"The Dead And The Dead"

Revelation 20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.   Ephesians 5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

It is written in (Matthew 8:22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.). The first means spiritually dead, and the second, a dead body.

The word “Nekros” (Noun or Adjective) has different meanings, according as it is used in different connections:

(1). With the Article (“hoi nekroi”) it denotes dead bodies, or corpses or carcasses in the grave, apart from the personality they once had. This is the Old Testament idiom also. (Genesis 23:3-8 And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, Deuteronomy 18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. Deuteronomy 28:26 And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away. Jeremiah 7:33 And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away. Jeremiah 9:22 Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them. Jeremiah 19:7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. Ezekiel 37:9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. Matthew 22:31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 1 Corinthians 15:35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?).

(2). Without the Article (“nekroi”), it denotes the persons who were once alive, but who are now alive no longer: i.e. dead persons as distinct from dead bodies. Compare, (Deuteronomy 14:1 Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. Judges 4:22 And, behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, Come, and I will show thee the man whom thou seekest. And when he came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail was in his temples. Lamentations 3:6 He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.).

(3). With the Preposition, but without the Article, which maybe latent in the Preposition (“ek nekron”), it denotes out from among dead people. (Mark 9:9-10 And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean. Luke 16:30-31 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. John 20:9 For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Acts 10:41 Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. Romans 16:13 Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. Romans 10:7-9 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Romans 11:15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? 1 Corinthians 15:12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? 1 Corinthians 15:20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. Hebrews 11:19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.).

(4). With a Preposition, and with the Article, (“ekton nekron”), it denotes emphatically out from among the dead bodies, or corpses. Compare, (Ephesians 5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Colossians 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. Colossians 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.).

(5). The bearing of this on (1 Peter 4:6 For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.), will be better seen if we note that we have (“nekroi”), meaning people who were then dead, but who had had the Gospel preached to them while they were alive: and this is confirmed by the Greek Particle, men although in the next clause, which is ignored both by the Authorized Version and Revised Version. The verse reads thus: “For to this end to those who are (now) dead was the Gospel preached, that though they might be judged in the flesh according to (the will of ) men, yet they might live (again, in resurrection), according to (the will of) God,” as regards (the) spirit: i.e. spiritual bodies, spoken of in (1 Corinthians 15:44-45 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.).

To this end, to give those to whom the apostles wrote this hope, the Gospel was preached to them, as described in (1 Peter 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. 1 Peter 1:25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. The hope of glory was thus set over against their suffering (1 Peter 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 1 Peter 4:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.).

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