HOW THE BIBLE USES THE WORD ZOE
(IT DOESN'T ALWAYS MEAN WHAT THEY SAY IT MEANS
IT ALWAYS MEANS WHAT THE BIBLICAL TEXT ITSELF SAYS IT MEANS)
- The One God who exists from eternity unto eternity is a Spirit (John 4:24), and the origin and source of all existence, and all life [zōē]. The zōē (life) that is in Him is eternal life [zōē aionios].
- God alone has/possesses life [zōē] in Himself (John 1:4; John 5:26).
The Beginning
Greek Septuagint translation of Genesis 2:7:
καὶ ἔπλασεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον χοῦν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς καὶ ἐνεφύσησεν εἰς τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ πνοὴν ζωῆς καὶ ἐγένετο ὁ ἄνθρωπος εἰς ψυχὴν ζῶσαν.
The words in English:
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,
* zaō means to live, breathe, be among the living (not lifeless, not dead) (from Thayer's Greek Lexicon). The one who has the breath of life [zōē] from God is alive [zaō].
THE WORDS ZOE AND ZAO ARE NOT USED INTERCHANGEABLY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.
The only origin and source of life [zoe] is the One who has life [zoe] in Himself, i.e God - the giver of life:
ζωή (zōē)
ζωή (zōē) is a noun, and refers to life as God has (and possesses) it, and gives it.
-- The source of all life [zoe] is God --
* Divine, spiritual, and eternal life
* Life that comes from God and is sustained by Him *
* Zoe can refer to eternal life (which God gives us in Christ), or to the life-time of the creature, as it does in certain verses, for example:
James 4:14
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life [zōḗ] (your life-time)? It is even a vapour, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
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* Eternal Life (zōē aiōnios) is given * in Christ * to fallen human beings - the key words in Christ that appear in the text of 1 John 5:11 are ignored in respect of a certain aspect of main-stream church doctrine - as you will discover in this site.
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* In the New Testament eternal life is always called "zoe aionios (life eternal). The Greek texts of the New Testament never call eternal life "zao aionios" (alive forever).
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Have you ever heard someone say, "I have eternal life because God has given me eternal life"?
The following three verses tell us about who possesses, who gives, and who receives Life [zoe]:
1. John 1:4: "In Him (the Word of God) was life [zoe] and the life [zoe] the light of men."
2. John 5:26: "For as the Father hath life [zoe] in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life [zoe] in himself."
3. 1 John 5:11: "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life [zoe aionios], and this life [zoe] is in his Son."
Of all human beings ever to have walked on the earth since Adam and Eve, only to the Son of God (the Man, Jesus Christ) has it been given by God to have eternal life in Himself (John 1:4 & John 5:26).
According to the Bible,
Eternal life [zoe aionios] never becomes something created human beings and their descendants possess in ourselves. Eternal life [zoe] is in Christ (John 1:4; John 5:26; John 14:6) and is given in Christ to the seed of created human beings who have been born of His Spirit. (1 John 5:11-12; and Colossians 3:4).
We who believe in Him have been given eternal life in Christ- who alone possesses eternal life [zoe] in Himself.
* The Bible does not talk about the quickening (making alive again) of a "dead human spirit". Nothing which has the breath of life [zoe] from God (Genesis 2:7; Genesis 6:17; Genesis 7:15 & 22; Ecclesiastes 12:7) is alive [zao] forever, or ever can be alive [zao] forever (immortal) unless it has the breath of everlasting life - which is in Christ - given to it.
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** Failure to adhere to the clear and consistent distinction that the Greek New Testament makes between life [G2222: zoe] on one hand, and to be alive | to be living [G2198: zao] on the other hand, results in a conflation of the Biblical concept of zoe aionios (eternal life), with being zao (alive) forever (immortal) in the way the theology of many churches interprets parts of scripture (especially New Testament scripture). **
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The Bible tells us,
"No one has seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father *, He has made Him known." (John 1:18).
* The Only-begotten Son "lives in unapproachable light, whom no human has ever seen or is able to see." (1 Timothy 6:16).
"He alone possesses immortality and lives in unapproachable light, whom no human has ever seen or is able to see. To him be honor and eternal power! Amen."
For a human being, to be immortal is to live | to be alive [zao] forever, the source of which is eternal life [zoe], which Christ alone possesses in Himself.
Jesus told those who believe in Him and belong to Him:
"I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you."
(John 14:19b-20b)
Jesus also told all human beings that we need to be born of the Spirit (John 3:3-8) in order to perceive, experience, and have knowledge of the Kingdom of God, which He said "does not come with external evidence (that can be observed). Nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'It's over there!' For take heed, be discerning, and perceive this:
The kingdom of God is within you."
(Luke 17:21);
and in Colossians 1:27 Paul talks about "the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints,
which is Christ IN you, the hope of glory."
Paul also wrote, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:4).
This is closely related to the Temple of God:
Throughout the Bible God gives us an indication that when He created Adam and Eve, His purpose was to dwell with His creature, dwelling within His creation. After the fall of Adam, the tabernacle of God in the wilderness which God instructed Moses to have erected, was the first indication of this:
"And I will meet with you there, and I will talk with you from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubs on the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give you in commandment to the sons of Israel." (Exodus 25:22).
Nevertheless God was not going to dwell forever in temples made with human hands; (Isaiah 66:1-2).
When Jesus was in the world, when the Jews asked Him for a sign, He answered and said to them,
"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said, This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you rear it up in three days?
But He spoke of the temple of His body." (John 2:19-21).
Paul tells us that each one who has the Spirit of Christ is a Temple of God, and Peter tells us that together we are the living stones who form the one Temple of God (1 Peter 2:5).
This is the case because we all share in the One Spirit of life [zoe] (1 Corinthians 6:17; Ephesians 2:18; Ephesians 4:4:3-6; Philippians 1:27) .
In His Revelation Jesus allowed His apostle John to see what will come following the return of Christ:
"And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God." (Revelation 21:3).
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