IT DOESN'T ALWAYS MEAN WHAT THEY SAY IT MEANS
IT ALWAYS MEANS WHAT THE BIBLICAL TEXT ITSELF SAYS IT MEANS
ZAO WHEN USED IN REFERENCE TO HUMAN BEINGS
(the verses using the word in reference to God follow below the tables)
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The living [zao] God, who has and possesses life everlasting [zoe aionios] in Himself, is the GOD of all living creatures [zao].
God created human beings to live | to be alive [zao] in created bodies, on the created earth; and He breathed life [ZOE] into Adam in order that Adam could ZAO [live | be alive] forever. God did not create human beings to "die and then go to heaven when we die" - and the first humans lived in a paradise.
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Genesis 3:22-24 tells us about how the created human beings sinned against God, and began to die, and were prevented thereafter from eating of the tree of life [zoe] and living forever.
"For this reason Christ died [apothnesko] and rose again from the dead [anistemi], and lived again [anazao: lived again in a body that is not dead], so that he may be the Lord of both the dead [nekros] and living [zao: those who are alive]." (Romans 14:9).
- Throughout the New Testament, whenever the verses containing the word zao are referring to God, they are referring to the living [zao] God who has eternal life [zoe] in Himself, but
- Whenever the verses containing the word zao are referring to created humans who are alive | living [zao], they are referring to humans who are alive, regardless of whether or not they have eternal life [zoe], for example,
"Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth [zao]? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth [zao]; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband." (Romans 7:1-2).
By implication some of the verses using the word zao are also alluding to the source of living | being alive [zao], which is the life [zoe] of Christ ("the just shall live [zao] by faith" - Galatians 3:11).
The consistency in the pattern of how the word zao is used in the New Testament - and what it means when it is used - compared with that of the word zoe - is ignored by many churches, so as to interpret certain verses as "not talking to or about those who are alive [zao]".
At least four times the word zao is talking about those who had died but will live again | be alive again (it's talking about a future time following the resurrection of the body from the dead), but the passages have been misconstrued by man-stream churches to be talking about "spiritual life":-
In the tables below:
1. ZAO (verses): (Verses quoted where the world zao is used).
2. Refers To: (What the word zao used in the verses refers to).
3. Do the verses also by implication allude to the zoe (life) which is the source of living | being zao (alive)?
(a) Do the verses also refer to the life [zoe] of God, which only Christ possesses IN HIMSELF, and which is GIVEN IN CHRIST to human beings (John 1:4; John 5:26; John 14:6; 1 John 5:11-12)?
(b) Do the verses using the word zao ALSO refer to everlasting life [zoe aionios] - which, following the resurrection of the dead, will remain the (only) source of immortality (of being zao - bodily alive - forever)?
The living [zao] God, who has and possesses life everlasting [zoe aionios] in Himself, is the GOD of all living creatures [zao].
|| Matthew 16:16; Matthew 26:63; Matthew 27:63; Mark 5:23; Mark 16:11; Luke 2:36; Luke 4:4; Luke 10:28; Luke 15:13; Luke 20:38; Luke 24:5; Luke 24:23; John 4:10; John 4:11; John 4:50; John 4:51; John 4:53; John 5:25; John 6:51; John 6:57; John 6:58; John 6:69; John 7:38; John 14:19; Acts 1:3; Acts 7:38; Acts 9:41; Acts 10:42; Acts 14:15; Acts 17:28; Acts 20:12; Acts 22:22; Acts 25:19; Acts 25:24; Acts 26:5; Acts 28:4; Romans 1:17; Romans 6:2; Romans 6:10; Romans 6:11; Romans 6:13; Romans 7:1; Romans 7:2; Romans 7:3; Romans 7:9; Romans 8:12; Romans 8:13; Romans 9:26; Romans 10:5; Romans 12:1; Romans 14:7; Romans 14:8; Romans 14:9; Romans 14:11; 1 Corinthians 7:39; 1 Corinthians 9:14; 1 Corinthians 15:45; 2 Corinthians 1:8; 2 Corinthians 3:3; 2 Corinthians 4:11; 2 Corinthians 5:15; 2 Corinthians 6:9; 2 Corinthians 6:16; 2 Corinthians 13:4; Galatians 2:14; Galatians 2:19; Galatians 2:20; Galatians 3:11; Galatians 3:12; Galatians 5:25; Philippians 1:21; Philippians 1:22; Colossians 2:20; Colossians 3:7; 1 Thessalonians 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 3:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 4:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:10; 1 Timothy 3:15; 1 Timothy 4:10; 1 Timothy 5:6; 1 Timothy 6:17; 2 Timothy 3:12; 2 Timothy 4:1; Titus 2:12; Hebrews 2:15; Hebrews 3:12; Hebrews 4:12; Hebrews 7:8; Hebrews 7:25; Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 9:17; Hebrews 10:20; Hebrews 10:31; Hebrews 10:38; Hebrews 12:9; Hebrews 12:22; James 4:15; 1 Peter 1:3; 1 Peter 1:23; 1 Peter 2:4; 1 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 4:5; 1 Peter 4:6; 1 John 4:9; Revelation 1:18; Revelation 2:8; Revelation 3:1; Revelation 4:9; Revelation 4:10; Revelation 5:14; Revelation 7:2; Revelation 7:17; Revelation 10:6; Revelation 13:14; Revelation 15:7; Revelation 16:3; Revelation 19:20 (cast alive [zao] into the lake of fire). ||
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