creation, God gave to male and female the name “man.” While we usually use the term “man” to refer to gender that is distinct from female, the Bible also does this. But the Bible often follows the pattern God set in the beginning by using the term “man” to refer to male and female together as human beings. God named them “man,” which also is the meaning of the proper name “Adam.”
In thinking about human beings, theologians have historically followed God’s pattern and used “The Doctrine of Man” when thinking generically about the nature and purpose of human beings. When we choose this terminology we are no more being insensitive to women than God was at the beginning when He referred to the human pair as “man.”
‘What is man?’
So back to the question of Psalm 8:4, “What is man?” Part of the answer in the very next verse is, “You have made him (‘him’ in God’s sense of male and female) a little lower than the angels” (v. 5). For nearly two months Theology 101 has been concerned with the doctrine of angels, now for the next few weeks we will lower our gaze a little below the angels to think about the doctrine of human beings.
The formal term used by theologians for this doctrine is “anthropology,” a term that means literally, “the study of man.” (“Anthropos” is the Greek word for “man” or “human being,” and the suffix “-ology” means “the study of.”) However, in our day scholars use the term “anthropology” in a variety of ways, such as social anthropology (how humans live in relation to other humans), cultural anthropology (how humans live in different places and times), linguistic anthropology (how humans have learned to communicate with one another) and other such aspects of what it means to be human.
‘Precious treasure’
Given the different adjectives attached to the term, it is often helpful for us to use a descriptive phrase like “theological anthropology” when thinking about the biblical doctrine of man. In fact, as children in Sunday School we used to sing a simple chorus that speaks of this doctrine, although we did not know we were singing about a major biblical doctrine, much less that a big word like “anthropology” had been coined to describe it.
Holy Bible, Book divine, precious treasure, thou art mine; mine to tell me whence I came; mine to teach me what I am.
In coming weeks Theology 101 will seek to explore some of the distinctives of being human and bearing divine likeness, as well as what the Bible reveals about God’s purposes for creating us to be more like Him than anything else He made.
Share with others: