What Does Romans 8:29 Mean in the King James?
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
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 destination here is a shared form: the Son is firstborn among many who bear his likeness.
THE MEANING
Being known comes before the shaping: your life is directed toward the Son’s likeness. The Son is firstborn among many brothers and sisters, so the image names a family resemblance shared with many.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that the Son’s likeness is an exclusive status: the verse names him firstborn among many siblings.
THE ROOT
σύμμορφος
symmorphos
GROWS FROM
μορφ-
morph-
Form, shape; joined with σύν (syn-, “with, together”), it describes sharing a form.
English “conformed” can suggest an external pattern laid over someone. The Greek word joins σύν (syn-, “with”) to μορφή (morphē, “form”), pointing to shared form; the same μορφ- root appears when people are changed into the same image in 2 Corinthians 3:18.
ALSO GROWS
morphē: form, shape
μορφή
Philippians 2:6–7 uses this same noun for the form of God and the form of a servant, carrying the form-language across those descriptions.
metamorphoō: transform, change form
μεταμορφόω
This verb shares the μορφ- root; 2 Corinthians 3:18 uses it for being changed into the same image.
προέγνω
proegnō
GROWS FROM
γινώσκω
ginōskō
Know, perceive by encounter; πρό- (pro-, “before”) marks prior knowing.
English “foreknow” can sound like advance information; its core is γινώσκω (ginōskō, “know, perceive”), prefixed by πρό- (pro-, “before”). The verse begins with those who are known and then names the destination toward which they are shaped.
ALSO GROWS
ginōskō: know, perceive
γινώσκω
This is the verb beneath “foreknow,” making knowing the first movement in the verse’s sequence.
prognōsis: foreknowledge
πρόγνωσις
Acts 2:23 uses this related noun, showing the same before-knowing word family elsewhere.
THE PATTERN
God’s image is given as human likeness and becomes the shared form toward which life is shaped.
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.But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.THE THREAD
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.The Greek word behind “fashioned like” is σύμμορφον (symmorphon, “sharing the same form”), from the same μορφ- (morph-, “form”) root as “conformed” here. Philippians makes the shared likeness concrete in the body, extending the family resemblance beyond an abstract idea.
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