Yesaya 25:8

25:8 he will swallow up death permanently. ¹ 

The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face,

and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.

Indeed, the Lord has announced it! ² 

Yesaya 26:19

26:19 ³ Your dead will come back to life;

your corpses will rise up.

Wake up and shout joyfully, you who live in the ground! ⁴ 

For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, ⁵ 

and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits. ⁶ 

Hosea 13:14

The Lord Will Not Relent from the Threatened Judgment

13:14 Will I deliver them from the power of Sheol? No, I will not! ⁷ 

Will I redeem them from death? No, I will not!

O Death, bring on your plagues! ⁸ 

O Sheol, bring on your destruction! ⁹ 

My eyes will not show any compassion! ¹⁰ 

Matius 22:29

22:29 Jesus ¹¹  answered them, “You are deceived, ¹²  because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God.

Matius 28:18

28:18 Then Jesus came up and said to them, ¹³  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Yohanes 5:25-29

5:25 I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁴  a time ¹⁵  is coming – and is now here – when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 5:26 For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself, 5:27 and he has granted the Son ¹⁶  authority to execute judgment, ¹⁷  because he is the Son of Man.

5:28 “Do not be amazed at this, because a time ¹⁸  is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 5:29 and will come out – the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation. ¹⁹ 

Yohanes 11:24-26

11:24 Martha said, ²⁰  “I know that he will come back to life again ²¹  in the resurrection at the last day.” 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live ²²  even if he dies, 11:26 and the one who lives and believes in me will never die. ²³  Do you believe this?”

Yohanes 11:1

The Death of Lazarus

11:1 Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. ²⁴ 

Kolose 1:25-27

1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship ²⁵  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete ²⁶  the word of God, 1:26 that is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints. 1:27 God wanted to make known to them the glorious ²⁷  riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Kolose 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ²⁸  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Efesus 1:19-20

1:19 and what is the incomparable ²⁹  greatness of his power toward ³⁰  us who believe, as displayed in ³¹  the exercise of his immense strength. ³²  1:20 This power ³³  he exercised ³⁴  in Christ when he raised him ³⁵  from the dead and seated him ³⁶  at his right hand in the heavenly realms ³⁷ 

Wahyu 1:8

1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” ³⁸  says the Lord God – the one who is, and who was, and who is still to come – the All-Powerful! ³⁹ 

Wahyu 1:18

1:18 and the one who lives! I ⁴⁰  was dead, but look, now I am alive – forever and ever – and I hold the keys of death and of Hades! ⁴¹ 

Wahyu 20:11-15

The Great White Throne

20:11 Then ⁴²  I saw a large ⁴³  white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven ⁴⁴  fled ⁴⁵  from his presence, and no place was found for them. 20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then ⁴⁶  books were opened, and another book was opened – the book of life. ⁴⁷  So ⁴⁸  the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. ⁴⁹  20:13 The ⁵⁰  sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death ⁵¹  and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds. 20:14 Then ⁵²  Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire. 20:15 If ⁵³  anyone’s name ⁵⁴  was not found written in the book of life, that person ⁵⁵  was thrown into the lake of fire.

¹ sn The image of the Lord “swallowing” death would be especially powerful, for death was viewed in Canaanite mythology and culture as a hungry enemy that swallows its victims. See the note at 5:14.

² tn Heb “has spoken” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

³ sn At this point the Lord (or prophet) gives the people an encouraging oracle.

⁴ tn Heb “dust” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

⁵ tn Heb “for the dew of lights [is] your dew.” The pronominal suffix on “dew” is masculine singular, like the suffixes on “your dead” and “your corpses” in the first half of the verse. The statement, then, is addressed to collective Israel, the speaker in verse 18. The plural form אוֹרֹת (’orot) is probably a plural of respect or magnitude, meaning “bright light” (i.e., morning’s light). Dew is a symbol of fertility and life. Here Israel’s “dew,” as it were, will soak the dust of the ground and cause the corpses of the dead to spring up to new life, like plants sprouting up from well-watered soil.

⁶ sn It is not certain whether the resurrection envisioned here is intended to be literal or figurative. A comparison with 25:8 and Dan 12:2 suggests a literal interpretation, but Ezek 37:1-14 uses resurrection as a metaphor for deliverance from exile and the restoration of the nation (see Isa 27:12-13).

⁷ tn The translation of the first two lines of this verse reflects the interpretation adopted. There are three interpretive options to v. 14: (1) In spite of Israel’s sins, the Lord will redeem them from the threat of death and destruction (e.g., 11:8). However, against this view, the last line of 13:14 probably means that the Lord will not show compassion to Israel. (2) The Lord announces the triumphant victory over death through resurrection (cf. KJV, ASV, NIV). However, although Paul uses the wording of Hosea 13:14 as an illustration of victory over death, the context of Hosea’s message is the imminent judgment in 723-722 b.c. (3) The first two lines of 13:14 are rhetorical questions without explicit interrogative markers, implying negative answers: “I will not rescue them!” (cf. NAB, NASB, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT). The next two lines in 13:14 are words of encouragement to Death and Sheol to destroy Israel. The final line announces that the Lord will not show compassion on Israel; he will not spare her.

⁸ tn Heb “Where, O Death, are your plagues?” (so NIV).

⁹ tn Heb “Where, O Sheol, is your destruction?” (NRSV similar).

sn The two rhetorical questions in 13:14b function as words of encouragement, inviting personified Death and Sheol to draw near like foreign invading armies to attack and kill Israel (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

¹⁰ tn Heb “Compassion will be hidden from my eyes” (NRSV similar; NASB “from my sight”).

¹¹ tn Grk “And answering, Jesus said to them.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation.

¹² tn Or “mistaken” (cf. BDAG 822 s.v. πλανάω 2.c.γ).

¹³ tn Grk “coming, Jesus spoke to them, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn, “saying”) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

¹⁴ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

¹⁵ tn Grk “an hour.”

¹⁶ tn Grk “him.”

¹⁷ tn Grk “authority to judge.”

¹⁸ tn Grk “an hour.”

¹⁹ tn Or “a resurrection resulting in judgment.”

²⁰ tn Grk “Martha said to him.”

²¹ tn Or “will rise again.”

²² tn That is, will come to life.

²³ tn Grk “will never die forever.”

²⁴ tn Grk “from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.”

²⁵ tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”

²⁶ tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.

²⁷ tn The genitive noun τῆς δόξης (ths doxhs) is an attributive genitive and has therefore been translated as “glorious riches.”

²⁸ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

²⁹ tn Or “immeasurable, surpassing”

³⁰ tn Or “for, to”

³¹ tn Grk “according to.”

³² tn Grk “according to the exercise of the might of his strength.”

sn What has been translated as exercise is a term used only of supernatural power in the NT, ἐνέργεια (energeia).

³³ tn Grk “which” (v. 20 is a subordinate clause to v. 19).

³⁴ tn The verb “exercised” (the aorist of ἐνεργέω, energew) has its nominal cognate in “exercise” in v. 19 (ἐνέργεια, energeia).

³⁵ tn Or “This power he exercised in Christ by raising him”; Grk “raising him.” The adverbial participle ἐγείρας (egeiras) could be understood as temporal (“when he raised [him]”), which would be contemporaneous to the action of the finite verb “he exercised” earlier in the verse, or as means (“by raising [him]”). The participle has been translated here with the temporal nuance to allow for means to also be a possible interpretation. If the translation focused instead upon means, the temporal nuance would be lost as the time frame for the action of the participle would become indistinct.

³⁶ tc The majority of mss, especially the Western and Byzantine mss (D F G Ψ Ï b r Ambst), have the indicative ἐκάθισεν (ekaqisen, “he seated”) for καθίσας (kaqisa", “when he seated, by seating”). The indicative is thus coordinate with ἐνήργησεν (enhrghsen, “he exercised”) and provides an additional statement to “he exercised his power.” The participle (found in Ì^92vid א A B 0278 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 2464 al), on the other hand, is coordinate with ἐγείρας (egeiras) and as such provides evidence of God’s power: He exercised his power by raising Christ from the dead and by seating him at his right hand. As intriguing as the indicative reading is, it is most likely an intentional alteration of the original wording, accomplished by an early “Western” scribe, which made its way in the Byzantine text.

³⁷ sn Eph 1:19-20. The point made in these verses is that the power required to live a life pleasing to God is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. For a similar thought, cf. John 15:1-11.

³⁸ tc The shorter reading “Omega” (ὦ, w) has superior ms evidence ({א¹ A C 1611}) to the longer reading which includes “the beginning and the end” (ἀρχὴ καὶ τέλος or ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος, arch kai telo" or Jh arch kai to telo"), found in א*^,2 1854 2050 2329 2351 Ï^A lat bo. There is little reason why a scribe would have deleted the words, but their clarifying value and the fact that they harmonize with 21:6 indicate that they are a secondary addition to the text.

³⁹ tn On this word BDAG 755 s.v. παντοκράτωρ states, “the Almighty, All-Powerful, Omnipotent (One) only of God…(ὁ) κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ π. …Rv 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 21:22.”

⁴⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

⁴¹ tn Concerning “Hades” BDAG 19 s.v. ᾅδης 1 and 2 states: “Orig. proper noun, god of the nether world, ‘Hades’, then the nether world, Hades as place of the dead, Ac 2:27, 31 (Ps 15:10; Eccl 9:10; PGM 1, 179; 16, 8; Philo, Mos. 1, 195; Jos., Bell. 1, 596, Ant. 6, 332). Of Jonah’s fish ἐκ τοῦ κατωτάτου ᾅδου. In the depths, contrasted w. heaven ἕως (τοῦ) ᾅδου Mt 11:23; Lk 10:15 (PsSol 15:10; cp.; Is 14:11, 15); ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ 16:23; ἐν ῝Αιδου ApcPt Rainer. Accessible by gates (but the pl. is also used [e.g. Hom., X., Ael. Aristid. 47, 20 K.=23 p. 450 D.] when only one gate is meant), hence πύλαι ᾅδου (Il. 5, 646; Is 38:10; Wsd 16:13; 3 Macc 5:51; Pss. Sol. 16:2. – Lucian, Menipp. 6 the magicians can open τοῦ ῝Αιδου τὰς πύλας and conduct people in and out safely) Mt 16:18…locked ἔχω τὰς κλεῖς τοῦ θανάτου καὶ τοῦ ᾅδου Rv 1:18 (the genitives are either obj. [Ps.-Apollod. 3, 12, 6, 10 Aeacus, the son of Zeus holds the κλεῖς τοῦ ῝Αιδου; SEG VIII, 574, 3 (III ad) τῷ τὰς κλεῖδας ἔχοντι τῶν καθ᾿ ῝Αιδου (restored)] or possess.; in the latter case death and Hades are personif.; s. 2)…Hades personif.…w. θάνατος (cp. Is 28:15; Job 38:17…) Rv 6:8; 20:13f.”

sn In the OT, Hades was known as Sheol. It is the place where the unrighteous will reside (Matt 11:23; Luke 16:23; Rev 20:13-14).

⁴² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

⁴³ tn Traditionally, “great,” but μέγας (megas) here refers to size rather than importance.

⁴⁴ tn Or “and the sky.” The same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky,” and context usually determines which is meant. In this apocalyptic scene, however, it is difficult to be sure what referent to assign the term.

⁴⁵ tn Or “vanished.”

sn The phrase the earth and the heaven fled from his presence can be understood (1) as visual imagery representing the fear of corruptible matter in the presence of God, but (2) it can also be understood more literally as the dissolution of the universe as we know it in preparation for the appearance of the new heaven and new earth (Rev 21:1).

⁴⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

⁴⁷ tn Grk “another book was opened, which is of life.”

⁴⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the books being opened.

⁴⁹ tn Grk “from the things written in the books according to their works.”

⁵⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

⁵¹ sn Here Death is personified (cf. 1 Cor 15:55).

⁵² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

⁵³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

⁵⁴ tn The word “name” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

⁵⁵ tn Grk “he”; the pronoun has been intensified by translating as “that person.”