Reading: The Sourian Kouros

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image,

  in the image of God he created him;

  male and female he created them.

Genesis 2:25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.    

The Greeks were masterful at doing sculpture.  Everywhere we went there were statues that graced many of the temples and significant city monuments.  One of the more intriguing aspects of the statues is the fact that in the early era of Greek sculpture, the male form is normally found nude and the female form is found fully clothed.  The statue that is pictured here is one that was found in the temple of Poseidon at Sounion.  The statue is about nine and a half feet tall.  His size is similar to that recorded for Goliath as he faced off with David (I Samuel 17). 

As the ancient Greeks sought to honor their gods, they would make these statues which are thought to have been made in the image of Apollo.  Although that idea is debated, one can see in the image an attempt at portraying what the gods looked like.  For, upon careful examination, the kouros, as statues of this sort are called, is not really like a human being.  In fact, this cannot have been a sculpture that is based on a human being since the proportions are not like any human being that exists.  The following paragraph is from a college handbook about the kouros sculptures:

“The sculptor uses .. divisions of the body to establish a set of rigid proportions based on simple mathematical relationships. Most obviously, the width of the figure is equal to its depth and approximately one quarter of its total height. The body is proportioned so that the distance from the base of the foot to the base of the knee cap is also one quarter of the figure's total height. This one to four proportion based on the total height is also found with the distance between the navel and the chin, and between the top of the head and the base of the neck at the clavicles. The latter relationship makes the head itself one sixth of the statue's height. Far larger in proportion than one observes on the actual human body, the height of the kouros's head corresponds exactly to the width of the figure at its hips.”

Mathematics as the basis for how a figure is made would have been exciting to the Greeks who were adept at discovering mathematical concepts.  But, and here my confidence in the Scriptures comes out, God in creating humanity, made us in his own image.  He also forbids us to seek to make an image of him.  Why?  Because when I look in the face of another human being I am to see the face of God.  God’s image is a living breathing person.  Today we are clothed because of our sin and the distance that has put between us.  God in Christ has bridged that distance and now we know him personally again as we did at the very beginning.