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5:14; 1 Thess. 5:6, 10 (as in Mark 13:36), a condition of insensibility to divine things
involving conformity to the world (cf.
$
below).
2.
(
1
, 2837) is used of natural “sleep,” Matt. 28:13; Luke 22:45;
John 11:12; Acts 12:6; of the death of the body, but only of such as are Christ’s; yet
never of Christ Himself, though He is “the firstfruits of them that have fallen asleep,” 1
Cor. 15:20, of saints who departed before Christ came, Matt. 27:52; Acts 13:36; of
Lazarus, while Christ was yet upon the earth, John 11:11; of believers since the
Ascension, 1 Thess. 4:13-15, and Acts 7:60; 1 Cor. 7:39; 11:30; 15:6, 18, 51; 2 Pet. 3:4.¶
Note:
“This metaphorical use of the word sleep is appropriate, because of the
similarity in appearance between a sleeping body and a dead body; restfulness and peace
normally characterize both. The object of the metaphor is to suggest that, as the sleeper
does not cease to exist while his body sleeps, so the dead person continues to exist
despite his absence from the region in which those who remain can communicate with
him, and that, as sleep is known to be temporary, so the death of the body will be found
to be.…
“That the body alone is in view in this metaphor is evident, (a) from the derivation of
the word
, from
, to lie down (cf.
, resurrection, from
,
‘up,’ and
to cause to stand); cf. Isa. 14:8, where for ’laid down,’ the Sept. has
‘fallen asleep’; (b) from the fact that in the NT the word resurrection is used of the body
alone; (c) from Dan. 12:2, where the physically dead are described as ‘them that sleep
(Sept.
$
, as at 1 Thess. 5:6) in the dust of the earth,’ language inapplicable to the
spiritual part of man; moreover, when the body returns whence it came, Gen. 3:19, the
spirit returns to God who gave it, Eccl. 12:7.
“When the physical frame of the Christian (the earthly house of our tabernacle, 2 Cor.
5:1) is dissolved and returns to the dust, the spiritual part of his highly complex being, the
seat of personality, departs to be with Christ, Phil. 1:23. And since that state in which the
believer, absent from the body, is at home with the Lord, 2 Cor. 5:6-9, is described as
‘very far better’ than the present state of joy in communion with God and of happy
activity in His service, everywhere reflected in Paul’s writings, it is evident the word
‘sleep,’ where applied to the departed Christians, is not intended to convey the idea that
the spirit is unconscious.…
“The early Christians adopted the word
(which was used by the Greeks
of a rest-house for strangers) for the place of interment of the bodies of their departed;
thence the English word ‘cemetery,’ ‘the sleeping place,’ is derived.”*
3.
@$
(
#
&
, 1852), “to awake” ( , “out,”
$
, “sleep”), “to awake out
of sleep,” is used in John 11:11.¶ In the Sept., Judg. 16:14, 20; 1 Kings 3:15; Job 14:12.¶
4.
$
(
, 879), “to fall asleep” ( , “away”), is used of natural
“sleep,” Luke 8:23, of the Lord’s falling “asleep” in the boat on the lake of Galilee.¶
B. Adjective.
@$
(
+
, 1853), Acts 16:27, signifies “out of sleep.”¶