Job 14:12

14:12 so man lies down and does not rise;

until the heavens are no more, ¹ 

they ²  will not awake

nor arise from their sleep.

Daniel 12:2

12:2 Many of those who sleep

in the dusty ground will awake –

some to everlasting life,

and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence. ³ 

Mark 5:39

5:39 When he entered he said to them, “Why are you distressed and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.”

John 11:11

11:11 After he said this, he added, ⁴  “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. ⁵  But I am going there to awaken him.”

John 11:43-44

11:43 When ⁶  he had said this, he shouted in a loud voice, ⁷  “Lazarus, come out!” 11:44 The one who had died came out, his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth, ⁸  and a cloth wrapped around his face. ⁹  Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him ¹⁰  and let him go.”

Ephesians 5:14

5:14 For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says: ¹¹ 

“Awake, ¹²  O sleeper! ¹³ 

Rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you!” ¹⁴ 

[14:12]  ¹ tc The Hebrew construction is “until not,” which is unusual if not impossible; it is found in only one other type of context. In its six other occurrences (Num 21:35; Deut 3:3; Josh 8:22; 10:33; 11:8; 2 Kgs 10:11) the context refers to the absence of survivors. Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Syriac, and Vulgate all have “till the heavens wear out.” Most would emend the text just slightly from עַד־בִּלְתִּי (’ad-bilti, “are no more”) to עַד בְּלוֹת (’ad bÿlot, “until the wearing out of,” see Ps 102:26 [27]; Isa 51:6). Gray rejects emendation here, finding the unusual form of the MT in its favor. Orlinsky (p. 57) finds a cognate Arabic word meaning “will not awake” and translates it “so long as the heavens are not rent asunder” (H. M. Orlinsky, “The Hebrew and Greek Texts of Job 14:12,” JQR 28 [1937/38]: 57-68). He then deletes the last line of the verse as a later gloss.

[14:12]  ² tn The verb is plural because the subject, אִישׁ (’ish), is viewed as a collective: “mankind.” The verb means “to wake up; to awake”; another root, קוּץ (quts, “to split open”) cognate to Arabic qada and Akkadian kasu, was put forward by H. M. Orlinsky (“The Hebrew and Greek Texts of Job 14:12,” JQR 28 [1937-38]: 57-68) and G. R. Driver (“Problems in the Hebrew Text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 72-93).

[12:2]  ³ sn This verse is the only undisputed reference to a literal resurrection found in the Hebrew Bible.

[11:11]  ⁴ tn Grk “He said these things, and after this he said to them.”

[11:11]  ⁵ tn The verb κοιμάω (koimaw) literally means “sleep,” but it is often used in the Bible as a euphemism for death when speaking of believers. This metaphorical usage by its very nature emphasizes the hope of resurrection: Believers will one day “wake up” out of death. Here the term refers to death, but “asleep” was used in the translation to emphasize the metaphorical, rhetorical usage of the term, especially in light of the disciples’ confusion over what Jesus actually meant (see v. 13).

[11:43]  ⁶ tn Grk “And when.”

[11:43]  ⁷ sn The purpose of the loud voice was probably to ensure that all in the crowd could hear (compare the purpose of the prayer of thanksgiving in vv. 41-42).

[11:44]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Grk “and his face tied around with cloth.”

[11:44]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Loose him.”

[5:14]  ¹¹ sn The following passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[5:14]  ¹² tn Grk “Rise up.”

[5:14]  ¹³ tn The articular nominative participle ὁ καθεύδων (Jo kaqeudwn) is probably functioning as a nominative for vocative. Thus, it has been translated as “O sleeper.”

[5:14]  ¹⁴ sn A composite quotation, possibly from Isa 26:19, 51:17, 52:1, and 60:1.