John 11:25-26 - Jesus said to [Martha], "I am the resurrection and the life; the one believing in me, though they should die, will live. And all who live and believe in me WILL NOT DIE FOREVER." (sorry for shouting)
I spent an enjoyable morning with this passage. I first noticed the 'not die forever' construction in a seminary course on John and wrote my final paper on it. So, I feel somewhat qualified to share this information with you.
Most English translations, of course, translate the phrase 'ou me apokthane eis ton aiona' as never. Probably because it was an idiom for never. However, there were two more common ways to say never, 'ou me' by itself or 'oudepote." And while most of the time the 'not [verb] forever' construction means never, there are some instances in which in context it has to mean 'not [verb] forever.' Why am I telling you this? To back up my argument that the phrase should not be translated 'never.' It is misleading and can lead to bad theology.
First, let's start with the word 'life.' There are 2 words in Biblical Greek for life: bios and zoe. Bios refers to the physical life that animals, humans, and plants share. Zoe on the other hand refers to something much richer and more profound; the life lived in complete trust and dependency on God. Or in this case, Jesus. Guess which word Jesus uses? If you said, zoe, you're correct.
Jesus, then, is not talking about our physical death, but rather about what we might call spiritual or soul death. A better translation might be 'life force,' the breath of God. A person can be alive and not have this life; a person's body can be alive, but they are dead inside. Dante describes an extreme example of this in the "Inferno." In hell, Dante meets someone who he knows is still living, yet their soul is already in hell. What Jesus offers us here is this renewed life of the spirit. We die to our old ways that lead to death, and live to ways that lead to flourishing of ourselves and others through trust and dependency on God.
The word life in English does not capture this sense at all. In fact, in Greek, the word was already flattening out in the 5th century CE. Augustin had to make the distinction between physical death and spiritual death in order to preserve the fullness of the concept. "Sin is the death of the soul." Restoration and resurrection are ours when we confess. Jean Calvin also made this distinction in the 16th century CE.
The significant difference between 'never' and 'not ... forever' lies in when this zoe will come to us. The Greek construction, especially coming after Jesus telling Martha that those who believe in him "though they should die, will live," tells us that we as Christians who trust in God already have this life. Though our bodies may die, we will never lose this life.
"Everyone who lives and believes in me will not die forever," signals both the richer meaning of zoe as opposed to bios as well as the resurrection hope that these verses encapsulate: the believers' new lives in Jesus, their zoe, begins now and lasts forever."
No comments:
Post a Comment