By: Álvaro López Asensio.
Website: www.alopezasen.com
1.- THE USE OF TERMS
The New Testament was written in Greek. The idea of the Resurrection is usually expressed with Greek verbs:Egeirein” (awakening) and “anistanai” (to lift, to make lift).
TO.- "Egirein”: It is rarely used in classical Greek to express the idea of resurrection. However, in the New Testament it is the verb that most frequently expresses the idea of resurrection. It appears used absolutely and also with “ek toon nekroon"And"apo nekroon”, that is, resurrected (from the dead) (Mt 27:53).
The subject of “egeirein"It is always God. Thus, the resurrection appears as God's act toward Jesus. God can thus be designated as "the one who raised Jesus" (Rom 4:24; 2 Cor 4:14; Gal 1:1; Col 2:12; 1 Pet 1:21).
B.- “Anistanai”: In classical Greek it is frequently used to express the idea of resurrection. In the Old Testament it is used only once (2 Macc 7:9) in Hebrew.
For the Synotic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), the subject of “anistanai"It is God who suggests that Jesus of Nazareth"has been resurrected by God”. As a result, the apostle Paul of Tarsus says about it: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way God will take with him those who died in Jesus.” (1 Thess 4:14).
Exceptions to this usage are found in John's Christology. According to this evangelist, Christ has the power to rebuild the Temple from his own body (Jn 2:19). He has the power to voluntarily lay down his life and to take it up again (Jn 10:17-18). He has the power to give life to whomever he wills (Jn 5:21). He has the ability to rise again on the last day (Jn 6:39). John even goes so far as to identify Christ with the resurrection:I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11:25). In the Apocalypse it is not said that Christ has risen, but that he is alive and that he has the keys to heaven (Rev 1:18; 2:8).
2.- THE MEANING OF THE TERMS
A.- Awakening: the main meaning of “egeirein”. According to this, death is conceived as a sleep, and resurrection as an awakening of people brought about by God. Falling asleep is a very common conventional euphemism in Greek literature (Homer) to express death.
In the New Testament “fall asleep" is a conventional expression to say "morir” (Mt 27:52; 1 Cor 7:39). Dead believers are those who have fallen asleep in Christ or through Christ (1 Thess 4:14; 1 Cor 15:18).
This expression is so conventional that it cannot give us any information about the condition of death or the nature of the resurrection. Resurrection as an awakening from death is not an idea that influenced the New Testament conception of the resurrection, at least not that of Jesus. In this sense, we can say that this idea of awakening does not fit well with the indication "the nekroon"(from among the dead); it would be expected"ek zaátou” (of death).
B.- Lift: The verb "anistanai" also means "to set up, to erect”. According to this, the dead are imagined as someone who has fallen, and death as something that places the person in this situation of incapacity. The resurrection is what puts the person back on his feet, lifts him up, and restores him.
This meaning is found in the New Testament (Mark 9:27; Matthew 9:25). It better reflects Jewish concepts in general and the Old Testament, which conceive of death as a sign of incapacity and decay and resurrection as a restoration of the person.
C.- Take out: There is another possible meaning, along the same lines as “lift up”. In the Letter to the Romans by Paul of Tarsus (Rom 10, 7-9), death is conceived as the abyss or pit of sheol where Christ descended after his death on the cross. The resurrection is “to raise Christ from the dead"and therefore the resurrection is conceived as taking the dead Christ out of the power of the sheol.
Death has been seen in the light of sheol as a place where the dead end up or "refrain"Hebrews and who await the moment of resurrection to be judged on the Day of Judgment. In this way, death has probably come to be personified as a power and the resurrection considered a final victory.
This is clearly evident in Pauline theology. For Paul of Tarsus, death reigns through sin (Rom 5:17), but it no longer holds sway over Christ, for his death was a total death to sin (Rom 6:9). The last enemy to be defeated will be death, but it will also be destroyed (1 Cor 15:26).
Along these same lines we find expressions in the Letter of Timoneo, Don Pablo says: “Christ Jesus who has destroyed death and has made the light of life and immortality shine through the gospel” (1 Tim 1, 10). In the letter to the Hebrews it is said that “He annihilated the lord of death, the Devil, through death” (Hebr 2, 14). In the book of Revelation Christ is spoken of as “I am alive forever and ever and I have the keys of death and Hades.” (Rev 1:18).
3.- BY WAY OF CONCLUSION
With the exception of this last meaning, we have seen that the etymological analysis of the terminology of resurrection sheds little light on the nature of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
God is a living God, and therefore not a God of the dead, but of the living (Mark 12:27; Luke 20:38; 1 Thess 1:9). Jesus' resurrection is a life after death, an overcoming of death. Therefore, he has dominion over all people and is Lord of the living and the dead (Rom 14,9:XNUMX).His life is a living for God” (Rom 6:13).
If resurrection is understood as an entry into divine life, it is natural that the term glorification is used to speak of the resurrection. This is particularly evident in the Gospel of John (Jn 7:39; 12:16; 17:1-5), but also in other New Testament traditions (Hebrews 9; Luke 24:26; Rom 6:4; 1 Tim 3:16; 1 Pet 1:11).