Resurrection

Greek word - (anastasis G386)

Quiz - Choose the answer that is closest to what you think RESURRECTION is.
A - a return back to life
B - a revitalization
C - the afterlife
D - the spiritual world

Problem - Outdated

KJV Example - "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." (John 11:25)

Explanation

The word, resurrection, comes from French and Latin and was first used to name a festival of the Church of England that commemorated Jesus' rising from the dead. It is likely that people back then did not know what this new word, resurrection, was.

In Greek it is simpler. Anastasis literally means to stand (stasis) up (ana) or to stand (stasis) again (ana can also mean again).

Picture a dead body standing up and you get the idea of what a resurrection is.

Many of the Jews believed that there would be a time in the future when Jewish people would come back to life and live again. In John 11:24, Martha said to Jesus about her brother, Lazarus, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." This resurrect is anastasis, the return back to life.

There was a sect of the Jews (the Sadducees) that did not believe in a resurrection. They believed that when a person dies, he dies and that is the end. There is no afterlife.

The Sadducees confronted Jesus about this. He confirmed that there is a resurrection and implied that in some sense it happens upon death. He implied this by saying that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were living, not dead (Matthew 22:32).

Jesus also referred to the resurrection as future (John 5:28, 29). Some day Jesus will give the command and the dead will come back to life, the saved to a resurrection for life and the unsaved to a resurrection for judgment.

Three days after Jesus was killed on a cross, He gave new meaning to this word. His dead body stood up. He came back to life. This is called the anastasis (resurrection) of Christ.

So there are three resurrections in the Bible: Jesus' coming back to life, the living of dead people's souls, and the coming back to life of dead people's bodies sometime in the future.

The King James Version translates anastasis as resurrection (39 times), rise again (once), to rise (once), and raised to life again (once). I translate it as "return back to life" every time.

In the Bible, resurrection is return back to life.

Modern Synonym - return back to life

Bible Version Tally (how other versions translate this word) - resurrection (43 of 51), raises from the dead (4 of 51), brings back to life (2 of 51), again-rising (1 of 51), rising again (1 of 51)

Breakthrough Version - "Jesus said to her, 'I am the Return back to life and the Life. The person trusting in Me, even if he were dead, he will live.'" (John 11:25)