AN IMAGE — a likeness or portrait, the root of English 'icon', and not a copy at a distance but the VISIBLE MANIFESTATION of the thing itself: an emperor's eikōn stamped on a coin was his presence in the marketplace, which is why refusing to honour it was treason. ⚠ It is not a neutral word in a Greek Bible — it is the Septuagint's word at Genesis 1:26-27 for humankind made kat' eikona theou, 'according to the image of God.' Which is exactly why Matthew 22:20 is a better question than it looks: Jesus asks whose eikōn and whose epigraphē (inscription) the coin carries, the answer is Caesar's, so give Caesar back what bears his image — and the unspoken half is what bears God's. Colossians 1:15 uses it of Christ as 'the image of the invisible God', saying that what Adam was made to be, he is. The related eikonoklastēs, image-breaker, gave English 'iconoclast'. → first discussed at Matt 22:20