Question 1

What does "Resurrection" mean in the King James Bible?

Accepted Answer

In the KJV, "Resurrection" means "the bodily raising of the dead to new, imperishable life." The physicality. Anastasis meant 'standing up' -- a dead body standing up again. The resurrection was not the soul escaping the body but the body being renewed, transformed, and glorified. The empty tomb proved the point: the body was gone because it had been raised. Paul's 'resurrection body' was still a body -- physical, material, tangible, but transformed and imperishable.

Question 2

Why did the word "Resurrection" disappear from modern English?

Accepted Answer

Greek anastasis ('standing up again/bodily rising from death/physical reversal of death') was spiritualized into 'the soul going to heaven.' The stubbornly physical, bodily, material nature of resurrection was dissolved into disembodied afterlife. The word was at peak usage around 1611 and declined by still used but spiritualized (~1800).

Question 3

What modern word replaced "Resurrection"?

Accepted Answer

"Resurrection" was replaced by: "afterlife" (though this disembodied existence; resurrection was specifically the body coming back to life, transformed and renewed); "heaven" (though this spiritual destination; resurrection was physical -- a body that died being raised to new physical life); "spiritual rebirth" (though this metaphorical transformation; anastasis was literal, physical, bodily reversal of death).

What Does “Resurrection” Mean in the Bible?

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