Keeping It Real

The Image of God in the New Testament

DEBORAH KRAUSE
Associate Professor of New Testament
Eden Theological Seminary

The image of God in the New Testament represents a mix of traditions from
the Hebrew Bible, early Judaism, and Hellenistic popular philosophy.
Throughout these traditions the theme is integrally connected to the search
for meaning in human existence. The Priestly Writer, Philo, and Paul under-
stood the image of God as a means of both affirming God's sovereign
authority over all creation and addressing the challenges of competing
authorities in the world. Study of the theme provides a window into early
Christian experience and how such experience emboldened Christians to fol-
low Jesus in the proclamation of the Kingdom of God.

"Bring me a denarius and let me see it" And they brought one. Then he said to them,
"Whose head is this, and whose title?" And they answered, "The emperor's" Jesus said to
them, "Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's and to God the things that
are God's." And they were utterly amazed at him.
Mark 12:15b-17

JESUS THE SAGE

Say what you will about the composed Johannine Jesus or the forceful apocalyptic
Jesus, I have always been most compelled by Jesus the sage who disarms everyone with wit
and wisdom. The quintessential example of Jesus' wisdom in the synoptic gospel tradition
is the episode in Mark 12:13-17 and particularly where Jesus is confronted by a group of
antagonists (posing as friends) who challenge him about whether it is lawful to pay taxes to
the emperor or not. In response to their question, Jesus asks to see a coin. In recording this
sign-act, the gospel writers portray Jesus as deeply engaging in a socio-political-economic
359 Interpretation OCTOBER 2 0 0 5

matter, and yet soaring above all that embedded particularity, Jesus delivers a pronoune-
ment about ultimate things. When Jesus asks whose image (eikön) and inscription are on
the coin, he strides confidently beyond the territory of paying taxes and into the territory of
ultimate existence. The coin with Caesar's image attests to the reality and power of Caesar.
It belongs to his empire and his world. Caesar may put his image on certain things, Jesus
says, but the things that are God's, namely all things in creation, belong to God. Those who
seek to trap Jesus hope to engage him in a legal dispute between Torah and empire, but
Jesus' response moves the question to theological ground. His response is that of a philoso-
pher raising questions of existence. In whose image are we made? To whom do we belong?
What is reality? I have always imagined this Jesus ending the scene by flipping the coin back
to its owner with a wink and the quip "for the troops." In the midst of the fray, Jesus
remains centered in what is true about reality and what is ultimately important. No won-
der, as the gospel writers record, his opponents were amazed at him.

THE IMAGE OF GOD

Jesus' wisdom with the coin stands in the midst of a complex mix of traditions within
the Hebrew Bible, Early Judaism, and Hellenistic popular philosophy about the image of
God. For Jews and Greeks, the question of God's image in relation to God's creation of
humankind and the world was an important concern. In the Hebrew Bible, the Priestly
writer articulates this concern in his story of the creation in Genesis 1:26-27. In the Greek
philosophical tradition, perhaps not too distant from the historical period of the Priestly
writer, Plato (4th century B.C.E.) engages the questions of creation and the relation of mat-
ter to its maker. In the Timaeus (92c), Plato describes the relationship between the ultimate
cause of matter (God) and creation as the relationship of "image" (eikön, 92c).1 For Plato it
is clear that the created world bears the image of its creator. In the popular philosophical
traditions of early Jewish scriptural exegesis, Philo of Alexandria interpreted Genesis 1-2 in
his treatises De opificio mundi and Legum allegoriae through the lens of Middle Platonic
thought.2 Not surprisingly, his examination of the relationship between God and humans
focuses on the notion of image (eikön) and how the relationship between God and humans
is to be precisely understood (e.g., Opif. 69-71).3 In the New Testament literature, the lega-
cies of both Israel's scriptural traditions regarding God's image and Greek philosophical
thought are richly evident. From the Jesus logion regarding the coin, to Paul's meditation
on the heads of men and women (1 Cor 11: 7) and the veil of Moses (2 Cor 3:7-18), to the
deutero-Pauline school's Christological hymn celebrating Christ as the image of the invisi-

4 am indebted to my colleague Stephen J. Patterson, for referring me to Platon Timaeus and the scriptural
interpretation of Philo of Alexandria with regard to the theme of the image of God. Professor Patterson's current
scholarship on the Gospel of Thomas (Hermeneia, Fortress, forthcoming) involves an exploration of the image of
God in the wisdom traditions of Early Judaism and Early Christianity.
2
Thomas H. Tobin, The Creation of Man: Philo and the History of Interpretation (CBQMS, 14; Washington,
D.C.: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1983).
3
Ibid., 56-77.
360 Interpretation OCTOBER 2005

ble God (eikön, Col 1:15), to the declarations of John the Seer about those who worship the
image of the beast (e.g., Rev 15:2) the issue of the image of God in the New Testament
reflects a theological and philosophical struggle with some of the most important questions
of human existence. Who are we as humans, and to whom do we ultimately belong?

GOD'S IMAGE IN THE HEBREW BIBLE

Gerhard KittePs edited volumes of New Testament word studies, Theological Dictionary
of the New Testament, are tainted by KittePs own commitments to National Socialism and
Hitler's demonic, fascist rule.4 However, it must be noted that the essays are variously
authored and some contain remarkably deft discussions of the etymological and interpre-
tive histories of New Testament terms with great sensitivity to Israel's scripture and early
Jewish interpretation. Gerhard von Rad's essay on the term "image" (eikön) in the Old
Testament is an important example. In his discussion of "divine likeness," von Rad discerns
the complexity of Israel's scriptural tradition regarding theological anthropology and parses
out a distinctive theological source in understanding the concept of the image of God. He
identifies the distinctive source of Israel's theological anthropology as the Priestly tradition,
the source that many Protestant German interpreters (including, presumably, Kittel him-
self) disparaged as "late" and thereby suspect for its "Jewish" influence.5

The central point of Old Testament anthropology is that man is dust and ashes before God and
that he cannot stand before his holiness. Thus the witness to man's divine likeness plays no pre-
dominant role in the OT. It stands as it were on the margin of the whole complex. Yet it is highly
significant that OT faith adopted this theologoumenon in dealing with the mystery of man's origin.6

In his reference to standing "as it were on the margin of the whole complex," von Rad
points to the tradition of the Priestly writer in Genesis 1. This tradition provides an impor-
tant theological counterpoint to the canonically pervasive prohibition of making images of
God (e.g., Ex. 20:4, Deut. 5:8) in light of God's ineffability and sovereignty (e.g., Ex. 20:21,
Deut. 4:15,1 Kings 8:12) and the human propensity to idolatry (e.g., Hosea 8:4). God is the
creator—not humans. Standing at the nexus of Israel's devastating loss in the exile and the-
fragile hope of returning to Jerusalem, the Priestly writer offers the hopeful claim that God
is sovereign over all creation and has made humankind in God's image.
Then God said, 'Let us make humankind ('ädäm) in our image (seleni), according to our like-
ness; and let them have dominion over thefishof the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps

4
Robert P. Ericksen, "Assessing the Heritage: German Protestant Theologians, Nazis and the 'Jewish Question,'"
in Betrayal: German Churches and the Holocaust (ed. Robert P. Ericksen and Susannah Heschel; Minneapolis:
Augsburg Fortress, 1999), 33-37.
5
Deborah Krause and Timothy K. Beai, "Higher Critics on Late Texts: Reading the Bible after the Holocaust,"
in A Shadow of Glory: Reading the New Testament after the Holocaust (ed. Tod Linafelt; New York: Routledge, 2002),
18-26.
6
G. von Rad, " A H , " TDNT 2:391.
IMAGE OF G O D Interpretation 361

upon the earth/ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. (Gen 1:26-27)

According to the Priestly writer, God's human creatures bear both the blessing and lim-
itation of being made in God's image. Their origin and nature are bound to God, but as
creatures they are not the creator. When these roles are confused, as the Priestly writer knew
well, disastrous consequences ensued.

Von Rad notes that an important aspect of the Priestly writer's understanding of the
image of God in humankind is that humans do not look like God physically, but rather
have the nature of God's spirit (noted also in the Yahwist's account of human creation in
Gen. 2:7) within them.While this is a minority view of theological anthropology in the
Hebrew Bible, there are other references. In a rare reference to the notion of humans in
God's image, the Psalmist declares:

Yet you have made them a little lower than God,

and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, thefishof the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas. (Ps 8:5-8)

The Psalmist is audacious to assign "glory" (kàbôd) to human creatures. Such is most
often reserved for God within the Psalter. The opening of Psalm 8 is a good example: "O
Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory
above the heavens" (Ps. 8:1). In Ps 8:5, however, in keeping with Gen. 1:27-28, God's glory
is said to reside in humankind.

In their meditations on the image of God, the Psalmist and the Priestly writers present
early Jewish interpreters with grist to explore the divine-human relationship. In the cultur-
ally diverse context of the late centuries B.C.E. and early centuries C.E., interpreters such as
Philo, the apostle Paul, John the Seer, and the Gospel writers engaged Israel's various tradi-
tions regarding the image of God in order to reflect on the ultimate questions of God's real-
ity and human existence.
362 Interpretation OCTOBER 2005

PHILO AND EARLY JEWISH SCRIPTURAL INTERPRETATION

No writer of the late first century B.C.E. and early first century C.E. is more representa-
tive of the cultural diversity of Hellenism than Philo of Alexandria. As a pious and commit-
ted Jew, Philo engaged in fierce apologetics for his people and their right to worship, self-
rule, and assembly in Alexandria Egypt under Roman Imperial domination (Legatio ad
Gaium; In Flaccum). As a student of Middle Platonism and popular philosophy, Philo
engaged in his interpretation of Israel's scripture with zeal for allegorical interpretation and
Platonic values that influenced centuries of Christian theologians including Origen,
Augustine, and many others. Philo of Alexandria was a thoroughgoing monotheistic Jewish
Middle Platonist. His writings represent well the close connection between Judaism and
Hellenism in the late centuries B.C.E. and early centuries C.E.

One of Philo's most cherished topics of interpretation was the question of the creation
of humankind in God's image from Gen 1-2. For a philosopher and an interpreter of
Israel's scriptural tradition such as Philo, no other topic held such promise for understand-
ing what is of ultimate importance for human existence, the nature of what it means to be
human, and the relation of the creature to the creator. Philo's scriptural interpretation was
influenced by Plato's speculation on physics, the natural world, and the relationship of the
physical world to its maker in the Timaeus.

The most thorough scholarly examination in English of Philo's exploration of the

theme of the image of God is Thomas Tobin's The Creation of Man: Philo and the History of
Interpretation.7 In this study Tobin examines Philo's commentary on Gen 1:26-27 and Gen
2:7 in several of his writings. Rather than seeing these verses as parts of two distinct
accounts, Philo reconciles them as if they belonged to a single account of the two stages of
the creation of humankind. The first stage is the creation of the human mind or reason
(nous/logos) in God's image (Gen 1:26-27); the second is the creation of corporeal humani-
ty, as detailed in God's scooping up mud from the ground and fashioning a creature of
earth ('àdàm, Gen 2:7). As Tobin notes, Philo is not systematic in his interpretation of these
texts, and throughout his various writings he treats these ideas in different ways. Tobin sug-
gests that the reason for Philo's ambiguity about the relation of the image of God to human
creation may be his Hellenistic cultural commitment to challenge anthropomorphic
descriptions of the divine.8 In this sense, Philo's interpretations of Gen 1:27-28 and Gen 2:7
bear apologetic concerns rooted in his cultural context and not found in the scriptural
texts. The following interpretation of Gen 1:26-27 and Gen 2:7 illustrates the complexity of

7
Tobin, op. cit.
8
Ibid., 36ff.
IMAGE OF G O D Interpretation 363

Philo's understanding of the image of God and the creation of humankind:.

After this he says that "God fashioned man by taking clayfromthe earth, and breathed into his
face the breath of life" (Gen 2:7). By this also he shows very clearly that there is an immense dif-
ference between the man now fashioned and the one created earlier after the image of God. For
the molded man is sense-perceptible, partaking already of specific quality,framedof body and
soul, man, or woman, by nature mortal; whereas he that was after the image was an idea or genus
or seal, intelligible, incorporeal, neither male nor female, imperishable by nature.9

For Philo, it is not the whole person, body and soul, that is created in the image of
God. To Philo (and to von Rad!) that would be to make God in our own image. Only the
inner divine element that is implanted in the human being bears God's image. Philo names
this element variously. Most frequently he calls it "mind" (nous) following Plato. But he also
calls it "reason" (logos), "thought" (dianoia), or "spirit" (pneuma). As Philo sees it, God is
present to us in moments of spiritual depth, contemplation, and careful thought. The image
of God is imprinted on humanity's greatest gift from God: the imagination.

In the same Hellenistic milieu, texts such as The Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach show
the breadth of Jewish concern with the theme of the image of God. Like the Logos in some
of Philo's interpretation, the role of wisdom (sophia) is understood as the intermediary
between God and humanity in creation. The Wisdom of Solomon declares, "With you is
wisdom, she who knows your works and was present when you made the world" (Wis
9:9a). The creative presence of wisdom guides humanity in its dominion over creation (Wis
6:3ff). Wisdom is "a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and
an image of his goodness" (Wis 7:26). Wisdom is the knowledge of God's will that corrects
and enlightens fallible human reasoning (Wis 9:15). These claims about wisdom derive
from Gen 1:27-28 in concert with Hellenistic philosophical concerns for understanding the
relationship between the mortal and the immortal, the finite and the infinite, in human
existence.

With Philo and other early Jewish writers, we can see how their interpretation of the
image of God was linked with Hellenistic popular philosophy to understand the nature of
reality and to define the meaning of human existence. Such analogues are invaluable in
identifying and appreciating the various ways in which Paul, the deutero-Pauline writers,
and the gospel writers engage the theme of the image of God as they struggle to relate the
gospel of Jesus Christ to human existence.

9
De opificio mundi 135 (Philo ofAlexandria [trans. David Winston; Ramsey, NJ: Paulist, 1981], 103).
364 Interpretation OCTOBER 2 0 0 5

THE IMAGE OF GOD IN THE NEW TESTAMENT AND OTHER EARLY

CHRISTIAN TEXTS

As with the scriptural tradition of early Judaism, there are two predominant ways in
which the image of God is used in the New Testament. One, evident throughout Revelation
in the phrase "image of the beast," expresses the prohibition against idolatry. The other,
seen in 1 and 2 Corinthians and in the deutero-Pauline epistle to the Colossians, is in keep-
ing with the philosophical speculation based on Gen 1:27-28 in the writings of Philo. In the
Gospels, Jesus never speaks directly about the image of God. However, the logion on the
coin and taxes may involve an engagement of both the idolatry prohibition and the philo-
sophical understanding of God's image.While the text does not portray Jesus as meditating
on the nature of human existence using the image of God theme, the gospel accounts of his
preaching and teaching about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven do preserve a
near corollary.

Within Revelation the use of the term "image" (eikön) reflects the prohibition of
images found in Deut 5:8 and Ex 20:4. John refers to the image of the beast seven times in
the text. In each reference John, in his apocalyptic worldview, divides those who worship
the Lamb (Jesus Christ) from those who worship the image of the beast. For John, the
image of the beast is the mark of Roman imperial rule and economic oppression. Like the
author of the Apocalypse, Philo in his political writings describes early Jewish struggles
with the image of the emperor and specifically with the ruler cult, both in Gaius Caligula's
maniacal drive to erect his image in the Jerusalem Temple (Legano ad Gaium 188), and in
the erection of ruler images in Diaspora synagogues (In Flaccum 41).10 For John, markets,
governments, synagogues, and churches are susceptible to the power of imperial presence.
The purpose of John's vision is to urge his audience to stand fast in their worship and obe-
dience to God and to resist the image of the beast. In this sense, the image of the beast is a
representation for John of all that stands in opposition to the glory of God.

The use of the term eikön in the epistles of Paul and writers in the Pauline tradition
differs greatly from the way John uses the term in the Apocalypse. Drawing on the creation
story of Gen 1:27-28, Paul displays many similarities to Philo's Middle Platonic under-
standing of eikön. Rather than referring to an idol symbolizing an oppressive power, the
image of God in Paul describes the intimate relationship between God and God's human
creatures. For example, in 1 Cor 11:7 Paul argues that men in the congregation should not
cover their heads because they are the "image and reflection of God." The use of the term

'Kleinknecht, "eikdn," TDNT 2:388.

IMAGE OF G O D Interpretation 365

"image" clearly connects to Gen. 1:26-27 and the creation of humankind in God's image.
As Paul continues his argument about men and women and head coverings, however, he
moves from the celebration of humankind's unity with God to a delineation of the hierar-
chical differences between men and women in creation. Rather than being based in an exe-
gesis of Gen 1:27-28, this prioritizing of men over women appears to be drawn from Paul's
understanding of Gen. 2:7-23.While I would argue with Paul's exegesis of that passage, his
characterization of Corinthian males as examples of the image of God is an allusion to Gen
1:27-28. It affirms that God's presence and purpose are immanent in human experience.

Another passage in which Paul engages the notion of image in relation to the divine-
human relationship is 2 Cor 3-5. In 3:18 Paul summarizes his confidence in Christ (2 Cor
3:4) with his challenging meditation on Moses' veil (Exod 34:31-35) by declaring, "And all
of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are
being transformed into the same image (eikön) from one degree of glory to another." Paul's
use of the term "image" draws upon Gen 1:27-28 and Hellenistic philosophy to describe
what it means for the Corinthians to be "in Christ." To be in the image of God, as he
explains in 2 Cor 5:16-17, is to be a new creation. The Spirit of Christ enables the
Corinthians to see the glory of God and to be transformed into God's image. For Paul, as
for Philo, this new creation (based in Gen. 1:27-28) is not of the physical human being as
in Gen 2:7. As Paul says in 2 Cor 5:16, "From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a
human point of view." Rather, God's creation (or, for Paul, God's new creation) involves the
"Spirit of Christ" and refers to a spiritual re-creation. The two-stage understanding of the
creation of humankind in God's image seen in Philo's De opificio mundi and reflective of
Middle Platonism seems to be at work in Paul's understanding of the new creation in Christ
Jesus.

Paul's use of the Genesis creation tradition is intended to explain the nature of the new
life in Christ. It is an explanation deeply informed by Paul's understanding of God's creative
activity and how human beings in Christ know God, albeit in a fragile way. As Paul notes,
"... we have this treasure in clay jars" (2 Cor 4:7). The concept of the image of God from
Gen 1:27-28 helps Paul delineate what is real about the experience of God in Christ Jesus. It
enables Paul to describe the glory of God he knows in Christ in the midst of the "clay" of
everyday human existence. Theologically, this clay reality of human existence underscores
the relationship between God as creator and humankind as God's creatures made from
"clay." As Paul says, "... we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that
this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us" (2 Cor 4:7).
366 Interpretation OCTOBER 2 0 0 5

Following Paul, the writer of Colossians presents a hymn in which God's image
describes the relationship between God the Creator and Christ. In this hymn, Christ is the
image of God and he is the firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15). The writer of Colossians
depicts Christ as the first part of a two-stage creation. He is, as in Plato's Timaeus, the image
of the "intelligible" (namely, the eternal and invisible) God.11 As the firstborn of creation,
Christ is the one through whom all other things were created. As with other early Jewish
interpretations of Gen 1:27-28, this text reflects a very specific understanding of the rela-
tionship between the divine and the human in the order of creation. For the writer of
Colossians, Jesus Christ is the glue that holds all things together ("... and in him all things
hold together" (Col 1:17). This relationship is the means to redemption in which the old self
is stripped off and the new self is put on and "is renewed in knowledge according to the
image (eikön) of its creator" (Col 3:10). For Paul and his interpreters this putting on of the
new self (ritualized in the practice of baptism) was the means to a new creation. This new
creation in God's image brought about a new way of being human in which there is "no
longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female" (Gal 3:28), and "there is no longer
Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Sythian, slave and free; but
Christ is all and in alT (Col 3:11). For Paul and his interpreters this is what is real about
being in Christ and having the mind of Christ. This is what it means to be in the image of
God.

Amidst the early Jewish and Christian interpretation of the image of God in the cre-
ation of humankind, one may wonder if these speculations influenced traditions about
Jesus. The canonical gospels yield scant direct evidence that Jesus referred to the image of
God in his preaching. Jesus refers directly to traditions about creation only in his teaching
on divorce (Mark 10:2-9). In the extra-canonical tradition of the Gospel of Thomas, how-
ever, there are several sayings attributed to Jesus that engage the theme of the image of God.
These sayings reveal that in some quarters Jesus was understood to have used the image of
God in much the same manner as Philo and Paul and his interpreters. In these sayings the
image refers to those aspects of humanity that relate to the realm of the "sensible," as Plato
would name it. The images belong to the realm of the eternal. In the Gospel of Thomas,
Jesus points to that eternal realm as another reality in which God's ultimate presence and
purpose dwell. The promise of this reality is eternal joy with God for those who are able to
see.
Jesus said, "When you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see your images that came
into being before you and that neither die nor become visible, how much you will have to bear!
(GTh 84).12

"Francis M Cornford, Plato's Timaeus (New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1959), 92 C.
12
"The Gospel of Thomas," in The Complete Gospels (2nd ed.; ed. Robert Miller; trans. Stephen J. Patterson and
Marvin Meyer; Sonoma, CA: Polebridge, 2nd edition, 1994).
IMAGE OF G O D Interpretation 367

Although the canonical gospels do not portray Jesus reflecting directly on the image of
God, they do present him as a preacher and a teacher of an alternative way. The most char-
acteristic theme of this teaching in the canonical traditions is the kingdom of God. "The
kingdom of God has come near," proclaims Jesus (Mark 1:15). This kingdom breaks the
authority of the powers and principalities and teaches God's gracious provision (Mark 4:8;
6:30-44; 8:1-10) in the midst of the world's stingy greed. This kingdom provides both the
courage to withstand the demonic and death-dealing powers of Caesar's kingdom and the
assurance that the eternal realm of the creator to whom the whole world belongs is the real
world. Jesus stands asking for a coin. Holding the material image of Caesar in his hand,
Jesus winks. Through his questions he teaches quite plainly that what this coin represents is
puny. It bears the image of a temporal kingdom. Caesar's kingdom has no ultimate value.
There is another reality, God's reality, and humankind created by God bears the image of
the creator of all that is real. God's children owe their creator for the whole creation. That is
what is real.

I HEAR THE CLEAR BUT FAR OFF HYMN

Throughout history God's people have been sustained by the knowledge that they are
created in the image of God. In spite of the world's cruelty and pain, they know beauty and
great joy. Although believers live in the flesh, they also live in the spirit in the presence and
wisdom of God. This is a mystical tradition that points to things that are not always seen in
everyday life, but are glimpsed in the power of God's spirit with the internal eye of the
human soul. While deeply mystical, the traditions about God's reality and the divine-
human relationship are not simple flights of fancy. As we see in the teaching of Jesus with
the coin, these traditions empower us to live out our faith in God in the midst of powers
that compete for our allegiance. As we see in the baptismal practice of Paul and his church-
es, these traditions encourage us to live as God's new creation in Jesus Christ—neither Jew
nor Greek, slave or free, male and female—in the midst of a world where hierarchical and
oppressive divisions are all too real.

The wisdom and power of this vision of reality are captured beautifully in the 19th-
century hymn "My Life Flows on in Endless Song." In the hymn, Robert Lowry gives voice
to the paradox of living as God's new creation in Jesus Christ in the midst of this world.
The human soul, Lowry suggests in the tradition of the Priestly writer, Plato, Philo, and
Paul, is attuned to the song of God in the world. While this truth does not deny the reality
368 Interpretation OCTOBER 2 0 0 5

of suffering and pain, it does offer us the courage to know to whom we really belong.

My life flows on in endless song,

above earth's lamentation.
I hear the clear, though far off hymn
that hails a new creation.

Refrain:
No storm can shake my inmost calm
while to that Rock I'm clinging.
Since love is Lord of heaven and earth,
how can I keep from singing?

Through all the tumult and the strife,

I hear that music ringing.
It finds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?
(Refrain)

What though my joys and comforts die?

I know my Savior liveth.
What though the darkness gather round?
Songs in the night he giveth.
(Refrain)

The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,

a fountain ever springing!
All things are mine since I am his!
How can I keep from singing?
(Refrain)13

13
Text, Robert Lowry, 1826-1899; Music, Robert Lowry.
 ^ s
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