What Does Genesis 5:3 Mean?
And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and brought forth a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:THE KEY
Adam’s son comes forth carrying the image of his source, making resemblance part of how life continues.
THE MEANING
Human life arrives through another life, carrying likeness forward. Adam begets Seth in his likeness and names him, placing Seth’s distinct identity within that continuity.
THE ROOT
וַיּוֹלֶד
wayyoled
GROWS FROM
ילד
To bear, beget, or bring forth.
“brought forth” in this verse is wayyoled. וַיּוֹלֶד (wayyoled, “he begat”) is a form of ילד (yalad, “bear or beget”). The verse places this act beside “in his likeness” and “after his image,” so resemblance is carried through the act of bringing forth.
ALSO GROWS
yalad: To bear or beget.
יָלַד
This is the verb’s root form and names the bringing forth at the center of the verse.
yeled: Child.
יֶלֶד
The child is the life brought forth through the action expressed by ילד.
yaldah: Girl or young woman.
יַלְדָּה
This feminine form shares the root’s consonants and keeps the language of birth and generation close to the person who is born.
צַלְמוֹ
tzalmo
GROWS FROM
צלם
Image or representation.
צַלְמוֹ (tzalmo, “his image”) is built from צלם (tselem, “image”). Here image is something borne by a son, so representation is not only a likeness seen in a moment; it is carried forward in living lineage.
ALSO GROWS
tselem: Image or representation.
צֶלֶם
This is the root form of the word rendered “image” in the verse.
tselamim: Images or carved representations.
צְלָמִים
The plural preserves the same root and shows צלם naming forms that represent or portray.
אָדָם
adam
GROWS FROM
אדמ
The consonantal family associated with the human, the ground, and redness.
אָדָם (adam, “human”) carries the consonants א־ד־ם that appear in אֲדָמָה (adamah, “ground, soil”) and אָדֹם (adom, “red”). The name holds a human life close to the ground from which it is formed, even as that life becomes a source for another.
ALSO GROWS
adamah: Ground or soil.
אֲדָמָה
Its consonants connect Adam’s name with the ground-being nature carried by the human name.
adom: Red.
אָדֹם
This word shares the consonants and preserves the root family’s association with redness.
Edom: Edom, a name associated with red.
אֱדוֹם
The name shares the א־ד־ם consonants and carries the family’s red association into a personal and place name.
THE PATTERN
A likeness is carried through its source, joining human generation to humanity’s image-bearing relation to God.
And God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.And as we have worn the image of the one made of dust, let us also wear the image of the one from the heavens.With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who have been made according to the likeness of God.THE THREAD
And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, the gotten one, and she said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.The word translated “bare” is וַתֵּלֶד (vatteled, “she bore”), from ילד (yalad, “bear or beget”), the same root as “begat” in this verse. Genesis 4:1 names the act of birth; Genesis 5:3 shows likeness traveling through that same act.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us