I did a Greek word study today on John 11:25-26 {in context} using several online resources including: NET Bible with footnotes and translation notes, RYLT (Revised Young's Literal Translation), Greek New Testament {where you can click on individual words and get their: root {or base}, form, type {verb or noun, etc.}, person {1st, 2nd, 3rd}, tense, voice, mood, and number {singular, plural, etc.}.
I've never done a Greek word study on these verses that I can recall, and haven't seen {what I'll call} "the plain, literal meaning" of these verses as clearly as it seems I do now. My former understanding was that Jesus was saying and meaning {something like}:
Jn 11:25I am the resurrection and the life. The one who is believing in me, even if this one may die {literal, bodily death}, shall live {future tense bodily resurrection}.
11:26And the one who lives {now, not having died} and is believing in me shall never die" {I thought he meant: "living people who believe won't really actually fully die" in this verse, even though bodily death may happen to them before the last day/rapture, verse 25}.
To elaborate; probably due to influences of what I had been taught; I felt that though we Christians might die before the rapture, "we won't really and truly die" because we continue to exist in an intermediate state after physical death. My understanding was that physical death was somehow "diminished" to a "won't really die-die" status during this intermediate state of existing. I thought Jesus was trying to convey these things...{or so I had been told}.
Today's Study Findings, {subject to revision, you may want to read John 11 first}
Now it seems Jesus was saying and meaning {and this is my "literal paraphrase" translation with notes included},
"Martha...
Jn 11:25I am the resurrection {lit., "rising again"} and [the source of] the life {of the said resurrection}. The one who is believing in me, even if this one may die {literal death} this one shall live {"again," Greek future tense: bodily resurrection, "life after death"} .
11:26And {so then, too, it follows that} the one who lives {in the future resurrection} and is believing in me shall never die forever" {literal Greek}, Meaning: shall never experience death again after having been resurrected}.
Three things are discussed:
1) The physical death of believers: of those who believe while living, who may die before the return of Jesus.
2) Believers' future physical & bodily resurrection: they who believed while living will never die again forever after the resurrection; what both Jesus, and Martha in this text, referred to as happening on "the last day" (John 11:24).
3) Jesus describes himself as the resurrection itself and the life-source through whom it is obtained or received. A fairly accurate partial-paraphrase translation could be "I am the resurrection and the life of it": "of it" not actually being in the Greek but added in English for explanatory purposes.
From My More Detailed Notes
The phrase "the resurrection and the life" has the conjunction 'and' {Greek, kai}.
Verse 25, "I am the resurrection and the life"
Verse 26a "And the one who lives..."
Strong's #2532 kai
Apparently, a primary particle, having a copulative and sometimes also a cumulative force; "and, also, even, so then, too," etc.; often used in connection (or composition) with other particles or small words:--"and, also, both, but, even, for, if, or, so, that, then, therefore, when, yet."
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Summary
Based on these Greek studies, there's an interconnected relationship between "[the] resurrection and [the] life {of the said resurrection}" as seen above with my literal rendering. In other words, "the resurrection and the life" is a phrase referring to characteristics or attributes of one thing or event. Both the resurrection and the life {of it} are thus, related and interdependent.
My present understandings are: Jesus embodies the resurrection itself in his person; he, himself, being its life-source. Jesus was speaking about life after death; that after death, believers will experience the future {"life after death" bodily} resurrection, and, simply will never experience death again forever.
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This is pretty intricate stuff but was a lot of fun to do!
{Till today, I'd never really "thought through" our text}....
Dost thou have an "What say ye?"
Thanks for reading,
