Homoiōma
Likeness but not at thesame level with what the subject is likened to
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Homoiōma (ὁμοίωμα) is a Greek neuter noun for "likeness" which is particularly common in Jewish Koine Greek texts. The meaning of the word in several well-known New Testament verses is related to discussion in Christology about the relation of Christ to man.
Etymology
The noun comes from the adjective homoios, "like".[1]
Usage
Classical usage
Use of the word as "image" is relatively common in Attic texts; the use in the singular is found in Plato (Phaedra 250a) and Aristotle (Rhetorica 1356a31).[2][3] The word is found in inscriptions[4] on ostraca[5] and in the Tebtunis papyri.[6]
Septuagint usage
The word is more common in Jewish usage than pagan. It appears frequently in the Septuagint, often in relation to idols.[7][8][9][10] The term is used by Josephus in a similar way.[11] The essential contrast is between the reality of God and a homoiōma or artifice.[12] The representation may be two-dimensional such as a diagram[13] graffiti[14] or mural[15] or three-dimensional such as carvings[16] or figurines.[17] The word may also be used in a qualitative or figurative sense; men "like the son of a king",[18] daughters "adorned like a temple"[19] creatures "with the likeness of a man."[20] or, in Sirach as the likeness (homoiōma) of a face to a face.[21]
New Testament usage
The word appears 6 times in the New Testament and in the KJV is rendered "likeness" "made like to" "similitude" and "shape".[22][23] Two of these uses are fairly straightforward, following directly on from Septuagint usage - idols in the likeness of animals,[24] and locusts with the likeness of horses. Another; a sin in the likeness of Adam's sin, is understandable within secular Greek usage.[25] This leaves three other uses, one the likeness of death in Romans 6:5, two more in Paul's description of the likeness of Christ to other men.
Interpretation
The likeness of death
In Romans 6:5 Paul introduces the concept of homoiōma between Christians and Christ in a grammatical structure which, although it only employs the word once, duplicates it with a double "of his death...also [in the likeness] of his resurrection".[26]
The likeness of sinful flesh
Discussion in Christology centres on the significance of homoiōma in the writings of Paul, and in particular whether homoiōma in Romans 8:3 and Philippians 2:7 indicates a merely external or internal likeness with other men.[27] Moo (1996) in discussing Romans 8:3 maintains that Paul cannot mean that Christ had only the "appearance" of sinful flesh.[28] yet the meaning is constrained by the need to balance Paul's use of the same word in Philippians 2:7.[29]
Eucharist
In Patristic usage, and later in Greek Orthodox tradition, the concept of homoiōma, being more than just external likeness, is developed in concepts of eucharistic prayer[30] and the rite of the eucharist.[31]