Sin death and beyond
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SIN, DEATH AND BEYOND: M.M.NINAN<br />
The breath of life (Genesis 2:7; 6:15; 7:15) is used to describe humans <strong>and</strong> animals but not<br />
plants. “Plants are never the subject of חָיָה ” (Gerleman 1997, p. 414) neither are they “ alive<br />
in biblical Hebrew or in second Temple Jewish literature ” (Kennard 2008, p. 169)<br />
It is the breath of life that separates humans <strong>and</strong> animals from plants because when it is gone<br />
they cease to exist (2 Samuel 1:9; 1 Kings 17:21–22). Blood is the sign of life in both humans<br />
<strong>and</strong> animals (Genesis 4:10; 9:4–6), <strong>and</strong> its shedding causes the loss of life (Leviticus 17:11,<br />
14). Plants do not die in the same sense animals <strong>and</strong> humans do because they are not living in<br />
the same sense that humans <strong>and</strong> animals are.<br />
How <strong>death</strong> creep in<br />
B<br />
NEW TESTMENT MEANING OF DEATH<br />
In the New Testament two different Greek words are used primarily for <strong>death</strong><br />
• thanatos θάνατος (Romans 5:12) <strong>and</strong><br />
• nekros νεκρός (Ephesians 2:5.<br />
Thanatos is a more generic word used to refer to the <strong>death</strong> of the body <strong>and</strong> spiritual or eternal<br />
<strong>death</strong> (Thayer, J. H. 2007. Thayer’s Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament, 8th ed.<br />
Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers).<br />
Again the dimensional underst<strong>and</strong>ing of creatures clearly makes the difference between<br />
various creations within the various layers of cosmos. A summary is given below:<br />
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