What Does Genesis 5:1 Mean in the King James?
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The human story opens with God’s likeness already present in it, before any generation can add or earn it.
THE MEANING
You belong to the human story the verse names as God’s making, and that story begins in God’s likeness. The verse holds your earthiness and divine resemblance together as the starting condition of being human.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God’s likeness is reserved for a spiritually exceptional few; here it belongs to humanity at the beginning of the human line.
THE ROOT
דְּמוּת
demut
GROWS FROM
דמה
To be like, resemble, or compare.
English “likeness” can sound like an outward copy, but demut belongs to a word-family about being like or comparable. The verse places the human in a relation of resemblance to God, and the generations that follow carry that likeness forward.
ALSO GROWS
damah: To be like or resemble.
דָּמָה
This verb makes the shared root visible: the likeness in the verse is a relationship of resemblance.
dimyon: Resemblance or comparison.
דִּמְיוֹן
This related form keeps the idea of likeness tied to correspondence, not merely appearance.
תּוֹלְדֹת
toledot
GROWS FROM
ילד
To bear or bring forth.
“generations” in this verse is toledot. Toledot comes from the word-family of bearing and bringing forth. The “book” is more than a list: it traces lives brought forth, with the likeness named at the line’s beginning.
ALSO GROWS
yalad: To bear or bring forth.
יָלַד
This verb shows the generative motion contained in “generations.”
yeled: Child.
יֶלֶד
The child is one brought forth, making each generation a living continuation of the line.
אָדָם
adam
GROWS FROM
אדם
The Adam word-family connects the human with the ground, adamah.
Adam is linked with adamah, ground or soil: the human is a ground-being. Beside God’s likeness, that name holds earthly life and divine resemblance within one human identity.
ALSO GROWS
adamah: Ground, soil.
אֲדָמָה
This branch links the human named here to the earth from which human life is formed.
adom: Red.
אָדֹם
This related form shares the consonants and is traditionally associated with the reddish color of soil.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents God’s likeness in humanity as a created condition that remains present across human generations.
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.Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.THE THREAD
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 same דמה (damah, “be like”) word-family appears when Adam begets Seth in his likeness. The generations echo the opening claim: human likeness continues through the line, just as the verse names God’s likeness at its beginning.
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