StrongerBible

zōopoieō

ζωοποιέω

GreekG2227“make alive, give life, ...”

Appears 11 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Jhn 5:21 (2×)Jhn 6:63Rom 4:17Rom 8:111Co 15:221Co 15:361Co 15:452Co 3:6Gal 3:211Pe 3:18
Compound of
zōonζῷονliving thing23G2226
poieōποιέωto do/make: do579G4160
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradezoh-oh-poy-EH-ohverb

What zōopoieō means

to make alive: to give life to what is dead or lifeless

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

The word joins "living" and "make," so at its root it means to cause something to live. Before the Bible it was a rare, technical word, used by Greek writers on nature for animals that bear live young. The Greek Old Testament gave it a fresh purpose, pressing it into service for the one act only God can do: to kill and to make alive, to raise a person from death.

In the New Testament almost every use carries that weight. It names the raising of the dead (God, who gives life to the dead, in Romans 4:17; the mortal body made alive in Romans 8:11), and it names the new, lasting life given through the Spirit that human effort and the written law can never produce (2 Corinthians 3:6; John 6:63).

The senses stay close because they are the same act seen in different settings: God imparting life where there was none. What shifts is who is said to do it. The same life-giving is credited to the Father, to the risen Son, and to the Spirit, which is why the word carries far more weight than its handful of appearances would suggest.

Nuances

1ato raise the dead to life: the act of resurrection that Scripture assigns to God and to his Son
Jhn 5:21 (2×)Rom 4:17Rom 8:111Co 15:221Pe 3:18
1Pe 3:18

What "made alive in the spirit" refers to, which in turn decides who the imprisoned spirits of the following verses are and when Christ went to them.

  • majorityChrist's bodily resurrection, understood as his entry into the unhindered realm of the Spirit; the "going" that follows is his ascension, and the imprisoned spirits are rebellious angels.; Dalton, Christ's Proclamation to the Spirits (AnBib 23); Elliott, 1 Peter (Anchor Bible 37B), 645-679; Michaels, 1 Peter (WBC 49), 204-205; Achtemeier, 1 Peter (Hermeneia), 250-262
  • minorityChrist's spirit was made alive between his death and resurrection so that he could descend and preach to the dead.; Selwyn, The First Epistle of St. Peter
  • minorityChrist preached in the spirit through Noah to Noah's generation before the incarnation.; Grudem, 1 Peter (Tyndale New Testament Commentary); Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 2.16.9
1bto give life through the Spirit: the new, lasting life that human effort and the written law cannot produce
Jhn 6:631Co 15:452Co 3:6
1Co 15:45

How closely Paul's phrase "a life-giving spirit" identifies the risen Christ with the Holy Spirit.

  • contestedA functional identification: in the believer's experience the risen Christ and the Spirit are one and the same.; Dunn, Christology in the Making
  • contestedA description of Christ's transformed risen existence, from which he now dispenses life, while Christ and the Spirit remain distinct persons.; Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT), 787-795; Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC), 1275-1282
  • contestedA close working intimacy between Christ and the Spirit reached at the resurrection, without collapsing the two into one.; Gaffin, Resurrection and Redemption; Fatehi, The Spirit's Relation to the Risen Lord in Paul (WUNT 2/128)
1cto bring a buried seed to life, used as a picture of resurrection
1Co 15:36
1dto have the power to give life, said of the law, which did not
Gal 3:21

What scholars say about zōopoieō

The lexica (BDAG, LSJ, Louw-Nida, Muraoka) agree the verb means "to make alive, give life," with a secondary "preserve alive" sense attested in the Septuagint (Judges 21:14 codex A) but not in the New Testament. Bultmann's TDNT article (2:874-75) sets the standard diachronic account, followed by Silva (NIDNTTE) and Spicq: the word is rare and merely biological in classical Greek (Aristotle, Theophrastus, of animals bearing live young), and the Septuagint reinvents it theologically by using it for the Hebrew verb chayah in contexts where God's exclusive power over life and death is at stake (2 Kings 5:7; Nehemiah 9:6; Psalm 71:20). This liturgical usage stands behind the second benediction of the Amidah, "who makes the dead alive," which Paul echoes at Romans 4:17. In the New Testament the verb is concentrated in Paul, John, and 1 Peter, doing resurrection work (Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15:22, 36, 45; 1 Peter 3:18; John 5:21) and Spirit-vivification (2 Corinthians 3:6; John 6:63; and, counterfactually of the law, Galatians 3:21). The live debates are theological rather than lexical: the sense of Christ as a life-giving spirit at 1 Corinthians 15:45 (Dunn's functional identification of the risen Christ with the Spirit; the modal reading of Fee and Thiselton; the economic-Trinitarian reading of Gaffin and Fatehi) and the reference of "made alive in the spirit" at 1 Peter 3:18 (Dalton, Elliott, Michaels, and Achtemeier read bodily resurrection into the eschatological sphere, against the older descent reading of Selwyn and the preaching-through-Noah view of Grudem and Calvin). The patristic tradition made the related adjective a fixed title of the Spirit, "the Lord and giver of life," in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. ζῳοποιέωlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. ζῳοποιέωlexicon
  • Louw & Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, §23.88; §74.9lexicon
  • Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, s.v.lexicon
  • Bultmann, "ζωή, ζωοποιέω," TDNT 2:874-75theological-dictionary
  • Silva (ed.), New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, s.v. ζάωtheological-dictionary
  • Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ζωοποιέωlexicon
  • Thrall, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians (ICC), 1:233-37commentary
  • Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT), 787-95commentary
  • Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC), 1275-82commentary
  • Michaels, 1 Peter (WBC 49), 204-05commentary
  • Elliott, 1 Peter (Anchor Bible 37B), 645-79commentary
  • Achtemeier, 1 Peter (Hermeneia), 250-62commentary
  • Dalton, Christ's Proclamation to the Spirits: A Study of 1 Peter 3:18-4:6 (AnBib 23)monograph
  • Dunn, Christology in the Makingmonograph
  • Gaffin, Resurrection and Redemptionmonograph
  • Fatehi, The Spirit's Relation to the Risen Lord in Paul (WUNT 2/128)monograph
  • Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT)commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of ζωοποιέω

present active indicative 3s

ζῳοποιεῖ

Jhn 5:21, Jhn 5:21, 2Co 3:6

aorist active infinitive

ζῳοποιῆσαι

Gal 3:21

aorist passive participle nominative m s

ζῳοποιηθεὶς

1Pe 3:18

future active indicative 3s

ζῳοποιήσει

Rom 8:11

future passive indicative 3p

ζῳοποιηθήσονται

1Co 15:22

present active participle accusative n s

ζῳοποιοῦν

1Co 15:45

present active participle genitive m s

ζῳοποιοῦντος

Rom 4:17

present active participle nominative n s

ζῳοποιοῦν

Jhn 6:63

present passive indicative 3s

ζῳοποιεῖται

1Co 15:36