So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
All Commentaries on Genesis 1:27 Go To Genesis 1
Thomas Aquinas
AD 1274
God created man to His own image: But man is like to God in his soul. Therefore the soul was created. The image of God, in its principal signification, namely the intellectual nature, is found both in man and in woman. Hence after the words, "To the image of God He created him," it is added, "Male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27). Moreover it is said "them" in the plural, as Augustine (Gen. ad lit. iii, 22) remarks, lest it should be thought that both sexes were united in one individual. But in a secondary sense the image of God is found in man, and not in woman: for man is the beginning and end of woman; as God is the beginning and end of every creature. So when the Apostle had said that "man is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man"(1 Corinthians 11:7) he adds his reason for saying this: "For man is not of woman, but woman of man; and man was not created for woman, but woman for man."
