What is the significance of the different words Paul uses to describe death, dead, and being put to death when writing about sin and the law?

Question

Throughout Romans, Paul writes about the dead, death, and being put to death. A few examples, resurrection from the dead (1:4), being dead to sin (6:2), and raised from the dead (4:24). But he uses different words: ἀποθνῄσκω [G599-apothnēskō], θάνατος [G2288-thanatos], and νεκρός [G3498-nekros].

Three are found in one verse:

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead (νεκρῶν), will never die (ἀποθνῄσκει) again; death (θάνατος) no longer has dominion over him. (6:9) [ESV]

When writing about being dead to sin, dead to the law, and sin being dead without the law, Paul also uses all three:

By no means! How can we who died (ἀπεθάνομεν) to sin still live in it? (6:2)

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died (ἐθανατώθητε)¹ to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead (νεκρῶν), in order that we may bear fruit for God. (7:4)

But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead (νεκρά). (7:8)

All mean “dead” so what exactly is Paul trying to get across by using different words?

_{1. ἐθανατώθητε is the verb of θάνατος}

Answer 1

νεκρός is usually used in the Greek Scriptures and in Greek literature to mean essentially a corpse - a dead (lifeless) body. Examples with νεκρός:

Genesis 23:4 LXX (Brenton)

I am a sojourner and a stranger among you, give me therefore possession of a burying-place among you, and I will bury my dead away from me.

Luke 7:15 (KJV)

And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak

Phrases relating to someone being raised from the dead (e.g. Romans 6:9) literally refer to one being raised from the dead ones: ἐκ νεκρῶν; where νεκρῶν is the genitive plural of νεκρός.

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θάνατος and the related verbs ἀποθνῄσκω (or sometimes simply θνῄσκω) are the words for death and to die, respectively. Death - θάνατος - can be contrasted with contrasted with ἀ-θανασία (athanasia), meaning immortality. Forms of ἀποθνῄσκω and the related verb θνῄσκω are often translated as "dead" in some versions:

Matthew 9:24 (KJV)

For the maid is not dead (οὐ γὰρ ἀπέθανε τὸ κοράσιον): lit. "... the maid did not die"

John 11:39

Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid (ἦραν οὖν τὸν λίθον οὗ ἦν ὁ τεθνηκὼς κείμενος) : lit. "... where the having-died [one] was laid"

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I think what might be odd to us is that νεκρός doesn't seem to be etymologically related to ἀποθνῄσκω or θνῄσκω and it isn't really tied to any verb. It seems, though, that when a passage is describing the death of a specific person, perhaps in the context of their just having died, then a form of ἀποθνῄσκω or θνῄσκω appears. When dead persons in general are being described, then νεκρός appears.

Answer 2

Paul is referring back to Genesis 2:17 from Hebrew -

בְּי֛וֹם אֲכָלְךָ֥ מִמֶּ֖נּוּ מ֥וֹת תָּמֽוּת. Here, there are two deaths as referenced in Revelation 20:12-15 and other places. This is due to the consequences of eating from the Etz hada'at tov v'ra - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is the Law of sin and death.

• Avi ben Moredechai www.cominghome.co.il