2 Kings 4:35

4:35 Elisha ¹  went back and walked around in the house. ²  Then he got up on the bed again ³  and bent down over him. The child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

Isaiah 26:19

26:19 ⁴ Your dead will come back to life;

your corpses will rise up.

Wake up and shout joyfully, you who live in the ground! ⁵ 

For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, ⁶ 

and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits. ⁷ 

Ezekiel 37:1-10

The Valley of Dry Bones

37:1 The hand ⁸  of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and placed ⁹  me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones. 37:2 He made me walk all around among them. ¹⁰  I realized ¹¹  there were a great many bones in the valley and they were very dry. 37:3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said to him, “Sovereign Lord, you know.” 37:4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and tell them: ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 37:5 This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones: Look, I am about to infuse breath ¹²  into you and you will live. 37:6 I will put tendons ¹³  on you and muscles over you and will cover you with skin; I will put breath ¹⁴  in you and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

37:7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. There was a sound when I prophesied – I heard ¹⁵  a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 37:8 As I watched, I saw ¹⁶  tendons on them, then muscles appeared, ¹⁷  and skin covered over them from above, but there was no breath ¹⁸  in them.

37:9 He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, ¹⁹  – prophesy, son of man – and say to the breath: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these corpses so that they may live.’” 37:10 So I prophesied as I was commanded, and the breath came into them; they lived and stood on their feet, an extremely great army.

Matthew 27:52-53

27:52 And tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had died ²⁰  were raised. 27:53 (They ²¹  came out of the tombs after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.)

John 5:25

5:25 I tell you the solemn truth, ²²  a time ²³  is coming – and is now here – when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

John 5:28-29

5:28 “Do not be amazed at this, because a time ²⁴  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. ²⁵ 

John 11:44

11:44 The one who had died came out, his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth, ²⁶  and a cloth wrapped around his face. ²⁷  Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him ²⁸  and let him go.”

Acts 5:15

5:15 Thus ²⁹  they even carried the sick out into the streets, and put them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow would fall on some of them.

Acts 19:12

19:12 so that when even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his body ³⁰  were brought ³¹  to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. ³² 

Revelation 11:11

11:11 But ³³  after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and tremendous fear seized ³⁴  those who were watching them.

[4:35]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:35]  ² tn Heb “and he returned and went into the house, once here and once there.”

[4:35]  ³ tn Heb “and he went up.”

[26:19]  ⁴ sn At this point the Lord (or prophet) gives the people an encouraging oracle.

[26:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “dust” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[26:19]  ⁶ 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.

[26:19]  ⁷ 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).

[37:1]  ⁸ tn Or “power.”

[37:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “caused me to rest.”

[37:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he made me pass over them, around, around.”

[37:2]  ¹¹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and is here translated as “I realized” because it results from Ezekiel’s recognition of the situation around him. In Hebrew, the exclamation is repeated in the following sentence.

[37:5]  ¹² tn Heb “I am about to bring a spirit.”

[37:6]  ¹³ tn The exact physiological meaning of the term is uncertain. In addition to v. 8, the term occurs only in Gen 32:33; Job 10:11; 40:17; and Jer 48:4.

[37:6]  ¹⁴ tn Or “a spirit.”

[37:7]  ¹⁵ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[37:8]  ¹⁶ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[37:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “came up.”

[37:8]  ¹⁸ tn Or “spirit.”

[37:9]  ¹⁹ tn Or “spirit,” and several times in this verse.

[27:52]  ²⁰ tn The verb κοιμάω (koimaw) literally means “sleep,” but it is often used in the Bible as a euphemism for the death of a believer.

[27:53]  ²¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[5:25]  ²² tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[5:25]  ²³ tn Grk “an hour.”

[5:28]  ²⁴ tn Grk “an hour.”

[5:29]  ²⁵ tn Or “a resurrection resulting in judgment.”

[11:44]  ²⁶ sn Many have wondered how Lazarus got out of the tomb if his hands and feet were still tied up with strips of cloth. The author does not tell, and with a miracle of this magnitude, this is not an important fact to know. If Lazarus’ decomposing body was brought back to life by the power of God, then it could certainly have been moved out of the tomb by that same power. Others have suggested that the legs were bound separately, which would remove the difficulty, but the account gives no indication of this. What may be of more significance for the author is the comparison which this picture naturally evokes with the resurrection of Jesus, where the graveclothes stayed in the tomb neatly folded (20:6-7). Jesus, unlike Lazarus, would never need graveclothes again.

[11:44]  ²⁷ tn Grk “and his face tied around with cloth.”

[11:44]  ²⁸ tn Grk “Loose him.”

[5:15]  ²⁹ tn This is a continuation of the preceding sentence in Greek, but because this would produce an awkward sentence in English, a new sentence was begun here in the translation.

[19:12]  ³⁰ tn Or “skin” (the outer surface of the body).

[19:12]  ³¹ tn Or “were taken.” It might be that as word went out into the region that since the sick could not come to Paul, healing was brought to them this way. The “handkerchiefs” are probably face cloths for wiping perspiration (see BDAG 934 s.v. σουδάριον) while the “aprons” might be material worn by workmen (BDAG 923-24 s.v. σιμικίνθιον).

[19:12]  ³² tn The words “of them” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[11:11]  ³³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[11:11]  ³⁴ tn Grk “fell upon.”