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G3500 · Greek · New Testament
νέκρωσις
nekrōsis
Noun (feminine)
Death / putting to death / deadening

Definition

The Greek noun nekrōsis (νέκρωσις) means a dying, a putting to death, a process of deadening or mortification. It appears twice in the NT: in 2 Corinthians 4:10 ("always carrying in the body the dying of Jesus") and Romans 4:19 ("considering the deadness of Sarah's womb"). The word captures both the process of dying and its completed result.

Usage & Theological Significance

2 Corinthians 4:10 contains Paul's stunning paradox of apostolic existence: "We always carry around in our body the nekrōsis of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.\” The apostle's suffering, persecution, and bodily weakness are the nekrōsis of Jesus being re-enacted in human flesh — and through this dying, resurrection life is manifested.

Romans 4:19 uses nekrōsis differently but equally powerfully: Abraham considered the nekrōsis of Sarah's womb — the deadness, the biological impossibility — and yet believed. Faith in this context is not ignorance of nekrōsis but trust in God who raises the dead. Both uses of nekrōsis meet at the resurrection: dying is the prerequisite of life; the body's nekrōsis is the canvas for God's life-giving power.

Key Bible Verses

2 Corinthians 4:10 We always carry around in our body the death (nekrōsis) of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
Romans 4:19 He faced the fact that his body was as good as dead — since he was about a hundred years old — and that Sarah's womb was also dead (nekrōsis).
Romans 6:11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 4:11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.
John 12:24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

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