From meta (with, after) and bainō (to go). Means to pass from one place to another, to depart, to transition. Used both literally of physical movement and theologically of the great transition from death to life.
In John 5:24, Jesus declares that the one who hears His word and believes 'has passed over from death to life' — one of the most profound statements of salvation in the New Testament. This word describes an accomplished, completed transition. The believer has already crossed from the realm of death into the realm of eternal life. In 1 John 3:14, the same language describes the evidence of salvation: 'We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other.'