DEATH (dab), trzaw'veth, death).
Since death can be regarded in various points of view, the descriptions of it must necessarily vary. If we consider the state of a dead man, as it strikes the senses, death is the cessation of natural life. If we consider the cause of death, we may place it in that permanent and ent.re cessation of the feeling and motion of the body which results from the destruction of the body. Among theologians, death is commonly said to consist in the separation of soul and body, Im plying that the soul still exists when the body perishes.
Death does not consist in this separation, but this separation is the consequence of death. As soon as the body loses feeling and motion, it is henceforth useless to the soul, which is therefore separated from it.
Scriptural representations, ,tonics, and modes of speech respecting death: (1) Return to Dust. One of the most common in the Old Testament is, to return to the dust, or to the earth. Ilence the phrase, the dust of death. It is 'founded on the description Gen ii :7 and iii :to, and denotes the dissolution and destruction of the body. Ilence the sentiment in Eccles. xii :7,-'The dust shall return to the cal di as it was, the spirit unto God, who gave it.' (2) Removal of Breath. A withdrawing, ex halation, or removal of the breath of life ( Ps. civ :29).
(3) This Tabernacle. A removal from the body, a being absent from the body, a departure from it, etc. This description is founded on the comparison of the body with a tent or lodgment in which the soul dwells during this life. Death destroys this tent or house, and commands us to travel on ( Job iv :21 ; la. xxxviii'12). Whence Paul says (2 Cor. v 'our earthly house of this tabernacle' will be destroyed ; and Peter calls death a 'putting off of this tabernacle' (2 Peter i:13. t4).
(4) Unclothod. Paul likewise uses the ter •, 1dOtoectt,ektionesthol, to he unclothed, in reference to death (2 Cur. v:3, 4), because the body is rep resented as the garment of the soul, as Plato it. The soul,therefore, as long as it is in the body, is clothed; and as soon As it is disembodied, is naked, (5) Sleep. The terms which denote sleep are
applied frequently in the Bible, as everywhere else, to death (Ps. lxxvi Jer. Ii :39; John xi :13, sq.). Nor is this ianguage used exclusively for the death of the pious, as some pretend, though this is its prevailing use. Homer calls sleep and death twin-brothers (Iliad, xvi :672). The terms also which signify to lie down, to rest (e. g.
occumbere), also denote death.
(6) Departure. Death is frequently compared with and named from a departure, a going away (Job x :21 ; Ps. xxxix :4; Matt. xxvi :24 ; Phil.
i :23 ; 2 Tim. iv :6).
Figurative. Death, when personified, is de scribed as a ruler and tyrant, having vast power and a great kingdom, over which he reigns. But the ancients also represented it under some fig ures which are not common among us. We rep resent it as a man with a scythe, or as a skeleton, etc.; but the Jews, before the exile, fre quently represented death as a hunter, who lays snares for men (Ps. xviii :5, 6; xci :3). After the exile, they represented him as a man, or some times as an angel (the angel of Death), with a cup of poison, which he reaches to men. From this representation appears to have arisen the phrase, which occurs in the New Testament, to taste death (Matt. xvi :28 ; Heb. ii :9), which, however, in common speech, signifies merely to die, without reminding one of the origin of the phrase. The case is the same with the phrase to see death (Ps. lxxxix :48; Luke ii :26).
Christ abolished death, and swallowed it up in victory, when by his own death he removed the curse and sting from his people's natural death, and redeemed them from spiritual and eternal death. He will complete his victory over death natural hereafter, when he will raise them from the dead, and give them the full possession of eternal happiness (Is. xxv :8; t Cor. xv ;54. 55; 2 Tim. i :to). (See Knapp's Christian Theol ogy, by Dr. Leonard Wood; Watson's Institutes; 'Christian Dogmatics, Martensen; Brown, Bib. Dirt.)