What does ἀθανασία (athanasía) mean in the Bible?
ἀθανασία means immortality or deathlessness. The local index records three New Testament uses, all in Paul: twice in 1 Corinthians 15:53-54 and once in 1 Timothy 6:16.
Greek · G110
ἀθανασία
Deathlessness
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ἀθανασία G110
Pronunciation athanasía
What does ἀθανασία (athanasía) mean in the Bible?
ἀθανασία means immortality or deathlessness. The local index records three New Testament uses, all in Paul: twice in 1 Corinthians 15:53-54 and once in 1 Timothy 6:16.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀθανασία (G110) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G110?
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include immortality (2), immortal (1).
Where does ἀθανασία (athanasía) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Corinthians 15:53. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (2), 1 Timothy (1).
What This Word Actually Means
ἀθανασία means immortality or deathlessness. The local index records three New Testament uses, all in Paul: twice in 1 Corinthians 15:53-54 and once in 1 Timothy 6:16. The small set gives the word a clear but carefully bounded range. In the resurrection chapter, mortal people must put on immortality when the dead are raised and the living are changed. In the doxology of 1 Timothy, God alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light.
First Corinthians 15 keeps Christian hope bodily, future, and dependent on God's victory through Jesus Christ. Immortality is not described there as a natural human possession uncovered at death; mortality puts it on in the resurrection transformation. First Timothy 6 places God's immortality within praise of the blessed and only Sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords. The word alone does not settle every question about the intermediate state or the soul, but its direct uses guard the church from making creaturely hope self-originating.
Lexical sourceCanonical parallelBook contexttheological_synthesis
How the Bible Uses It
G110 joins resurrection hope to the uniqueness of God.
- 1Cor.15.53
For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
The mortal must be clothed with immortality in the resurrection.
- 1Cor.15.54
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
When mortality is clothed with immortality, death is swallowed up in victory.
- 1Tim.6.16
He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light. No one has ever seen Him, nor can anyone see Him. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.
God alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It immortality 2× 1 Corinthians 15:53, 1 Corinthians 15:54
immortal 1× 1 Timothy 6:16
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row 1 Corinthians 15:53
Aligned rows 3
Books represented 2
1 Corinthians 2 1 Timothy 1
Source forms
ἀθανασίαν 3x athanasian 1 Corinthians 15:53, 1 Corinthians 15:54, 1 Timothy 6:16
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 3x 1 Corinthians 15:53, 1 Corinthians 15:54, 1 Timothy 6:16
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Comfort grieving believers with resurrection hope while centering worship on the immortal God.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that G110 proves a full anthropology by itself.
- Do not claim resurrection hope is merely survival of an immaterial part.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Imperishable existence that characterizes God alone and becomes believers' future resurrection reality.
Strong's G110
Lexical occurrences 3 verses Greek text appearances 3 times Word forms 1 form 3 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link 1 Corinthians 15:50-53 Source Gloss
deathlessness
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Imperishable existence that characterizes God alone and becomes believers' future resurrection reality.
(ἀ-θάνατος, undying; V. MM, VGT, see word), [in LXX: Wis.3:4 4:1 8:13,17 15:3, 4Ma.14:5 16:13 * ;] immortality: 1Co.15:53,54 1Ti.6:16 (cf. Cremer, 285 f.).
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
1 Corinthians 15:53 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἀθανασίαν. aqanasian
immortality
Read verse 1 Corinthians 15:54 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἀθανασίαν, aqanasian
immortality
Read verse 1 Timothy 6:16 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἀθανασίαν, aqanasian
immortality
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns 1 Aligned forms 3 Case pattern Accusative (3) Number pattern Singular (3)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Accusative · Singular · Feminine 1 Cor 15:53 · 1 Cor 15:54 · 1 Tim 6:16 3×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
The imperishable, deathless state that believers will inherit at resurrection
Showing 1 selected witness from 3 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ἀθανασία is built from these roots:
For the Preacher and Teacher
ἀθανασία keeps two truths together. God alone has immortality in the doxology of 1 Timothy 6, while mortal people put on immortality in the resurrection victory of 1 Corinthians 15. Christian hope is therefore neither despair before death nor confidence in self-existent human deathlessness. It is confidence that the God who raised Christ will transform mortality and swallow up death in victory.
This gives comfort a bodily and Christ-centered horizon: the dead are raised, the living are changed, and God's people bear the image of the heavenly man. It also gives hope a worshipful posture, because immortality is received from the Sovereign who alone possesses life without creaturely dependence. Teachers should use the word to strengthen resurrection faith and praise while admitting that three occurrences cannot by themselves answer every biblical question about soul, body, death, and the intermediate state.
Anchor passage
1Cor.15.53
Doctrinal connections
- 1 Corinthians 15:35-49: resurrection answers the question of what kind of body is raised.
- 1 Corinthians 15:50-58: mortality puts on immortality when death is swallowed up in victory.
- 1 Timothy 6:13-16: God alone has immortality within praise of His sovereign and unapproachable majesty.
- Isaiah 25:6-9: the Lord swallows up death and wipes away tears, supplying Paul's victory text.
- Hosea 13:14: Paul's taunt over death draws on God's promised victory over grave and death.
- 2 Timothy 1:8-10: Christ Jesus has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
The noun denotes deathlessness or immortality. Context decides divine attribute or resurrected destiny.
From Old to New Testament
Isaiah 25 announces that the Lord will swallow up death and wipe away tears, and Hosea 13 supplies the grave-and-death taunt Paul takes up in 1 Corinthians 15. Daniel 12 also speaks of sleepers in the dust awakening. Paul centers these hopes in Christ's resurrection and the future transformation of mortal bodies, while 1 Timothy directs worship to the God who alone possesses immortality.
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain