How Many People Are Resurrected in the Bible?
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Without the resurrection, Christianity means nothing. Paul makes this argument in 1 Corinthians 15. In this chapter, he speaks about both Christ’s resurrection and ours at the end of the age. They are connected. Jesus rising from the dead and living now means that one day, for those who follow and live in him, we will also be resurrected in a new body for eternity. And if this isn’t true, then people should pity us more than anyone on earth. We should seek our own pleasure instead of sacrificing for that later day.
Every Christian should trust in the resurrection — the historical event 2,000 years ago, what Jesus wrought through his work, and our future hope. We celebrate this every Easter.
And yet Jesus wasn’t the only person who was raised from the dead. Despite how the Sadducees of Jesus’ day denied it, the Old Testament has several accounts where people came alive again after death. And resurrections happened in the New Testament, as well. We find a definite theme through the whole of Scripture.
How many people were resurrected in the Bible? And what does that mean for us today?
Who Was Resurrected in the Old Testament?
The first recorded resurrection happens in 1 Kings 17:17-24 when the prophet Elijah raises the son of a widow in Zarephath. The boy had gotten sick and died. Elijah takes the boy’s body to the upper room where he stayed, puts him on the bed, and prays to God. Through the prophet’s prayer, God revives the child, and Elijah returns him to his mother. This event gave evidence to God’s power and Elijah’s call. “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth” (1 Kings 17:24).
Elijah’s successor, Elisha, performs a very similar miracle in 2 Kings 4:18-37. A Shunammite woman’s son dies suddenly. The woman seeks Elisha’s help. Elisha prays to God and lies on the boy. After doing this a few times, the boy sneezes seven times and opens his eyes. The son’s resurrection not only gives the mother joy and faith but also affirms Elisha’s ministry. God further revealed his compassionate love.
Finally, a strange resurrection occurs in 2 Kings 13:20-21. After Elisha’s death, a group of men place a corpse in Elisha’s grave. Raiders had arrived, and they threw the dead man in and ran. When the dead man’s body touches Elisha’s bones, he comes back to life and stands on his feet. The Old Testament records this to support the great spiritual anointing Elisha had, even in his bones.
Who Was Resurrected in the New Testament?
God raised several people from the dead in the New Testament, both before and after Jesus’ central work.
In one instance, Jesus raises the son of a widow in Nain (Luke 7:11-17), somewhat reminiscent of Elijah and Elisha. As a funeral procession passes by, Jesus becomes moved by compassion. He touches the coffin and commands the young man to rise. The dead man sits up and starts to talk, stunning the crowd, who glorifies God.
In Mark 5:21-43, Jesus brings Jairus’ daughter back to life. Jairus is a synagogue leader, a local position of religious power, and he asks Jesus to heal his sick daughter. By the time they arrive, they get news the daughter is dead. However, Jesus enters the house, saying she only sleeps. People mock Christ, and he puts most of them out of the room and house before taking the girl by the hand. He says, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” Immediately, the girl gets up and walks, filling the people with awe.
In the Gospels, John 11:1-44 gives the most detail and drama of the story of Lazarus, Jesus’ close friend. The brother of Mary and Martha, Lazarus becomes ill and dies before Jesus arrives in Bethany. When Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been dead for four days. Jesus expresses great grief, showing how much he loved him, and then Jesus tells the grieving crowd to move the stone from the grave. Christ prays to his Father then commands the dead man, “Lazarus, come out!” Lazarus walks out of the tomb, still wrapped in burial clothes. Jesus tells the crowd to remove the wrappings.
After Jesus’ resurrection, Peter raises Tabitha from the dead in Acts 9:36-42. A much beloved disciple in Joppa, Tabitha (also known as Dorcas) died. The disciples there ask for Peter to help her. He prays and commands her to rise. She opens her eyes and sits up. Later, in Acts 20:7-12, Paul is preaching a sermon when a young man, Eutychus goes to sleep and falls from a third-story window, dying. Paul goes down to the street, hugs him, and declares him alive. Eutychus gets up, alive again. The church returns to the upstairs room, and Paul continues teaching.
What Can We Learn from the Resurrections in the Old Testament?
God held power over life and death even before Jesus. Christ’s death and resurrection accomplished a great work because he was the Messiah, fully God and fully man, and he was sinless. But the idea of resurrection predates the New Testament. It wouldn’t have been beyond Jewish religious thought to believe a person could rise from the dead. The Old Testament stories show how God controls both the giving of life and death.
Second, these accounts reveal faith always made miracles possible. Jesus taught the power of faith, and he could easily reference narratives like when Elisha restored the widow’s son. The woman didn’t give into despair and sorrow. Instead, she calls for the prophet, an act of faith. Elisha also believed in God’s power. Their example reveals how we can have faith in seemingly impossible situations.
Third, God’s miracles reach out to those in need. Especially in the instances with Elijah and Elisha with the boys, God responds to people in grief. The widow had suffered loss already – that of her husband – and now the boy she loved. The Shunammite woman also lost her son, one God gave her after being barren many years. God cares deeply for people and those in need, showing he isn’t some distant God without any compassion.
Fourth, God’s miracles revealed his special servants. Particularly with the dead man who lived again after touching Elisha’s bones, the Old Testament makes the point that God empowered his prophets and servants to accomplish great things and give him glory. Additionally, we see the lesson of persistent prayer with Elisha, how he didn’t give up when the intercession seemed to fail the first time. Both prophets continually called upon God.
Looking ahead, Jesus’ miracles revealed him to be a prophet and servant of God. His supernatural acts connected him with Old Testament heroes like Elijah and Elisha, an affirmation of God’s activity.
What Can We Learn from the Resurrections in the New Testament?
Again, even before his own resurrection, Jesus demonstrated his authority over life and death – more than once. To show how the Kingdom of God was in the process of coming to earth, he cast out demons, healed the sick, and raised the dead. Christ’s supernatural activity in these areas fought the curse of death from the Fall, whose source was the Devil’s deception. Jesus held power over all aspects of this world (including nature when he calmed the storm), and when he raised people from the dead, he gave evidence of his identity – the Son of God.
Just as in the Old Testament, the Gospels point out how faith proves central in each instance. Jairus asks for Jesus specifically, despite the grim outlook. Jesus references people’s faith often when responding with a miracle. With Lazarus, Jesus teaches how resurrection isn’t something apart from himself. “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die” (John 11:25).
Jesus responds with compassion as God did in the Old Testament. The Gospels often include Jesus’ compassion and grief, showing us he didn’t act academically or coldly, but in love. Looking at this theme, God doesn’t change. The same one who cared for the broken and hurting in the Old Testament cared in the New, despite how the Jews may have questioned this during the Roman occupation and oppression.
God continued to express his love and compassion through the disciples after Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus promised his disciples would do his same work, and even more, with the Holy Spirit (John 14:12). Acts records for us how the Spirit fulfilled this promise through Peter and Paul. Along with God’s continued love and care, these stories after Jesus’ resurrection reveal how God’s power and the supernatural still affirm his followers.
Why Is Resurrection Such an Important Theme in the Bible?
Resurrection is the ultimate miracle. Since the fall of humanity in Genesis, sin and corruption rule our lives today, and hard as we may try, the end of such suffering is death, both physical and spiritual. There seems to be no escape from such a fate, even though we all long for one. Resurrection reveals another way exists. A better life can be possible because there’s a God who holds power over life and death.
Other than Jesus, each resurrection holds one similarity: God used a person to resurrect the dead. Yet no one came to Jesus’ tomb and raised him, not one of his disciples or anyone else. God himself raised Jesus, completing the work all alone. This sets Jesus’ resurrection apart, and even more importantly, it fulfills his statement, “I am the resurrection and the life.”
Every resurrection points to Christ’s saving work on the cross. He paid the penalty for sin, and his resurrection proved his sacrifice sufficient for the task. Paul teaches that if Christ hadn’t been raised, faith is futile and we are still in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:17). Jesus’ resurrection secures our salvation by grace through faith, and not of ourselves but in him. This enables us to live in power over sin and death now through the Spirit and in the future as we are raised after death to new bodies as Jesus had. “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead … we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4).
Jesus’ resurrection now includes our own, in which the power of sin and all consequences were defeated. Death itself is conquered and left powerless. “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting” (1 Corinthians 15:55)?
In preaching the cross and resurrection of Jesus, teaching the stories of raising people from the dead in the Bible, and hearing testimonies of how God still does so today, we have hope in our future resurrection and can call others to that same hope.
Peace.
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