What Does 2 Corinthians 5:1 Mean in the King James?

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2 Corinthians 5:1 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The collapsing tent is not the end of dwelling: the verse sets it beside a home whose builder is God.

THE MEANING

Your present dwelling can be taken apart, yet its unmaking does not erase the home God gives you. Its source is God, not human hands, and its place is in the heavens.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that the visible, bodily dwelling is all you have and that its collapse leaves you homeless.

THE ROOT

οἰκοδομή

oikodomē

GROWS FROM

οἶκος

oikos

House, dwelling, or household.

The Greek keeps “house” and “building” in one word family: ⁨οἰκία⁩ (oikia) means house, while ⁨οἰκοδομή⁩ (oikodomē) means a building. The verse moves from a dwelling that can be dismantled to a construction from God, shifting the source of the home.

ALSO GROWS

oikia: House, dwelling.

οἰκία

This is the word for the earthly “house” of the tent, linking the fragile dwelling directly to the house-family in “building.”

oikodomeō: Build, build up.

οἰκοδομέω

This related verb carries the same house-word into the act of building, making the “building of God” a home-shaped construction.

THE PATTERN

A dwelling’s security comes from God’s building, not from what human hands can construct or preserve.

A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Psalm 127:1 · KJVThe house stands through the LORD’s building and keeping, not human effort alone.

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

John 14:2 · KJVThe home that holds the reader is presented as belonging to the Father and prepared by him.

For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Hebrews 11:10 · KJVThe city’s foundations and maker both point to God as the source of lasting dwelling.

THE THREAD

For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

1 Corinthians 3:9 · KJV

The word translated “building” here is ⁨οἰκοδομή⁩ (oikodomē), from the same house-family as ⁨οἰκία⁩ (oikia), “house.” In 1 Corinthians 3:9, ⁨οἰκοδομή⁩ (oikodomē) names God’s building, joining this promised dwelling to the reader’s present identity as God’s construction.

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