Resurrection
In the Gospel According to Luke 20:27–38 (NABRE), Jesus talks with the Sadducees about resurrection. In the Gospels, resurrection is an interesting term that is connected with eternal life but not synonymous with it.
The Greek word for resurrection is ἀνάστασις (anastasis). This word literally means “standing up” and so also means “rising up.” In Greek, resurrection is seen not as a coming back to life but rather as a rising up, specifically a rising or standing up of the body. As such, resurrection is a physical and bodily act.
When we die and our souls live on with God in heaven, this is eternal life, but it is not technically speaking resurrection. The Church believes because of readings like the passage from the Gospel According to Luke that there ultimately will come a final resurrection at the end of time in which we all will be restored bodily to life as well as spiritually, and that those glorified bodies will be significantly different from those we have now. At present, only Jesus and his mother have experienced this final resurrection.
Consider what this view of the resurrection of the dead suggests about the afterlife. What do you think heaven will be like before the resurrection of the body? What do you think it will be like after?
related topic: Ascension; Assumption; raise up
you also may like our two-part study of the prophets
Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided examines the prophets in historical context using the First and Second Books of the Kings and other Old Testament passages written before the Babylonian Exile. Volume II: Restoration & Redemption looks at the post-exilic prophets. This 51-lesson Catholic Bible study builds on The United Kingdom of Israel: Saul, David & Solomon Foreshadow Christ the King. Click on these links to view a lesson from Volume I and another from Volume II.
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