Being raised from the dead. Resurrection has three primary meanings in the Bible.

1. Miraculous healings. In this usage, resurrection refers to individuals who have been brought back to life (resuscitated) in this present world. Such raisings were performed by Elijah on the Zarephath widow's son <1 Kin. 17:20-24>, by Elisha on the Shunammite woman's son <2 Kin. 4:32-37> and the dead man who touched Elisha's bones <2 Kin. 13:21>, by Jesus on Jairus' daughter and Lazarus , by Peter on Dorcas , and by Paul on Eutychus . In these raisings there is no suggestion that the person will not again experience death.

2. Our Lord's resurrection. This resurrection is clearly linked with the overcoming of the powers of evil and death. For Paul, Christ's resurrection is the basis for the doctrine of general resurrection <1 Cor. 15:12-19>. (See RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST.)

3. The hope of a general resurrection. Many of the Greek philosophers, such as Plato, believed that an immortal soul inhabited a body and that at death the soul left its bodily prison and soared upward to the divine spirit. In the Old Testament Sheol is the place of the rephaim (shades), the Hebrew term for a weakened existence . These beings, however, are not souls without bodies. Therefore, the psalmist expected that God would ransom his soul from Sheol . It was Israel's firm belief in the goodness of God that led the Jewish people to believe that the righteous dead would yet see God . This expectation was the foundation upon which the Jewish ideas concerning the resurrection were built.

By the time of Jesus, two positions were firmly entrenched within Judaism. The SADDUCEES, who were oriented to this world, rejected any belief in the resurrection. They believed that such an idea was irrelevant to this life and was not part of the revelation which God gave to Moses. When they encountered Jesus, the Sadducees sought to trap Him by their question concerning the seven brothers who married one woman. Jesus criticized their view of resurrection life by indicating that earthly marriage patterns are not repeated in heaven. He also condemned their understanding of Moses and the Scriptures .

The PHARISEES, in contrast, believed in a resurrection. The Jewish historian Josephus reported that the Pharisees held that the good dead are transferred into other bodies. Although this report is not totally clear, it is certain that the Pharisees proclaimed a life after death that required a resurrection. It was from the ranks of these scholarly Pharisees that the apostle Paul came . Luke records that in his defense before the Sanhedrin (Jewish Council), Paul stressed that he was a Pharisee of Pharisaic descent and that he was on trial for affirming the resurrection .

Israel's concepts of the resurrection were born out of her relationship to God in her tumultuous history. At first glance the prophet Isaiah seems to express a view that the resurrection is for the faithful and that the wicked may not arise . The Jewish loyalist of the apocryphal book of 2 Maccabees apparently agreed that for some there will be no resurrection to life. But Daniel announced, "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt" .

The New Testament consistently teaches hope in the resurrection of the believer based upon the resurrection of Christ as the "firstborn from the dead" <1 Cor. 15:12-58; Col. 1:18; 1 Thes. 4:14-18; 1 Pet. 1:3-5>. This idea of resurrection is expressed in terms of such images as a transformed body , a new dwelling <2 Cor. 5:2>, and new clothing <2 Cor. 5:4; Rev. 6:11>. The New Testament also contrasts resurrection to life with resurrection to judgment . Apparently a similar contrast lies behind the statements in about "the first resurrection" <20:5> and "the second death" <20:14>.

But not all who sought identification with the Christian church proclaimed a future resurrection. Some preached a spiritual awakening, or resurrection, that was already past. Such a view, adopted by Hymenaeus and Philetus and adopted by later Gnostic heretics, was sternly condemned by Paul <2 Tim. 2:17-19>.

(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

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