From kata ('down') and pino ('to drink'). Katapino means to swallow down completely β to engulf, devour, or overwhelm utterly. Used both literally (serpent swallowing, Matt. 23:24) and profoundly theologically.
1 Corinthians 15:54 quotes Isaiah 25:8 in one of Scripture's great resurrection declarations: 'Death is swallowed up (katepothΔ) in victory.' The resurrection of Christ did not merely defeat death β it swallowed it. Death, which had been the universal devourer of all humanity, is itself devoured by the risen Christ. The cosmic predator becomes the prey. 2 Corinthians 5:4 adds that our mortal bodies will be 'swallowed up by life' β transformed and absorbed into resurrection existence. The gospel reverses every devouring: sin swallowed into forgiveness, death swallowed into life, tears swallowed into joy.