Nekros (G3498) means dead — physically lifeless, or spiritually dead (without true life before God). Used as an adjective ('dead works,' 'dead in trespasses') and as a noun ('the dead,' 'a dead person'). It appears approximately 128 times in the New Testament. The phrase anastasis nekrōn — 'resurrection of the dead' — is one of the foundational doctrines of Christian faith.
Nekros operates on two levels in the New Testament. Physical death is real and universal: 'It is appointed for man to die once' (Hebrews 9:27). Jesus himself became nekros — truly dead, not merely unconscious — and was raised bodily. The resurrection of the nekroi is the culmination of redemptive history: 'If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile' (1 Corinthians 15:13, 17).
Spiritual death is the Pauline diagnosis of humanity apart from grace: 'You were dead (nekrous) in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked' (Ephesians 2:1). The unregenerate person is not morally weak but dead — utterly incapable of spiritual response without divine life. Regeneration is resurrection: 'Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ' (Ephesians 2:5). The gospel is not advice to the sick but life to the dead.