110. athanasia

Lexical Summary

athanasia: Immortality

Original Word: ἀθανασία
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: athanasia
Pronunciation: ath-an-as-ee'-ah
Phonetic Spelling: (ath-an-as-ee'-ah)
KJV: immortality
NASB: immortality
Word Origin: [from a compound of G1 (α - Alpha) (as a negative particle) and G2288 (θάνατος - death)]

1. deathlessness, immortality
2. not bound or subject to death

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance

immortality.

From a compound of a (as a negative particle) and thanatos; deathlessness -- immortality.

see GREEK a

see GREEK thanatos

HELPS Word-studies

110 athanasía (from 1 /A "without" and 2288 /thánatos, "death") – properly, immortality (literally "without death, deathlessness"), referring to the unique glorification awarded to each believer by the Lord at His return (1 Cor 15:53,54).

NAS Exhaustive Concordance

Word Origin
from alpha (as a neg. prefix) and thanatos
Definition
immortality
NASB Translation
immortality (3).

Thayer's Greek Lexicon

STRONGS NT 110: ἀθανασία

ἀθανασία (ας ἡ (ἀθάνατος), immortality: 1 Corinthians 15:53; 1 Timothy 6:16 where God is described as ὁ μόνος ἔχων ἀθανασίαν, because he possesses it essentially — 'ἐκ τῆς ὀικείας οὐσίας, οὐκ ἐκ θελήματος ἄλλου, καθάπερ οἱ λοιποί πάντες ἀθάνατοι Justin,quaest, et resp. ad orthod. 61, p. 84, Otto edition. (In Greek writings from Plato down.)

Topical Lexicon

Overview

Strong’s Greek 110 designates the quality of being deathless—“immortality.” While pagan thought often regarded immortality as an intrinsic possession of the soul, Scripture locates it singularly in God and as a future gift to redeemed humanity through the resurrection.

Old Testament Foreshadowing

Though the term itself does not occur in the Hebrew canon, the anticipation of life beyond death is present. Enoch’s translation (Genesis 5:24), Job’s confession “Yet in my flesh I will see God” (Job 19:26), and Daniel’s promise that “many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake” (Daniel 12:2) collectively prepare the reader for the New Testament unveiling of immortality.

Usage in the New Testament Canon

The noun occurs three times, concentrated in Pauline writings.

1. 1 Corinthians 15:53–54 sets immortality within the eschatological transformation of believers:

“For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.”

Here immortality is not an abstract state but a bodily reality granted at Christ’s return, replacing corruption with incorruption.
2. 1 Timothy 6:16 attributes immortality exclusively to God: “He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light.” By affirming that only God “has” immortality, Paul guards divine transcendence while simultaneously revealing the source from which human immortality must flow.

God's Unique Possession of Immortality

God’s life is underived, eternal, and unthreatened by decay. The doxology of 1 Timothy 6:16 locates immortality among God’s incommunicable attributes, alongside unapproachable light and sovereign dominion. Any creaturely share in immortality, therefore, is derivative, granted by grace rather than possessed by nature.

Immortality and the Resurrection Body

1 Corinthians 15 contrasts “mortal” (subject to death) with “immortal” (incapable of dying). Immortality will clothe the believer only when “the trumpet sounds” (1 Corinthians 15:52). Thus, immortality is inseparable from resurrection; it is bodily, holistic, and victorious over the last enemy, death (1 Corinthians 15:26).

Pastoral Implications for Believers

• Assurance in bereavement: the certainty that those in Christ will “always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
• Motivation for holiness: “Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself” (1 John 3:3).
• Courage in ministry: Paul’s willingness to “endure everything for the sake of the elect” (2 Timothy 2:10) rests on the promise of life undefeatable by martyrdom.

Historical and Theological Reflections

Early Church Fathers (Ignatius, Irenaeus) opposed Gnostic spiritualizing by emphasizing bodily resurrection and derived immortality. The Apostles’ Creed echoes this stance: “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” The Reformers retained the distinction that God alone is immortal by nature while believers receive immortality consummately at the last day.

Connections with Related Doctrines

• Incorruptibility (Strong’s 861) highlights freedom from decay; together with immortality it describes the believer’s glorified state.
• Eternal life (John 17:3) begins now in relational knowledge of God and will culminate in immortal embodiment.
• Adoption (Romans 8:23) anticipates “the redemption of our bodies,” integrating immortality with sonship.

Conclusion

Strong’s 110 underscores the biblical storyline: God, inherently immortal, shares His deathless life with His people through the resurrection accomplished by Jesus Christ. This promised immortality shapes Christian hope, ethics, and worship, anchoring the church in confident expectation that “death has been swallowed up in victory.”

Forms and Transliterations

αθανασιαν αθανασίαν ἀθανασίαν αθανίμ athanasian athanasían

Englishman's Concordance

1 Corinthians 15:53 N-AFS
GRK: τοῦτο ἐνδύσασθαι ἀθανασίαν
NAS: mortal must put on immortality.
KJV: mortal [must] put on immortality.
INT: this to put on immortality

1 Corinthians 15:54 N-AFS
GRK: τοῦτο ἐνδύσηται ἀθανασίαν τότε γενήσεται
NAS: will have put on immortality, then
KJV: shall have put on immortality, then
INT: this put on immortality then will come to pass

1 Timothy 6:16 N-AFS
GRK: μόνος ἔχων ἀθανασίαν φῶς οἰκῶν
NAS: possesses immortality and dwells
KJV: hath immortality, dwelling
INT: alone has immortality in light dwelling

Strong's Greek 110
3 Occurrences

ἀθανασίαν — 3 Occ.