“Before the world was created, the Word already existed; he was with God, and he was the same as God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. Through him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him. The Word was the source of life, and this life brought light to mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.”  (John 1:1-5)

Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam”, a fresco painted on the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, completed in 1512 for Pope Julius II, shows Adam and God reaching towards one another. Many scholars have interpreted the painting to mean God bestowing life on man. Frank Lynn Meshberger, a doctor at St. John’s Medical Center in Anderson, Ind., says Adam, {reclining at left}, has his eyes open, suggesting he is alive. Meshberger contends Michelangelo intended the painting to portray God, right, giving man the gift of intellect by surrounding the image of God and the angels with what appears to be the shape of the human brain.

The Associated Press news as reprinted in the Turkish Daily News, Ankara, Türkiye, October 11, 1990; Michelangelo’s painting is animated for emphasis.

  The New Etymological Dictionary