Immortality and Resurrection in the Bible

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"If a man dies, shall he live again?" Job 14:141

IMMORTALITY OR RESURRECTION: AN ANALYSIS OF IMMORTALITY IN THE BIBLE

By Cky J. Carrigan, Ph.D. (April 1997)

INTRODUCTION

What is immortality and what is the biblical evidence for it? Are God and man equally immortal? Is human immortality a natural state or a derived state? Is the intrinsic immortality of the human soul a biblical concept, a Greek concept, or both? If man's immortality is derived, when does it occur and to whom does it occur? And are the ideas of immortality, resurrection, and eternal life the same or different? This paper will survey some definitions of immortality, observe some key biblical evidences for divine and human immortality, and analyze the relationship between immortality and resurrection, and the relationship between immortality and eternal life.

DEFINITIONS OF IMMORTALITY

Immortality may be defined in various ways depending on context of the discussion. Several distinct ideas are evoked by the term 'immortality' including the necessary continued existence of the human soul, the eternality of God, and the after-life of man. Luis Berkhof expresses four distinct connotations of the term 'immortality.' The most absolute sense of the word may only be ascribed to God. "God is the only being who possesses immortality as an original, eternal, and necessary endowment." Immortality also may mean a "continuous or endless existence" which is "ascribed to all spirits including the human soul" in the manner of natural religion. "When the body is dissolved, the soul does not share in its dissolution, but retains its identity as an individual being." Berkhof's third connotation of immortality is "the state of man in which he is entirely free from the seeds of decay and death." This was the state of man before the Fall. Immortality is also a future state made possible by the work of redemption. In this regard, redeemed man is immortal because he can not possibly become death's prey.2 Rather than describe immortality in four distinct ways, D. W. Kerr posits a single simplified definition which focuses on the extent to which a being may, or may not, continue to be. He writes, "Immortality in the biblical sense is a condition in which the individual is not subject to death or to any influence which might lead to death."3 Perhaps Murray J. Harris has fashioned the better definition of immortality. It accounts for God's absolute claim to immortality and man's provisional participation in it. He writes, "Immortality denotes the immunity from decay and death that results from having or sharing the eternal divine life."4

Conspicuously absent from the definitions of Kerr and Harris against Berkhof is a reference to the immortality of the soul.5 Berkhof writes, "The idea of the "immortality of the soul" is in perfect harmony with what the Bible teaches about man."6 Oscar Cullmann, however, adamantly disagrees with this sentiment. He presented a controversial paper at The Ingersoll Lectureship on "The Immortality of Man" at Harvard University in which he writes, "The immortality of the soul . . . is one of the greatest misunderstandings of Christianity. . . . The concept of death and resurrection is anchored in the Christ-event . . . and hence is incompatible with the Greek belief in immortality."7

Harris also disagrees with Berkhof about the intrinsic immortal nature of the human soul. He declines to integrate the biblical concept of immortality with Greek thinking about the immortality of the soul. The New Testament with the Old "never employs" the terms for immortality in connection with soul or spirit.8 Harris concludes, "The concept of 'the immortality of the soul' ill accords with the tenor of New Testament teaching and therefore the expression deserves no place in christian terminology."9

THE IMMORTALITY OF GOD

1 Timothy 6:13-16 provides a clear statement about the uniqueness of the immortality of God.

I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things. . . He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality (aphtharsia), dwelling in unapproachable light.

This important passage clearly affirms that only God may lay claim to absolute immortality. Thomas D. Lea defines the immortality of God as "his deathlessness and self-existence." He adds, "God alone possess this immortality."10 William Hendriksen calls the immortality of God "the inalienable enjoyment of all the divine attributes." And he compares the immortality of God with the immortality of a believer in the following way:

For the believer immortality is . . . everlasting salvation. For God [immortality] is eternal blessedness. . . . While the believer has received immortality, as one receives a drink of water from a fountain, God has it. He is himself the Fountain.11

Harris asserts that immortality, with reference to God, is a term which communicates the "activity and holiness of God." He describes the immortality of God as "his incessant life and action, and his inviolable holiness of character." Harris adds,

Immortality in God is not some passive inherent protection from the advent of death, nor simply the guarantee that traces of mortality will never appear in his character or conduct. . . . Immortality implies that life and activity are constantly present as well as that inactivity and death are permanently absent.

Death is inexorably linked with sin, so where there is sin there is death. The complementary truth, however, is that where there is no sin, there is no death. Immortality is a concomitant or corollary of holiness.12

Theologians generally agree about the necessary nature of God's immortality compared to the contingent nature of man's immortality. If only God is inherently immortal, then, according to Harris, it must follow that any extent to which man might be immortal is "gained as a gracious gift of the divine will." In other words, a necessary fact which correlates to the essential immortality of God is the derived immortality of man.13 Berkhof agrees here even though he disagrees with Harris about the immortality of the soul. He writes, "Whatever immortality may be ascribed to some of His creatures, is contingent on the divine will, is conferred upon them, and therefore had a beginning."14

IMMORTALITY OF MAN

Mortal Or Immortal At Creation?

The debate is not whether the immortality of God is absolute and essential or the immortality of man is contingent and derived. This matter is basically settled among Christian theologians. Only God's immortality is absolute and man's immortality is derived from God. There is a considerable amount of disagreement, however, between those who propose that man by nature is immortal from creation and those who propose that man by nature is not immortal from creation. Was man created immortal or not in the totality of his being: body and soul?

Berkhof posits that man was created immortal in body and soul. He asserts that the body "is not subject to death, but liable to it" and he posits that the soul "does not share in its [the body's] dissolution."15 Harris disagrees. He writes,

Man was created [in the totality of his being: body and soul] neither immortal nor mortal but with the potentiality to become either, depending on his obedience or disobedience to God. While he was not created with immortality, as far as the divine purpose was concerned he was created for immortality. . . . Man was not created unable to die (non posse mori) but able not to die (posse non mori), although after the Fall he was unable not to die (non posse non more).16

Perhaps Harris answers the question better than Berkhof concerning whether man was originally created immortal. If Harris is correct on this point, then the question remains concerning when individual men come to be immortal, if at all.

The Occasion For Receiving Immortality

Murray Harris identifies four views regarding the possible occasions for receiving immortality: at the death and resurrection of Christ, at the regeneration of the believer, at the death of the believer, and at the resurrection of believers on the Last Day.17

Perhaps one occasion for human reception of immortality may have been at the death and resurrection of Christ. One important New Testament passage seems to imply that the Saviour's death and resurrection provided the occasion for man's immortality. 2 Timothy 1:10 reads,

Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality (aphtharision) to light through the gospel.

Harris rejects the prospect that all men actually received immortality at Christ's resurrection. He writes, "It is not that Easter brought universal immortality but it did inaugurate an era marked by the promise of eternal life and of immortality."18 Lea notes that Paul generally uses "immortality" when referring to the bodily resurrection of the redeemed. Lea also implies that the resurrection of Christ generated a beginning of some sort for the believer's immortality. He writes, "The resurrection of Christ brought the nature of life out to public view for the first time."19

Another occasion for receiving immortality may be at the time of one's regeneration. 1 Peter 1:23 may imply that the immortality of man is obtained at the time of the believer's new birth. In other words, a person becomes immortal as a result of, and immediately after, his regeneration. The text reads, "Having been born again, not of corruptible (phthartos) seed but incorruptible (aphthartos), through the word of God."

Oscar Cullmann apparently advocates the reception of immortality on the occasion of the resurrection of Jesus and personal regeneration. This is a combination of the first two possibilities. But, he does not appeal to a biblical text to defend this assertion. He writes, "The soul is not intrinsically immortal, but rather became so only through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and through faith in him."20 Harris believes, however, that an interpretation which puts the immortality of man at the time of the believer's new birth is "at best an inference."21

2 Corinthians may provide some implicit evidence for believers becoming immortal at death. If 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 is an affirmation of the receipt of a spiritual body obtained by all believers at the point of death,22 then it could be said that immortality is gained at death as a result of the resurrection of Christ.23

The resurrection of believers on the Last Day may be the best supported occasion for actually receiving the gift of immortality in its fullest sense. 1 Corinthians 15 offers the most explicit evidence on this question. This biblical text explicitly aligns both resurrection and immortality with each other.

Concepts from all four views may be integrated to reach a possible solution. Perhaps the resurrection of Christ inaugurated the promise of human immortality. And perhaps, immortality gained potentiality at the moment of regeneration becomes an actual possession at the resurrection of the Last Day.

In light of the proposition that man is not immortal from creation in body or soul, Harris prefers the resurrection at the Last Day as the occasion for human immortality. He writes, "The New Testament simply portrays immortality as a divine gift gained through somatic resurrection, at or after the death of the believer. That is, immortality is a gift reserved for the afterlife."24

Recipients of Immortality

Since only God is absolutely immortal, then man's immortality is derived. Since man was not created immortal or since man does not universally possess immortality by virtue of his nature, then man must receive immortality on some occasion. The occasion on which man receives immortality is either at death or at the resurrection of the Last Day. But who will receive immortality on one of these occasions?

Harris asserts that only believers receive immortality. Immortality is conditional on the basis of 1 Corinthians 15, Romans 8, Ephesians 2, and Revelation 20-21. He writes, "Only those who belong to Christ are destined to share God's immortality."25

Summary Of The Immortality Of Man

The immortality of man is derived from God. Man was created able not to die (potentially immortal in his totality), but after the Fall he became unable not to die (mortal in his totality). The occasion for man's immortality must await his death or the resurrection in the Last Days. And only those in Christ will actually possess immortality and will enjoy eternal blessedness.

FOUR KEY NEW TESTAMENT TEXTS

The Old Testament lacks a distinctive term for immortality and addresses related issues infrequently, but it does provide a witness for some understanding of immortality, death, existence after death, and bodily resurrection.26 The New Testament, however, provides the more numerous, more revealing and clearer passages about immortality and the associated ideas of resurrection and eternal life.27 The following four New Testament passages are only a small fraction of the relevant texts, but they provide essential material for formulating doctrines about immortality and its relationship to resurrection and eternal life.

Luke 20:27-40

27 Then some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection (anastasin), came to Him and asked Him, saying: "Teacher, Moses wrote . . . 33 Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife does she become? For all seven had her as wife." 34 Then Jesus answered and said to them, "the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; 36a nor can they die anymore, 36b for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37 But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised (egeirontai), when he called the Lord 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' 38 For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him."

Harris makes several observations about the relationship between immortality and resurrection from this triple tradition passage. The resurrection of the just results in immortality. Immortality is described here in both positive and negative senses. Immortality in the positive sense is the resurrection of the just which brings a sharing of "the divine life" to the believer (v. 36b). Immortality in the negative sense is the resurrection of the just which brings "deathlessness" (v. 36a). And together, both of these aspects of immortality constitute a "future acquisition."

Immortality is also "the immediate participation in the eternal life of God." And on the basis of the divine sonship (v. 36b), which is a consequence of the resurrection, immortality, brings deathlessness. Therefore, deathlessness stems from divine sonship which stems from the resurrection. Or put in the reverse, the resurrection brings divine sonship which brings deathlessness.28

Alfred Plummer apparently sees no universal aspect in this passage. This implies that he would not apply this argument of Jesus to all humanity, whether he saw it as an argument for the immortality of the soul or an argument merely for the eschatological resurrection. He asserts that v. 35 "implies that some from among the dead are raised, while others as yet are not." He also suggests that the "all" mentioned in v. 38 does not mean absolutely all men, but only all who meet the qualifications in vv. 35-36.29

R. C. H. Lenski also implies that he would not see v. 38 supporting the necessary non-dissolution of the human soul, because Jesus' argument here was an affirmation of and defense for the bodily resurrection at the Last Day and not a remark about the intermediate state of the soul. 30

According to Robert Stein's exposition of this text, at the time of the resurrection the just will be immortal like the angels (v. 36)[emphasis mine]. He also posits, in a measured agreement with Harris, that all those who live (v. 38), do so "because of their association with the God of life." But, contrary to Harris, Stein asserts that v. 38 is not a reference to the patriarch's "future resurrection from their present state of sleep."31

Norval Geldenhuys sounds very much like Harris at one point and in opposition to him at another. In agreement, writing about vv. 36-38, he states, "All the redeemed who share in the life of the resurrection will be immortal . . . . And the reason for their immortality is that at the resurrection the redeemed are invested with glorified, heavenly bodies and will thus . . . have a real share in His divine nature. Like the immortal celestial beings, the angels, they, too, will then be immortal and celestial." Above, Geldenhuys speaks of immortality as a future state resulting from the resurrection, but below he speaks of immortality as a present and future state of the patriarchs. About vv. 37-38, Geldenhuys writes "If these patriarchs were not immortal, God would never call Himself their God." Because of God's covenant relationship with the patriarchs, "after their death they are still living and will one day share in the life of the resurrection" [emphasis mine].32

John 11:25-26

25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life (anastasis kai he zoe). He who believes in Me, though he may die (apothane), he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.

In the larger text about the death and resurrection of Lazarus (11:1-44), Jesus speaks of belief, resurrection, death and life. Harris identifies the relationship between immortality and resurrection in the following manner: The central theme of the larger passage is "the lordship of Jesus over death." According to the focal text of this passage, Jesus is the "pledge and agent" of both resurrection and eternal life (25a). Believers are "not guaranteed immunity from physical death," but they are guaranteed both the "triumph over death through resurrection" (25b) and a "ceaseless supply of resurrection life" (25a). Moreover, resurrection "is the prelude to immortality" and as deathlessness "is the outcome of resurrection." Finally, Harris observes that Lazarus "did not gain immortality" though he was resurrected. His risen state was "neither permanent . . . nor perfect."33

Whereas Harris sees triumph over death (resurrection) and the endless supply of resurrection life (life) in this text, C. H. Dodd sees an eternal life which is "enjoyed here and now" by believers (life), and the raising of the dead after the death of the body to a "renewed existence in a world beyond" (resurrection).34

Harris, and Dodd recognize two meanings in this passage even though interpreted differently, but Rudolph Bultmann who calls anastasis a "primitive concept," sees only one meaning here. He asserts, "The two lines say the same thing . . . the believer may suffer earthly death, but he has "life" in a higher, in an ultimate sense. And for the man who tarries in the earthly life and is a believer, there is no death in an ultimate sense. . . . Life and death have become unreal for him."35

1 Corinthians 15:51-54

51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed-- 52a in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. 52b For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible (hoi nekroi egerthesontai aphthartoi), and we shall be changed (hemeis allagesometha). 53a For this corruptible (phtharton) must put on incorruption (aphtharsian), 53b and this mortal (thneton) must put on immortality (athansian). 54a So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, 54b then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death (thanatos) is swallowed up in victory."

This passage, according to Harris, clarifies the relationship of resurrection and immortality in several ways. The dead will be raised imperishable "or immortal." Therefore, "the dead are not immortal before the resurrection," but the dead are immortal, "immediately after the resurrection." For Paul, "resurrection is never possessed before a resurrection transformation has occurred." Since all believers, dead and alive, will "receive a resurrection body" at the Second Advent, this demonstrates that "immortality is somatic."36 Additionally, the idea of transformation "is an essential ingredient in the Pauline doctrine of the End." Immortality is "more than the simple persistence of the soul through and beyond death." The "radical transformation of the whole person" makes what was "perishable" to become "imperishable." In other words, "mortal man has become immortal through transformation." Harris also asserts that while "the living are not raised," both the living and the dead are transformed. At the last trumpet, they both possess a spiritual body and acquire immortality.37

Leon Morris suggests that Paul describes the nature of the change or transformation in v. 53. The nature of the change is "the cessation of 'corruption' . . . and mortality." This implies that Morris would agree with Harris. Immortality is acquired at the time of the change and is not intrinsic in the 'pre-change' nature of man.

Karl Barth, an advocate of soul-sleep, seems to imply that the acquisition of immortality for believers awaits death as well. He would likely affirm with Harris that immortality is acquired in the future after death. Barth asserts that it is a "great error to think that by dying in itself one becomes immortal."38

F. W. Grosheide implies that he would be in general agreement with Harris too. He asserts that those who are transformed or changed, "receive eternity" and "will become imperishable at and through the resurrection." He adds further that all men will not universally "obtain incorruption and immortality."39

2 Corinthians 5:1-4

1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality (thneton) may be swallowed up by life.

The object of Paul's hope, according to Harris, was not disembodied existence, but the acquisition of a "spiritual body" through the resurrection of the dead or a resurrection transformation (of the living). This ensures "somatic immortality." Paul "longed for a form of embodiment far superior to earthly corporeality." Additionally, this passage shows in vv. 3-4 that "Paul is repudiating the fallacious deduction" which was made by some Corinthian 'proto-Gnostics' that his phrase, 'to put on immortality' used in 1 Corinthians 15.53-4 implied that the believer's final destiny was immortality without embodiment." Charles Hodge is an advocate of the intrinsic immortality of the human soul (see fn. 5) and therefore opposes Harris' overall approach to defining biblical immortality. Hodge identifies three interpretations of the "house not made with hands" (v. 1): heaven itself, the resurrection body, and the intermediate body which serves as the house which the soul enters at death. Hodge affirms the first interpretation and writes, "As soon as the soul leaves the body [at death] it is in heaven."40

F. F. Bruce's observations are in agreement with Harris about Paul's hope for embodiment, not disembodiment. Bruce writes, "Paul evidently could not contemplate immortality apart from resurrection; for him a body of some kind was essential to personality. . . . He could not conceive of conscious existence and communication with his environment in a disembodied state." Bruce harmonizes Paul's apparent inconsistencies between

1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Corinthians 5 in the following way: For Paul, a "split-second transformation takes place at the parousia" for the living, but for those who do not "survive until the parousia the new body will be immediately available at death."41

Perhaps it would be difficult to improve upon Stewart Salmond's opinions about Paul's teachings on immortality. The immortality to which Paul affirms is "an immortality for the living man." It is in "harmony with the Hebrew faith and Hebrew hope." Paul "never contemplates a simple immortality of the soul; he never argues for man's survival merely on the ground that there is a mind or spirit in him." Paul's hope "is not the Platonist hope of a release from the shackle and sepulcher of the body, not the hope of the survival of an immortal principle in man, but the hope of the endurance of the man himself."42

IMMORTALITY AND ETERNAL LIFE

The New Testament ideas of immortality and eternal life appear to overlap each other with certain similarities and differences. According to Harris, both concepts depict the "final state of blessedness . . . or heavenly mode of existence" (Rom. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:52-54; Gal. 6:8). "Both are gracious gifts of God unrelated to merit . . . but related to the fulfillment of certain conditions" (Acts 11:18; 13:48; Rom. 6:23; 1 Cor. 15:52f; 1 Tim. 1:16; 1 John 5:13). And "both are inseparably related to resurrection transformation" (Rom. 6:22-23, 8:11,23 for eternal life. 1 Cor. 15:35-37 for immortality).

The ideas of immortality are slightly different in at least three ways as well. Eternal life is a positive expression related to life while immortality is a negative expression related to death. John, who only uses the term "eternal life" and never uses the term "immortality," sees eternal life as a "present reality" and a "future experience." But, Paul uses both terms and depicts them both as future matters. And finally, Harris proposes that "eternal life is the positive aspect of immortality, and that immortality is the future aspect of eternal life."43

IMMORTALITY AND RESURRECTION: A SUMMARY

It seems clear that there is a substantial body of biblical evidence to support both immortality (properly defined) and resurrection as mutually complimentary biblical concepts. While Cullmann may wish to strike the entire idea of immortality from Christianity as a Hellenistic adaptation and replace it with resurrection; and Calvin, Strong, Hodge, and Berkhof may wish to keep the natural immortality of the soul doctrine as medicine against the annihilationists alongside resurrection; Murray Harris prefers to hold a distinctively biblical and non-Hellenistic view of immortality and resurrection transformation.

Perhaps Harris has captured the relationship between immortality and resurrection best. For him the relationship between these ideas is "inseparable." "It is only by means of a resurrection transformation that the believer gains immortality, and the receipt of immortality is the invariable result of experiencing a resurrection transformation." The New Testament idea of resurrection-transformation "guarantees that immortality is personal . . . corporate . . . and somatic." And the New Testament concept of immortality "guarantees that resurrection is a continuing state," a "permanent" condition, and a "transformed state constantly sustained by God's life and power."44

CONCLUSION

The biblical, particularly New Testament, definition of immortality is immunity from decay and death that proceeds from sharing the eternal life of God. In contradiction to the traditional "immortality of the soul" advocates, immortality is not intrinsic to all humans by nature. Only God possesses absolute immortality which is a term that expresses God's unique eternal livingness and holiness. Therefore, man's immortality is derived from God and is a participation in God's livingness and holiness. Human immortality is a biblical concept that is inseparably related to resurrection and eternal life. Each of the three terms inform the others. Adam was created with 'immortability'45 but the consequence of the Fall produced certain mortality in him and all his prodigy. Certainly-mortal fallen man receives immortality as a gift from God, as a consequence of having exercised faith and repentance, because of Christ's death and resurrection. The temporal occasion for a believer's receipt of, or sharing in, God's immortality begins at the point of death46 when he will be present with the Lord in a house not made with hands47 and his final somatically immortal state is fully acquired at the Last Day when the dead in Christ will experience transformation-resurrection unto immortality and the living in Christ will experience transformation unto immortality. And this state will be sustained by God who will forevermore share His everliving-holy immortality with the otherwise everdying-unholy mortal objects of His mercy.

"If a man dies, shall he live again?" Job 14:14

"This I know, that in my flesh I shall see God." Job 19:26

______________

1All Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of The Holy Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1982).

2Luis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (1941; reprint, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1988), 672-673.

3D. W. Kerr, "Immortality," Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984), 552.

4Murray J. Harris, Raised Immortal: Resurrection and Immortality in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1983), 189.

5Agreeing with Harris that traditional ideas about the immortality of the soul are not biblically warranted, are Donald Guthrie, New Testament Theology (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1981), 819, 823, 833; and James Leo Garrett, Jr., Systematic Theology, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1995), 701-704. Agreeing with Berkhof about the necessary and universal immortality of the soul of man are A. H. Strong, "while the body was made corruptible and subject to death, the soul was made in the image of God, incorruptible and immortal," Systematic Theology (1907; reprint Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1993), 991; Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (n. d; reprint Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1986), 713f.; and John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, vol. 1, trans. Henry Beveridge (1536; reprint Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1983), 160f.

6Luis Berkhof, 672.

7Oscar Cullmann, "Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead?" Immortality and Resurrection, ed. Krister Stendahl (New York: MacMillan, 1965), 9. Cf., 11.

8Harris, 189. Seventeen times, one of three Greek words is rendered "immortality" in the New Testament, and never with "soul" or "spirit." The three Greek words used for immortality in the New Testament are athanasia (deathlessness) 3t, aphtharsia (incorruptibility) 7t, and aphtharton (incorruptible) 3t. For a complete listing of terms, definitions, and observations of the New Testament words for "immortality" see Harris, Appendix II, 273-275.

9Ibid., 237.

10Thomas D. Lea and Hayne P. Griffin, Jr., 1,2 Timothy and Titus, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992), 174.

11William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Pastoral Epistles, New Testament Commentary (1957; reprint Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1979), 207-208.

12Harris, 190-191.

13Ibid., 191.

14Berkhof, 672. Here he is referring to humans and spirit beings as well, presumably angels and demons.

15Ibid., 672-673.

16Harris, 193-194.

17Ibid., 194-197.

18Ibid., 194.

19Lea, 192.

20Cullmann, 11.

21Harris, 195.

22See Harris, 98-101, for additional discussion of this point. Harris' view is that "2 Corinthians 5, written from the perspective of the individual Christian, envisages transformation at death, while 1 Corinthians 15, expresses the corporate hope of the Church, places the resurrection at the second advent" (101).

23Ibid., 195. See p. 18 this paper for an additional analysis of 2 Corinthians 5.

24Ibid., 196.

25Ibid., 198. Harris does not affirm conditional immortality in the traditional sense of the term as it relates to the doctrine of annihilation of the unjust. "Immortality signifies not the survival of the soul or the person through and after death but the acquisition of deathlessness as a result of participation in the divine life" (p. 198). He adds, "Annihilation of the unrighteous . . . is not the necessary corollary of belief in immortality as the destiny only of the righteous" (p. 198). Several others agree with Harris on this point. See Stein, Geldenhuys, Hendriksen, and Grosheide, this paper.

26Some of the most important Old Testament passages are: Genesis 2:17, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Genesis 3:22, "Then the LORD God said, 'Behold the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.'" Genesis 5, in the genealogy from Adam to Lamech, Noah's father, all but Enoch dies. Job 14:14, "If a man dies shall he live again?" Job 19:26, "And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God." Proverbs 12:28, "In the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death (al-mawet)." Isaiah 26:19, "Your dead shall live; together with my dead body they shall arise." Daniel 12:2, "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt." See also Psalms 6:10; 16:9,11; 88:10-11; 115:17; and 110. See Harris 289-303 for a comprehensive listing of relevant Old and New Testament passages together with the literature of the intertestamental period and the early church that cut across the doctrines of immortality, resurrection and eternal life.

27There are about 100 verses in the Old Testament which inform the themes of immortality, resurrection and eternal life. But, there are more than 1000 such verses in the New Testament. See Harris, Index of References, 290-301.

28Ibid., 211.

29Alfred Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Luke, The International Critical Commentary (New York: Scribner's Sons, 1920), 469, 471.

30R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Luke's Gospel (Columbus: Wartburg Press, 1951), 1000.

31Robert H. Stein, Luke, New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992), 502-503.

32Norval Geldenhuys, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (1951; reprint, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1983), 511.

33Harris, 214.

34C. H. Dodd, The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958), 364.

35Rudolph Bultmann, The Gospel of John: A Commentary, trans. G. R. Beasley-Murray (1964; reprint, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1971), 402-403.

36F. F. Bruce agrees that immortality is bodily immortality in this passage. He writes, "It must be emphasized that, so far as men are concerned, aphtharsia and athanasia in Paul are predicated only of the body, not of the soul." See "Paul and Immortality," Scottish Journal of Theology 24 (1971): 466, fn. 2.

37Harris, 219.

38Karl Barth, The Resurrection of the Dead, trans. H. J. Stenning (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1933), 207.

39F. W. Grosheide, Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (1953; reprint, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1984), 392-393.

40Charles Hodge, An Exposition of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (n. d.; reprint, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1950), 107-112.

41F. F. Bruce, "Paul and Immortality," 466-471.

42Stewart D. F. Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortality (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1896), 574-577.

43Harris, 199-201.

44Ibid., 239-240.

45Able not to die in totality, but not certain not to die in totality.

46Unless he survives until the Parousia.

47An intermediate conscious state of being, not a disembodied immortal soul, but simply and mysteriously a redeemed person without a resurrection body.

***The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the North American Mission Board, the Southern Baptist Convention, or any other Southern Baptist Church or Agency***