@jeremy_christian
Gosh… you just won’t let go of anything… Part of a convincing discussion is the ability to tie different facts together into a convincing whole.
And the only person here speaking to the Hebrew meaning of the word is me:
Here’s a tool you should get famliiar with:
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=H1823&t=KJV
This particular page analyzes Strong’s Hebrew (H) word # 1823: H1823:
Strong’s H1823: dem-ooth (from H1819);
Means: “resemblance; concretely, model, shape; adverbially, like:—fashion, like (-ness, as), manner, similitude.” Notice that one of the meanings of this word is “manner”. <= Manner is adjective that refers to how or what something is “doing”… not just how they look. The definition even refers to “adverbial” senses of the word.
If we then proceed to the purported source of H1823, it is H1819: which is “damah”
to be like, resemble
to liken, compare
to imagine, think
to make oneself like
Num 33:56 - “Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought H1819 to do unto them.”
Judges 20:5 - “And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought H1819 to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead.”
Psa 48:9 - “We have thought H1819 of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple.”
Psa 50:21 - “These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest H1819 that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.”
Isaiah 14:24 - “The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, H1819 so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand…”
I would seriously explore the Hebrew literature on these two words, and Rabbinical commentary.
Credibility is earned. And just pushing the English interpretation of a just a few meanings in English is just going to leave you high and dry. What do you have right now?
- It has to be visual?
- It has to involve having dominion over the animals?
- It has to explain why God would attach a severe punishment to killing a living thing that had this quality?
I have given you a speculation about what pattern fits, and more importantly, what doesn’t fit:
A) If it’s VISUAL… then why shouldn’t there be a penalty for crippling a person, rather than killing one? You can kill someone and not affect their appearance.
B) Does this sound credible? That it is human appearance that makes murder so taboo?
C) Then, what does appearance have to do with having dominion over animals? Would a gorilla qualify as ALSO having dominion? What if you shaved a gorilla… would that qualify him?
However, if you explore “thought”, “thinking”, a “shadow” as the evidence of a “spirit” … perhaps even equated with “mind” ? And I have already shown you that “likeness” can apply to behavior, not just appearance.
So, let’s go back over (A), (B) and ©:
A) If it is “mind” or “thinking” that is copied in humans, would killing a “thinking man”, a “sapiens” be worthy of a taboo? I think a lot of people would.
B) Does it sound credible that a person’s mind is more important than a person’s appearance? Again, that seems pretty credible.
C) What does thinking have to do with dominion over animals? Isn’t God’s dominion over humanity based on God’s greater mind?.. rather than his greater anatomy?
Surely, there is nothing here that I can say that will convince you … but at least I’ve made a case that gets us into the ball park. Credibility is earned… I’ll see you in a year and see if you are still batting around “image bearers” as the mirror image of God’s body…