Presence

ויאמר אלהים, נעשה אדם בצלמנו כדמותנו; וירדו בדגת הים ובעוף השמים, ובבהמה ובכל-הארץ, ובכל-הרמש, הרמש על-הארץ. ויברא אלהים את-האדם בצלמו, בצלם אלהים ברא אתו: זכר ונקבה, ברא אתם.

26 And God said: 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.' 27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
[Gen 1:26-27 - JPS translation]

Gen 1:27 is commonly understood much as it is translated above, that God is making a reflexive, repetitive statement regarding the nature of Man. Most commentators pick up on this and describe the exact quality of Man that qualifies him as "in the image of God," (popular answers are the power of speech, individuality or a rational mind). I would like to suggest an alternate translation, based on the context from the previous verse.

Hopefully, everyone realizes that the word Elohim is ambiguous (or, in the words of Pines, equivocal, having many meanings). As Maimonides explains, it can mean anything from God, gods, angels, judges or rulers of countries (cf. Guide Chapter 2); essentially referring to one in a position of power. I would like to suggest that in Gen 1:27, the second usage of "elohim" is mean to be understood as a judge or ruler rather than as God Himself. As such, the verse would read: "And God created Man in His own image, in the image of Rulers He created him; male and female created He them."

As you can see, this fits well with the preceeding verse, where God assigns the role of Master of All Living Things to Man. Even more, in Gen 1:26, God seems to be saying, "I will make Man like me, but his dominion will be over the living things." Rather than suddenly shifting topics and detailing some essential quality of Man vs. other life, this reading retains the context of the narrative.

I have not found any commentaries that support this translation, but I think, in terms of a plain reading of the text, it works well. It's interesting to consider the ramifications of this translation, as this verse is often cited as the biblical source for human rights, the equality of man, etc.

An interesting note: Maimonides often praises Onkeles for his sensitivity to the equivocality of the word Elohim. Throughout Gen 1, Onkeles uses "Yud-Yud" as a translation for Elohim, except in Gen 1:27, where he uses "Elohim" (or Elohin). In other cases, such as Gen 3:4 ("...and you will be like Elohim, knowing Good and Bad."), Onkeles uses the term "ravrivin," meaning "great ones" or rulers. This does not directly support my translation (if Onkeles had used "ravrivin" in Gen 1:27, it would), but does, at least, indicate that the image in which God is creating is not His own image, but the image of some thing other than Himself.