DEATH (מָ֫וֶת, H4638; θάνατος, G2505).

I. Old Testament

A. Death is punishment for sin. The first reference to death in the OT (Gen 2:17), although not without its problems, nevertheless gives the basic orientation for the Biblical understanding of death. Here death is punishment for sin. This is seen further in the course of events: when Adam and Eve sinned, they were excluded from the Garden, the place of communion with God, also from access to the Tree of Life which would have prevented the onset of their dying (3:22, 23), and are consigned to a life of pain and toil which will terminate in physical dissolution (3:16-19). Theological distinctions are usually made between physical death, spiritual death, and eternal death and in general these are valid; but from the passage it appears that death in its totality is the result of sin. One must remember also that in the Biblical view, man is a psychosomatic unity. The whole man is the subject of death. In the history of the Church there have been those who have felt that physical death, the dissolution of the body, was normal and natural, and that this is only reversed by a divine provision, as shown in the Genesis narrative by access to the Tree of Life. The majority of orthodox theologians, however, have rejected this idea. The rest of the Biblical revelation, esp. that of the NT, seems to run counter to it, although it is often said that with our present physical make-up death is a biological necessity.

B. Death is a fact of human experience. It is certainly true that in much of the OT narrative, death is recorded as a universal fact of human experience (cf. the genealogical table of Genesis 5, with its monotonous repetition “and he died”), but this is not to say that the writers thought of death as “natural,” or as something which was part of God’s perfect will for man. It is indeed seen as inevitable for man in his present sinful and fallen state, but this is rather different. The bright exception of Enoch (Gen 5:24) gives an indication of something better and more desirable.

C. Death is something to be feared and avoided. This becomes clearer in considering the great number of places where the OT writers expressed their personal feelings, and speak of death as something to be feared and avoided at all costs (e.g. Pss 6:1-5; 88:1-14; Isa 38). It may be said that it is early death which is feared, and examples may be given (e.g., Gen 25:8) of men dying “in a good old age, an old man and full of years,” with the sense of satisfaction that they have enjoyed their natural span and that they continue to live on in their posterity, accepting their death as something natural. On the other hand, Psalm 90 bears witness to the belief that even a full life-span is short and is cut off because of God’s wrath.

It is true, of course, that much of the abhorrence of death expressed by the OT writers may be due to fear and avoidance of the unknown, so little having been positively revealed in the OT on the state of the dead. It is also true that in view of this, it was felt that death would cut one off from enjoyment of the covenant blessings, which in the OT were given in terms of the land, the Temple, the people and length of days. Even this fact may be used to show that death was considered as unnatural, since it might possibly separate from the living God, the God of the covenant, and therefore could not be part of God’s original purpose for man. If length of days is promised for obedience (Exod 20:12) and is a sign of God’s favor (Job 5:26), then the cutting off of those days, even when long, is an indication that death is something unnatural.

D. Death is not outside the control or rule of God. He can give escape from death (Ps 68:20; Isa 38:5; Jer 15:20). He can restore the dead to life (1 Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 4:34; 13:21). He kills and makes alive, brings down into Sheol and raises from there again (Deut 32:39; 1 Sam 2:6). He can take men to Himself without their dying (Gen 5:24; 2 Kings 2:11). He can bring death completely to nothing and triumph over it by raising the dead (Isa 25:8; 26:19; Ezek 37:11, 12; Dan 12:2; Hos 6:2; 13:14).

E. Death is not victorious. These last references introduce the hope expressed in the OT of victory over death. One or two of the vv. may refer to a revival of national fortunes, but others speak quite clearly of a resurrection from physical death, and to these may be added those which indicate a confidence in personal resurrection (e.g., Job 19:25-27; Pss 16:9-11; 17:15; 73:23-26). This hope, however slight, is nevertheless present in the OT, but finds its full flowering in the NT which reveals Christ “who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim 1:10).

II. New Testament

A. Death is the penalty for sin. The victory of Christ over death in His own resurrection from the dead and the consequences of this for believers, is the theme which dominates the NT in all its parts, but this is set against the backdrop of death as the penalty for sin. Paul traced back the entrance of death into the human race to the sin of the first man Adam (Rom 5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:22). No other NT writer makes this explicit connection but neither do they say anything which would militate against it; they are concerned, as is Paul in the main, rather with the empirical facts of man in sin. Indeed, the responsibility of the individual is not diminished by his involvement in Adam’s fall; for the individual “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23; cf. Ezek 18:4, 20). This is death in its totality, contrasted with “eternal life” in the second part of the v., and is elaborated and developed in different parts of the NT in the following ways:

1. Physical death. This is the result of the entrance of sin into the world through Adam. It is the lot of all men (Heb 9:27) and through fear of it and what may follow it (ibid.) they are throughout their lives in bondage (Heb 2:15; cf. Rom 8:15).

2. Spiritual death. All men are by nature spiritually dead, that is, alienated from God the Source of life by sin, insensible to divine things, unresponsive to His laws. This is clear from the words of Jesus (Matt 8:22; cf. Luke 15:32) as well as from the writings of Paul (Eph 2:1-3; 4:17-19; Col 2:13; cf. Jude 12).

3. Eternal death. Those who remain in spiritual death throughout their lives and do not believe on the Son of God, die in their sins (John 8:21, 24), remain under the wrath of God (3:36) and in the Day of Judgment will be consigned to a state of eternal separation from God, called in Scripture the second death (Rev 21:8).

B. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and so overcame death. This is the center of the NT message, and is witnessed to in every part of the NT. All four gospels record Jesus’ prophecies before the event (e.g. Mark 8:31; 9:31; John 2:19-22) and the event itself (Matt 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20, 21); it was the core of the apostolic preaching in Acts (e.g. Acts 2:24-36; 3:15; 17:31); and the epistles and the Apocalypse all bear witness to its centrality (e.g. Rom 1:4; 4:25; 1 Cor 15:4-8; Heb 13:20; 1 Pet 3:21, 22; Rev 1:5). He has “the keys of Death and Hades” (Rev 1:18); He has abolished death (2 Tim 1:10); He has overcome the devil, who had the power of death (Heb 2:14); He is the Head of the new humanity, the firstborn from the dead (Col 1:18); He has caused believers to be born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Pet 1:3).

This last reference introduces the blessings which come to believers as the result of Christ’s resurrection and triumph over death.

In the coming of Christ, and esp. in His resurrection, the eschatological process has begun, and the life of the age to come has broken into this present age. Believers already partake of the life of the coming age (John 3:36); for them the eschatological verdict has been passed. They have already passed from death—the condition of men in this age—to life (John 5:25). Paul makes a similar point when he says that in Christ, the Second Adam and Head of the new humanity, believers have died and risen again (Rom 6:1-4; Col 3:1-3) and therefore, although they still live in this world, their attitude to sin, the law and the world is to be that of dead men (Rom 6:11; Gal 2:19, 20; 6:14).

In Christ their Head believers partake of the life of the age to come, and physical death is for them a sleep (1 Thess 4:15; cf. Acts 7:59). The sting of death has been removed (1 Cor 15:56); it cannot separate from Christ (2 Cor 5:8; Phil 1:23) and so is not to be feared, and may even be desired (Phil 1:21-23).

At the Second Coming of Christ, believers’ bodies will be changed, and all traces of sin, mortality and death will be removed. Then death will be swallowed up in life (1 Cor 15:52-57).

At the judgment, death and Hades are said to be cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:14) signifying that as God brings in the new heaven and new earth (Rev 21) the last enemy, death (1 Cor 15:26), is finally and irrevocably destroyed. See Immortality.

Bibliography L. A. Muirhead, The Terms Life and Death in the Old and New Testaments (1908); R. H. Charles, Eschatology: Hebrew, Jewish and Christian (1913); J. C. Lamberts, HDAC I (1915), 698-700; H. Bavinck, ISBE II (1929), 811-813; L. Morris, The Wages of Sin (1955); Arndt (1957), 351, 352; T. C. Vriessen, An Outline of Old Testament Theology (1958), 201-212; J. J. von Allmen, VC (1958), 79-83; E. F. Harrison, BDT (1960), 158, 159; L. Morris, NBD (1962), 301, 302; F. C. Grant, et al. in HDB rev. (1963), 205-207; R. Bultmann in TDNT, III (1965), 7-25; ibid. IV (1966), 896-899.