ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Lexicon

G0386 - anastasis

Strong's: G0386 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: an-as'-tas-is Part of speech: feminine noun Root: ana- (up / again) + stasis (a standing), literally "a standing up again" NT occurrences: 42

Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG / TDNT)

There are ads on our codex that pay for hosting and keep the codex free. If you can, please consider whitelisting ris3n.com or allowing scripts to support the work.

Sponsored

  1. A rising / standing up, physical raising
  2. Resurrection from the dead, the dominant NT theological sense
  3. A rising up from spiritual death to spiritual life (some Pauline / Johannine uses)

The KJV: "resurrection" (40x), "raised to life again" (1x), "rising again" (1x).

Theological force, the resurrection

Anastasis is the central NT eschatological term. Three theological dimensions:

1. Christ's bodily resurrection

The historical event grounding all Christian eschatological hope:

  • Acts 1:22, "a witness with us of anastaseōs"
  • Acts 2:31, "he foresaw the anastasin of Christ"
  • Acts 4:33, "the apostles bore witness of anastaseōs of the Lord Jesus"
  • Acts 17:18, Paul "preaching Jesus and the anastasin" (the Athenian crisis-point)
  • Romans 1:4, Christ "declared the Son of God with power… by the anastaseōs from the dead"
  • Romans 6:5, "united with Him in the likeness of His anastaseōs"
  • 1 Corinthians 15, extended treatment of anastasis: Christ's rising and the believer's

2. The believer's future bodily resurrection

The eschatological hope:

  • John 5:29, "anastasin zōēs and anastasin kriseōs", resurrection of life and resurrection of judgment
  • John 11:24, Martha: "I know that he will rise in the anastasei on the last day"
  • 1 Corinthians 15:42, "the anastasis of the dead… sown perishable, raised imperishable"
  • Philippians 3:11, "if somehow I might attain the exanastasin (out-resurrection)"
  • 2 Timothy 2:18, Hymenaeus and Philetus: "the anastasin has already taken place" (heretical denial of future bodily resurrection)
  • Revelation 20:5-6, "this is the first anastasis"

3. The general resurrection

Both righteous and wicked are raised:

  • Acts 24:15, "anastasin both of the righteous and the wicked"
  • Daniel 12:2, OT background ("many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt")

Christ's resurrection as firstfruits

1 Corinthians 15:20-23, Christ as aparchē (firstfruits) of the anastasis. The argument:

"But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the anastasis of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming."

The pattern: Christ's anastasis is the model and guarantee of the believer's. He is the prototype; we follow.

Anastasis against ancient alternatives

The bodily-physical anastasis is categorically distinct from:

  • Greek philosophical immortality of the soul, the soul is naturally immortal; the body is irrelevant. NT: the body is part of the redemption (Romans 8:23).
  • Pagan dying-and-rising god myths, vegetative-cyclical resurrection (Adonis, Tammuz, Osiris); never bodily-historical
  • Reincarnation, soul transmigrates into another body; not the same body
  • Spiritual-only resurrection, Hymenaeus / Philetus (2 Tim 2:18); modern liberal Bultmannian "demythologization"

NT anastasis is bodily, physical, historical, glorified, a transformed continuation of the same body (1 Cor 15:42-49).

The resurrection body

1 Corinthians 15:42-49, characteristics of the resurrection body:

  • Imperishable (vs perishable)
  • Glorious (vs in dishonor)
  • Powerful (vs in weakness)
  • Spiritual (pneumatikon, "Spirit-empowered" / "Spirit-animated"; not non-physical; cf. Luke 24.39, "flesh and bones")
  • Heavenly (in Christ's pattern, cf. Phil 3:21)

The resurrection body is the same body (continuity preserved, see Christ's wounds, Jn 20:27) yet transformed (glorified, imperishable).

Apologetic significance

Anastasis is one of the most apologetically loaded NT terms:

  1. Anchors the Argument from the Resurrection, Christ's anastasis as historical event
  2. Differentiates Christianity from pagan religion, bodily-historical vs spiritual-mythical
  3. Grounds Christian eschatology, bodily future hope vs Greek-philosophical immortality
  4. Refutes Sadducees / modern naturalists, physical resurrection is real
  5. Engages cults, JW resurrection-as-recreation differs from biblical bodily-continuation

Notable verses

Christ's resurrection

Future resurrection

Cognates

  • anistēmi (G450), the verb "to raise / stand up" (107 NT uses)
  • egeirō (G1453), parallel verb "to raise" (144 NT uses; often passive of God's raising of Christ)
  • exanastasis (G1815), the "out-resurrection" of Phil 3:11

Patristic / scholarly note

Patristic engagement:

  • Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho; On the Resurrection)
  • Tertullian (De Resurrectione Carnis)
  • Athanasius (De Incarnatione, central to incarnation-resurrection-soteriology integration)
  • Augustine (City of God XIII; XX-XXII, extensive eschatological treatment)

Modern conservative:

  • Murray Harris (Raised Immortal, 1985)
  • N. T. Wright (The Resurrection of the Son of God, 2003), 800-page comprehensive treatment
  • Anthony Hoekema (The Bible and the Future, 1979)
  • Wolfhart Pannenberg (Jesus, God and Man, 1968), modern Lutheran systematic
  • Mike Licona (The Resurrection of Jesus, 2010)
  • Gary Habermas (multiple works)

See also

Notes

Lexical workspace for anastasis.