to lie down

Photo by RDNE Stock project

to lie down

“If I await Sheol as my home, spread out my bed in darkness, and say to rot, "You are my father," and to the maggot, "My mother" or "My sister," where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me? Will it go down to the gates of Sheol, or will we descend together to the dust?”  (Job 17:13-16).

Job’s description of his impending death seems antiquated and less evolved than how some modern theologians describe their destiny. It suggests that something has drastically changed in popular understanding of the fate of humans at death. Perhaps new revelation came in the New Testament to replace Job’s horrible image of sleeping and decaying in the dark dust?

Alas, looking at New Testament terms for death show that this proposed evolution has not occurred.

κοιμάω

The same word used for literal sleep (Matthew 28:13; Luke 22:45; John 11:12; Acts 12:6) is used throughout the New Testament in a figurative sense for death (Matthew 27:52; John 11:11; Acts 7:60; 13:36; 1 Corinthians 7:39; 11:30; 15:6, 18, 20, 51; 1 Thessalonians 4:13, 14, 15; 2 Peter 3:4).

The word never loses the imagery of lying down, and this imagery is seen in several NT words related to it. Those who are sick (Mark 1:30) and those who reclining to eat (Matthew 9:10; Mark 2:15) are said to be ἀνάκειμαι, συνανάκειμαι, or κατάκειμαι.  Jesus warned those tempted to deceive that it would be better for them to have a millstone lying around (περίκειμαι) their neck (Mark 9:42). Jesus’ opponents were ἀντίκειμαι because they lied opposite to him (Luke 13:17). Paul said that the desire to do good was lying beside him (παράκειμαι) but doing good was not (Romans 7:18).

The imagery appears in Old Testament words as well. The Septuagint uses ἔγκειμαι (to lie in clothing) to express the evil inclination of humanity (Genesis 8:21). It uses ὑπέρκειμαι (to lie above) to express the excellence of the noble wife (Proverbs 31:29). Lying with someone to have sexual intercourse is κοιτασία (Leviticus 20:15). The bedroom that you lie in is the κοιτών (2 Samuel 13:10).

Apocryphal literature contains a few more words related to κοιμάω. Psalms of Solomon 2:31 uses κοιμίζω (to put to sleep). Sirach 48:13 uses the noun κοίμησις (sleep). One of Daniel’s additional texts refers to wives as παράκοιτοι – presumably because they are sleeping companions.

When we conditionalists refer to death as a sleep we are reflecting a long biblical and exegetical tradition in doing so. When we reject notions that human beings survive death and go somewhere else besides their graves, we are simply being honest with the text of scripture. The focus of our hope is not on death itself, but on rescue from it, which the bible calls resurrection. That is ἀνάστασις (a raising up) – the opposite of κοίμησις.

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