life as opposed to death: the condition of being alive, the span of a person's existence.
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
At its plainest the word names the simple fact of being alive, the opposite of being dead. It can point to the living state itself, to the years a person is given, or to the breath and vitality that keep a creature going.
This is the ordinary, this-worldly use. It is what a rich person mistakenly thinks their possessions secure, and the brief, vanishing thing the letter of James compares to a morning mist. It is also the life that hangs in the balance when someone is rescued from death.
The New Testament writers do not despise this everyday meaning. But they keep pressing past it, because the life they most want to talk about is not the kind that ends. So even ordinary uses often sit next to the deeper one, and a single verse can move from the life that breathes to the life that never dies.
Nuances
1athe state of being alive, the vitality that animates a living person or creature.
the life that comes from God and never ends: real, full, unending life, often called eternal life.
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This is the meaning the New Testament cares about most, and it is more than endless time. It is a different quality of being alive altogether: God's own life shared with people, a life that death cannot touch. It begins now, as a present possession, and runs on past death into the age to come.
John's Gospel and letters lean on the word constantly. There life is bound up with Jesus himself, who is called the life and the bread of life and the way to it; to know God and the one he sent simply is this life. To have the Son is to have it; to refuse him is to be without it. Paul speaks the same way, setting this life over against death and condemnation as the gift God gives in Christ.
The phrase often translated "eternal life" carries this whole idea. The stress falls less on how long it lasts than on what kind of life it is. It is the life of the coming age breaking into the present, so that someone can be said to have already crossed over from death into life while still walking the earth.
Nuances
2aeternal life: the unending life of the age to come, given by God and received now in Christ.
across most of its New Testament uses this word means the unending, God-given life of the coming age, a quality of life and not just its continuation; the bare English word "life" carries no such depth on its own.Jhn 3:16Jhn 17:3Rom 6:23
Both
both can name plain physical existence, the state of being alive as opposed to dead.Luk 12:15Jas 4:14
Only life
English "life" first suggests ordinary biological existence, the span between birth and death; a reader can easily miss that in the New Testament the word usually means something far richer than staying alive.
the Greek stresses a kind of life, the very life of God and of the age to come, which a believer can already possess; the emphasis is on its quality and source, not only on its endlessness.Jhn 5:241Jn 5:13
Both
both name the never-ending life God gives, which outlasts death.Jhn 3:16Rom 6:22
Only eternal life
the English phrase makes "eternal" sound mainly like "unending duration," which can reduce a present, transforming gift to a promise about the future and how long it will last.
How zōē differs from similar Greek words
ψυχήthe self, the inner person, or the natural life one can lose or save. It names the living individual and their breath of life, where this word names life itself, especially the God-given life that never ends.
Names life as a quality or principle one possesses, above all the divine, never-ending life God gives, rather than a particular creature's existence.Jhn 3:16Jhn 17:3Rom 6:23
Set against death as the contrasting power or state, so it points to sharing in God's own aliveness rather than to a self that can be killed.Jhn 5:24Rom 5:211Jn 3:14
Used absolutely, with no person attached, for life itself as a thing that can be given, entered, or inherited.Jhn 1:4Mat 7:14Act 11:18
Both
Both can name a person's own life held in the balance, so the same verse plays one off the other: the natural life one clings to (ψυχή) is lost or kept for the lasting life (ζωή) that outlasts it.Jhn 12:25
Both touch the bare fact of being alive, joined in the phrase for a living creature: a soul that has life in it.Rev 16:3
Names the living self, the inner person of feeling and will, who can be troubled, sorrowful, or made glad.Mat 26:38Luk 1:46Jhn 12:27
Means the natural life a creature has, the one thing a person can spend, surrender, or have taken away.Mrk 10:45Jhn 10:11Jhn 15:13
Stands for the whole individual person, counted as a head, so that it can be numbered like people in a crowd.Act 2:41Act 7:14Act 27:37
βίοςone's manner of living or the means and resources of life, a livelihood. It points to the outward shape and goods of a life, not to the vital principle of being alive itself.
names life itself, the principle of being alive, set against deathLuk 16:25Jhn 5:24Jhn 5:29Act 2:28
is the carrier of the great Gospel idea of eternal life, the unending life God gives in ChristJhn 3:16Jhn 5:24Jhn 11:25Jhn 17:3Mat 25:46
names Christ himself as the source and embodiment of lifeJhn 1:4Jhn 14:6Jhn 11:25
Both
both can be translated simply "life" in English, which hides that one points to what sustains living while the other points to living itselfLuk 8:14Luk 12:15
names the resources and possessions one lives ON: livelihood, the goods and money that keep a person goingMrk 12:44Luk 21:4Luk 15:12Luk 15:301Jn 3:17
names the manner and course of a life as it is actually lived: its conduct, cares, and pursuitsLuk 8:141Ti 2:22Ti 2:41Pe 4:31Jn 2:16
ζάωthe verb "to live," the action of being alive, where this is the noun for the life itself. The verb describes living; the noun names the life that is lived.
Names life ITSELF as a thing: the gift God gives, holds, and grants, something a person has or enters rather than does.Jhn 1:4Jhn 3:16Rom 6:23
Carries the fixed phrase eternal life, the age-to-come existence one inherits or enters, a destination set against destruction.Mat 19:16Mat 7:14Jhn 17:3
Both
Both speak of the life Christ gives that overcomes death: the verb for the living it produces, the noun for the life that is given.Jhn 11:25
Both appear in John 6 around the bread of life: eating the bread makes one live (verb), because the bread is life (noun).Jhn 6:51
Both describe the resurrection life of Jesus working in believers: his life carried in the body, so that his living is made visible.2Co 4:11
Names the ACT or state of being alive, said of a subject who lives: a verb predicated of God, of Christ, or of a person, not a possession handed over.Mat 16:16Rom 6:10Gal 2:20
Marks the transition from death to being alive again (coming alive, living once more), an event that happens to someone, where the noun cannot stand.Luk 15:32Jhn 5:25Rom 7:9
names life as a state of being alive, the opposite of death, whether the present span of a person's days or vitality itselfLuk 16:25Act 17:25
above all the everlasting life God gives, entered now and lasting forever, the great gift of the gospelJhn 3:16Jhn 17:3
Both
the two meet in the eucharistic teaching that drinking Christ's blood is what gives a person life: the shed blood is the very source of the lifeJhn 6:53Jhn 6:54
Names the practical, mundane affairs of everyday earthly living: property, money, food, and disputes over such matters.1Co 6:31Co 6:4
Carries the anxieties and distractions of daily existence, the cares that can weigh down and dull the heart.Luk 21:34
zōē in the other biblical languages
חַיHebrew“alive”the main Hebrew word for life, both the living state and length of days, and the usual word the Greek Old Testament renders with this one. The Hebrew rarely carries the developed sense of unending divine life that the New Testament gives this word.
Carries the special sense of unending life given by God, often called eternal life, a life that begins now and outlasts death. This forward-looking, gift-of-God weight is the word's center in the New Testament.Jhn 3:16Rom 6:231Jn 5:11
Can name life itself as a person, identifying Jesus as the life in whom people live. The Hebrew noun stays a state or possession and is not used this way.Jhn 11:25Jhn 14:6
Both
Both are the ordinary noun "life," the gift of being alive that God gives and sustains, which is why the Greek word is the natural counterpart when Scripture speaks of life set before a person.Deu 30:19Mat 7:14
Both can name life as a treasure worth more than anything else, a thing to be guarded and longed for.Psa 16:11Jhn 10:10
Reaches across to uses the Greek noun for life does not cover: it doubles as the plain adjective "alive" (the opposite of dead) and as a label for animals as a class. The Greek "life" is only the abstract noun.Gen 43:7Gen 1:24
Anchors life firmly in the present world: long days, a full lifespan, and prosperity in the land, rather than a life beyond death. Its hope is for life lived well and long here.Deu 30:19Pro 3:2
נֶפֶשׁHebrew“soul”the Hebrew for the living self, breath, or person, the counterpart to the Greek word for the soul rather than to this word; included because English Bibles often render it "life" too, blurring the line this word helps draw.
Names life as a state or quality that one has, the opposite of death, the very thing God gives and Christ embodies.Jhn 1:4Jhn 11:25Rom 8:6
Carries the great New Testament emphasis on eternal life, life that never ends, held out as a gift and a future hope.Jhn 3:16Rom 6:23Tit 1:21Jn 5:11
Both
Both name the life of a living being, the life that can be put at risk, lost, or rescued. The Greek word can do the concrete work the Hebrew word does for mortal life that is on the line.1Sa 19:51Ki 19:4Luk 12:15Jas 4:14
Both can describe the span of one's earthly living, the life a person lives out and that death cuts off.Psa 30:3Act 8:33
It treats life as something God hands over and a person then holds or forfeits, so it can be given, promised, inherited, or lost.Jhn 10:28Jhn 3:36Rom 6:23
Most of its uses look past death to the life of the coming age, set squarely against being destroyed or perishing.Mat 25:46Mat 7:14Jhn 3:16
It becomes a title for Jesus himself, so that a person is not merely alive but is called "life" outright.Jhn 1:4Jhn 11:25Jhn 14:6
Both
Where the Aramaic word turns into a plural noun it means "life" itself, and that is the ground the Greek word covers: a stretch of living that can be prayed over or lengthened.Ezr 6:10Dan 7:12Luk 1:75Jas 4:14
Both attach life that never runs out to God, who is alive in a way no creature is and has that life in himself.Dan 4:34Jhn 5:261Jn 1:2
Its ordinary job is to describe someone as being alive, which is how it forms the standing title "the living God" for the God Daniel serves.Dan 6:20Dan 6:26
It can also point at people as a group, "the living", meaning everyone currently drawing breath.Dan 2:30Dan 4:17
Life that never ends, the life of the coming age that God gives now and keeps forever. This is the word's center of gravity in the New Testament, and the Hebrew word never reaches past the present world.Mat 25:46Jhn 3:16Rom 6:231Jn 5:11
The whole stretch of a person's earthly existence, the years they actually get. The Hebrew word names what keeps a person going, never the span itself.Luk 16:25Jas 4:141Ti 4:8
Life as something God holds in himself and hands out, so that a person can be called the life rather than merely have it.Jhn 1:4Jhn 11:25Jhn 14:6
Both
Both words treat life as something God grants and can withhold, never a resource a person secures for themselves. English Bibles reach for "life" and "reviving" for the Hebrew and "life" for the Greek at exactly this point.Ezr 9:8Act 17:25
Both can name life given back after ruin or death, not simply existence carrying on: a wrecked people set on their feet again, and the dead brought back.Ezr 9:9Rom 11:15
The food and supplies that keep a person going, not the condition of being alive. It is what a household eats and is paid, the sort of thing raiders can carry off.Jdg 6:4Jdg 17:10
The healthy flesh showing in a sore or a burn, a use tied to living tissue in the body rather than to anyone's existence. Nothing like this ever attaches to the Greek word.Lev 13:10Lev 13:24
Coming through a disaster alive: whether a survivor is left at all when famine or defeat has done its work.Gen 45:52Ch 14:13
What scholars say about zōē
The standard lexicons and theological dictionaries (BDAG, LSJ, Louw-Nida, TDNT, EDNT, NIDNTT) agree that the word ranges from ordinary physical life (the state of being alive, lifetime, vitality) to a distinctively theological sense of the life God gives. BDAG separates these as its two main divisions: natural life on the one hand, and the "transcendent life" belonging to God and shared with believers on the other. The classic treatment is Rudolf Bultmann's long article in TDNT (Kittel, ed.), which traces the Old Testament and Jewish background and argues that in John especially the word denotes a present, eschatological reality bound to Jesus and not merely future or endless existence. Most Johannine scholarship (so Dodd, Brown, Schnackenburg) follows this in stressing that "eternal life" in John is a quality of life realized now, while not denying its future dimension. On the relation to the soul-word, the lexica distinguish this term for life itself from the term for the living self or person. The Greek Old Testament regularly uses this word to render the main Hebrew word for life, which is part of why the New Testament could load it with theological weight.