August 20, 2023, 12:00 PM

In the Nicene Creed we say, “… and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” In the Apostles” Creed we say, “ … on the third day He rose again from the dead …” This can be confusing. Rose again is an English translation of the Latin word, resurrexit, contained in the Creeds. It is an accurate translation of this Latin verb which comes from two words, re (again) and surrexit (he rose). The Greek translation is anastasis and is similar, ana (again) and stasis (to stand). While the word again may cause confusion in English, it is really a very common way of speaking. For example, I might say, “I went to bed at 10:00 last night and at 6:00 this morning I got up again.” Although the word “again” may not be strictly necessary, it actually communicates a return to the original state. “I was up, I lay down, I got up again.” In this case, I returned to the state I was in before I slept. Think about saying Christ rose again in the same way. Jesus was alive, He lay down His life and died, but then He rose again, returning once again to life. There is no indication in this phraseology that He arose twice. Rather, He returned to the state of being physically alive, which He was before. (Note, if you got hung up on my use of “lay” instead of “laid”, look up the past tense and past participle of the verb, “lie.”) Now you know!