The blog of Dr Glenn Andrew Peoples on Theology, Philosophy, and Social Issues

“You will never die”: What did Jesus mean?

FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Did Jesus say that believers would never ever die, indicating that even when their bodies die, they will live on with him in glory? You might have heard that, but what if he meant something different, promising that we would be spared the fate of disappearing into death forever?

I get some resistance to the biblical concept that human beings are frail and mortal, “dust of the earth,” that we return to the dust when we die, and that there’s no heavenly life to be had while our bodies lay in the grave awaiting the resurrection of the dead. Sometimes people even pit Bible verses against this biblical idea. One verse at a time, I think we can see that these objections fail, and the overall clear biblical portrait of human nature and death remains intact.

One of those objections comes from a particular interpretation of Jesus’ saying after raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11:25-26:
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though he dies, will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

Never die. That gives pause to some people when they consider my view that immortality is received at the resurrection and that the dead are really dead in the grave, not living on as immortal souls. They wonder if this claim by Jesus must mean that if we live and believe in him now, we cannot lie dead in the grave without our souls living on in glory, because we will “never die.” It’s a good question to ponder, but there’s already a reasonable response to this worry, quite apart from the observation I’ll make soon. Jesus is here talking about those who live the new life that he has just referred to: Whoever believes in me, even though he dies, will live – that is, via the resurrection. So when Jesus goes on to say “whoever lives and believes in me will never die,” he’s talking about the life of immortality after the resurrection.

Well and good, this is certainly possible. This falls into line with the way that Jesus unpacks the meaning of having eternal life elsewhere (e.g. John 6:40, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day”). But there’s more! Fasten your seatbelt. I’m going to suggest that “will never die” might be the wrong way to translate this saying of Jesus.

There are a couple of words in Greek commonly translated as “never” in the New Testament. I will use the King James Bible here for its literal wording. They are:

οὐ μὴ (ou mē). This is two words. Each part (οὐ and μὴ) is a negative particle, resulting in a strong negative. It means “not,” which in many (although not all) contexts means “never.” For example (there are plenty) John 6:35 – “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never (οὐ μὴ) hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never (οὐ μὴ) thirst.” The word “not” works equally well in these instances, and still conveys the meaning of “never.” Daniel Wallace explains that at “οὐ μὴ rules out the idea as even being a possibility.”1 Will X, which is possible, actually happen? Nope, οὐ μὴ says that it will definitely not happen.

οὐδέποτε (oudepote). This word more strictly means “never.” e.g. Luke 15:29, the parable of the prodigal son – “And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never (οὐδέποτε) gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:”

When we read “will never die,” we are reading a translation of οὐ μὴ (i.e. will not) plus something extra, and it’s that extra part that I want to look at. If Jesus meant that those who believe in him won’t die, then “will not die,” that is, οὐ μὴ + “die,” would be enough. But that’s not what we find when we look beneath the surface. The Greek says that whoever lives and believes in me: οὐ μὴ (will not) ἀποθάνῃ (die) εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα (unto the age, or just “forever”). Follow what I’m about to say carefully, reading it more than once if the meaning isn’t clear, because this is an important point: In order to say that a person will never die, the Greek need only say that they will not/never (οὐ μὴ) die. That’s because οὐ μὴ is enough all by itself to deny the potential outcome of dying, as Daniel Wallace explained. Will they ever die? No, οὐ μὴ conveys that they will not. Adding εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα (to the age, or forever) is not necessary to do this. Indeed, when the same writer, John, elsewhere reports Jesus saying that he is the bread of life so that a person may eat and not die (unlike the manna in the wilderness, which people ate but still died), he says that a person may eat καὶ (and) μὴ (not) ἀποθάνῃ (die) – and not die. There was no need to add “forever,” because that is already expressed by saying that a person will not die (and in that context, physical death is meant, in order to make the contrast with Israel in the wilderness work).

The concept of a thing “never” happening is not usually expressed by using the phrase “to the age” (εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα). That is not how those words normally function (exceptions exist, but are, well, exceptional). The phrase εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα is used elsewhere in the New Testament and we can compare the meaning in those cases with this case. Adding εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα invites us to think that it’s not simply dying that believers in Christ will never do. Whoever lives and believes in me will not…. what? They will not die forever. “Dying forever” is a potential outcome. As I have gone to some lengths to show in many places, dying forever is, according to the New Testament, what will happen to those who are finally lost.

This phrase εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, “to the age,” is the normal way of talking about doing a thing forever. Jesus said in John 6 that whoever eats this bread will “live forever” (ζήσει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα – “live to the age”).

In fact, John 8:35 shows us exactly what it looks like to deny that something will be the case forever and to affirm that something will be the case forever, and it confirms precisely what I am saying here:

“The slave does not remain in the household forever. The son abides forever.”

What does the slave not do? “Remain in the household forever.” What does the son do? “Remain [by implication, in the household] forever.” How is it expressed that the slave does not remain in the household forever? The slave: οὐ μένει ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. The negative particle οὐ is not quite the emphatic οὐ μὴ , but otherwise the construction is the same. The slave does not remain in the household forever. It would be a mistake to read this as though the slave will not remain in the house at all or ever. He will, but he won’t do it forever. By contrast, the son μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, “remains to the age,” i.e. forever. If we interpret Jesus in John 11 the same way, he is not saying that whoever lives and believes in him will not ever die. That is a different question. Maybe they will die and maybe they won’t. But they will not die forever.

Remember, even if Jesus’ words meant that a person will never die, it presents no a problem for the biblical portrait of human nature as mortal and death as sleep, because in context he is talking about what happens after the resurrection. But in fact the evidence shows that the translation “will never die” is disputable, and “will not die forever” is quite possibly the intended meaning.

The meaning of John 11:25-26, then, is this: Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Jesus, even though he dies, he will live, thanks to the resurrection of Christ. And whoever lives and believes in Christ will not die forever. You will be spared that, if you belong to the one who is the resurrection and the life.

Glenn Peoples

PS An almost identical version of this article first appeared in From Death To Life. Check out the whole issue!

  1. Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond The Basics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 468. []

Previous

Making self-help sound like terrorism

Next

Some thoughts on New Zealand’s loss of faith

13 Comments

  1. gary

    “The meaning of John 11:25-26, then, is this: Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Jesus, even though he dies, he will live, thanks to the resurrection of Christ. And whoever lives and believes in Christ will not die forever. You will be spared that, if you belong to the one who is the resurrection and the life.”

    Does Jesus ever say in the Synoptic Gospels that simply by believing in him one could obtain eternal life (not die forever)? I don’t think so. In the Synoptics, Jesus tells people to do the will of his Father if they want to enter heaven. Either the authors of the Synoptics were in the dark regarding the true method of salvation, or the author of John was getting his information from a completely different source. So the question is, did Jesus ever say what the author of John allegedly quotes him saying in John 11:25-26??

  2. “So the question is, did Jesus ever say what the author of John allegedly quotes him saying in John 11:25-26??”

    Well that’s a question. But it’s hardly “the” question, and certainly not the one I’ve addressed here. Perhaps the answer would lie in John’s understanding of “believes in me” to be wider than mere intellectual assent. But that’s another matter.

    • Gary

      My point is this: You are fine-tuning your worldview regarding the afterlife on a statement in a book written by an anonymous author, whom most scholars doubt was an eyewitness or an associate of an eyewitness, allegedly quoting Jesus. What if everything the author of John says which is not found in the Synoptics is theological or literary embellishment? What does that do to your theory on the afterlife?

      Bottom line: Should any of us make universal truth claims based on ancient hearsay?

    • Gary, calling the Gospel records mere hearsay indicates that you’re not really interested in this article, it’s simply a doorway to what you are interested in: Denying the historical reliability of the Gospels.

      Calling John’s Gospel “hearsay” isn’t intellectually respectable. There are some good resources out there on the subject, but this is where the subject draws to a close in the comments under this article. I’d recommend beginning your reading with Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses.

  3. Gary

    I’ve read Bauckham’s “Jesus and the Eyewitnesses” cover to cover.

    I’m not questioning all the stories in the four Gospel accounts as unreliable hearsay, just those that ONLY appear in the Gospel of John and not in any of the Synoptics. The Story of Lazarus only appears in the Gospel of John.

  4. Gary – Yes, I made reference specifically to John’s Gospel.

    Bauckham doesn’t exclude John’s Gospel. It’s not generally regarded as a problem that the Synoptic Gospels, sharing sources as they do, don’t recount all and only what John recounts (and vice versa). I think it’s likely that if you’ve read Bauckham’s work cover to cover you’ve probably been exposed to enough information to justify less scepticism. Saying that the Gospel of John is generally reliable except for when it relates things that the other Gospels don’t doesn’t strike me as a particularly reasonable position to take, and would probably be addressed by one of the various treatments of why there are differences in the Gospels. But to reiterate, your not talking here about the interpretative question that I’ve written about here but about something fairly unrelated.

    • gary

      I would love to discuss Bauckham’s book with you, Glenn. But as you say, that is not the topic of this post.

  5. Piers

    In the NET bible they have a footnote about the literal Greek, but I don’t think the others do. It is interesting how most translations have rendered the text when “will not die forever” seems more pertinent to the context of Martha’s question and Jesus’ initial response in v. 23.

    It is as if the translators are suggesting that Jesus is comforting Martha by saying, “There there, because he believed in me, he isn’t dead – not really. His spirit carries on.” When Jesus seems to be trying to comfort her with resurrection hope, “…because he believed in me he won’t stay in this dead state forever.”

  6. Darren Clark

    “The meaning of John 11:25-26, then, is this: Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Jesus, even though he dies, he will live, thanks to the resurrection of Christ. And whoever lives and believes in Christ will not die forever. You will be spared that, if you belong to the one who is the resurrection and the life.”

    I’ve come to the same conclusion about the meaning of John 11:25-26. Thank you for your thoughts on this, Glenn. I appreciated your work very much.

  7. Alabaster Livingston

    Good post Glenn! I think this line of thought is pretty sound.

    We are to fear that which can kill us body and soul, and if our faith in Jesus can prevent that, then it would make sense that the death we suffer at the end of our current lives will be *a death*, but not a forever one. It is nice to see that the nuance of the Greek can be reasonably construed to support this kind of nuance.

    I appreciate the work you do Glenn.

  8. Ryota Miyata

    Jesus was clearly talking about the afterlife in Heaven and Hell after physical passing away and this is how it has always been, the false doctrines of “soul sleep” and “annihilationism” will never have anything to do with the truth, those that believe in such nonsense are cults like Jehova’s Witnesses and Seven Day Advent’s which have made up their own Bibles that replaced the entire text with lunacies and are full of nonsense after nonsense.

    • Thanks for your comment, Ryota. I think it represents the usual quality of polemics against the evidence I produce for conditional immortality.

    • Darin L Herrick

      It’s unfortunate that I can’t seem to do any research on bible doctrine on the Internet without having my religion called a cult or having my translation of the Holy Scriptures called lunacies.

      My mother used to carry around an eight translation version of the Greek Scriptures (Living Bible, American Standard, King James, etc) just to show people that the New World Translation does not change anything (it is not a version, like the King James) but merely clarifies in translation. The primary criticism of the newest translation (from what I can gather) is that when the Greek Scriptures quote the Hebrew Scriptures, the divine name Jehovah is replaced where it is missing (it does not make sense that someone direct quoting the Hebrew Scriptures which they held to be sacred would accidentally omit God’s name from said Scripture). If restoring God’s name to a quote from the Hebrew Scriptures is lunacy, count me in!

      However, the bible proves itself. When Jesus tells Martha that her brother will rise she replies “I know he will rise in the last day” (is asleep in death). When a child dies Jesus likewise says “The child has not died but is merely asleep.”

      Jesus also says at John 5:28 “The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out.” (clearly he did not mean that they would come from Heaven to Earth).

      I used to be confused by the concept of an EARTHLY resurrection because it is referenced so little in the bible, then I realized (as any Jewish scholar will tell you) that the Jews did not talk about it because EVERYONE believed that they were would be resurrected “on the last day”. The concept of a resurrection to life elsewhere was so foreign to them that considerable time in the Greek scriptures is spent just explaining the concept (likewise for the notion that Christ’s Kingdom was a heavenly one).

      At any rate, I’m just perusing articles like this to try to understand some scriptures from a viewpoint of knowledge of actual words used.

      If (as said) Jesus actually said “And whoever lives and believes in me will not die forever.” then it is a welcome clarification that is consistent with the concept of Gehenna and the second death. It means that if you die you can live again, and if you believe in Christ and are living (people physically dead are not dead to God as Christ clarified Jehovah is not God of the death but of the living, and is “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”), that is to say you are “alive in the faith” then you will never die FOREVER because the second death has no power over you (you are “asleep” and living in God’s memory).

      This is a comforting thought to me because it makes perfect logical sense and is consistent with everything else Jesus said.

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén