Matthew Chapter 9, Verse 24
From BibleWiki
24: λεγει αυτοις αναχωρειτε ου γαρ απεθανεν το κορασιον αλλα καθευδει και κατεγελων αυτου
24: He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but
sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
24: He said: Give place, for the girl is not dead, but sleepeth. And
they laughed him to scorn.
The maid is not dead, but sleepeth. It cannot be supposed that Jesus means literally to say that the child was not dead. Every possible evidence of her death had been given, and he acted on that himself, and conveyed to the people the idea that he raised her from the dead. He meant to speak in opposition to their opinions. It is not unlikely that Jarius and the people favoured the opinions of the Sadducees; and that they understood by her being dead that she had ceased to be, and that she would never be raised up again. In opposition to this he used the expression she sleepeth; affirming mildly both that the body was dead, and implying that her spirit still lived, and that she would be raised up again. A similar mode of speaking is seen in Jn 11:11: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." The sacred writers, who hold the doctrine of the resurrection, often spoke of the dead as sleeping, 2 Pet 3:4, Acts 7:60, 1Cor 15:6, 1Cor 15:18
1Thess 4:13ff. The meaning of this passage then is - the maid has not ceased to exist; but though her body is dead, yet her spirit lives, and she sleeps in the hope of the resurrection.
Laughed him to scorn. Derided him, ridiculed him.
