What does ἀθανασία (athanasía) mean in the Bible?
G110 names immortality or deathlessness. In its New Testament settings, the word is used with the range and pressure described by its local passages rather than by a bare gloss alone.
Greek · G110
ἀθανασία
Deathlessness
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ἀθανασία G110
Pronunciation athanasía
What does ἀθανασία (athanasía) mean in the Bible?
G110 names immortality or deathlessness. In its New Testament settings, the word is used with the range and pressure described by its local passages rather than by a bare gloss alone.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀθανασία (G110) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G110?
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include immortality (2), immortal (1).
Where does ἀθανασία (athanasía) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Corinthians 15:53. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (2), 1 Timothy (1).
What This Word Actually Means
G110 names immortality or deathlessness. In its New Testament settings, the word is used with the range and pressure described by its local passages rather than by a bare gloss alone. It appears in the resurrection argument of 1 Corinthians 15 and in the doxology of 1 Timothy 6. God alone has immortality inherently; believers receive immortality as resurrection gift.
This companion therefore treats the word as a Scripture-governed guide, not as a shortcut around exegesis. It helps teachers comfort grief with bodily resurrection hope and worship the immortal God. It should help readers ask better questions of the passage: who is speaking or acting, what covenant or gospel reality is in view, and how the surrounding context limits or strengthens the claim.
It should not become speculation about an independent immortal soul detached from resurrection.
How the Bible Uses It
G110 joins resurrection hope to the uniqueness of God.
- 1Cor.15.53
For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
The mortal must be clothed with immortality in the resurrection.
- 1Cor.15.54
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
When mortality is clothed with immortality, death is swallowed up in victory.
- 1Tim.6.16
He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light. No one has ever seen Him, nor can anyone see Him. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.
God alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It immortality 2× 1 Corinthians 15:53, 1 Corinthians 15:54
immortal 1× 1 Timothy 6:16
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row 1 Corinthians 15:53
Aligned rows 3
Books represented 2
1 Corinthians 2 1 Timothy 1
Source forms
ἀθανασίαν 3x athanasian 1 Corinthians 15:53, 1 Corinthians 15:54, 1 Timothy 6:16
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 3x 1 Corinthians 15:53, 1 Corinthians 15:54, 1 Timothy 6:16
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Comfort grieving believers with resurrection hope while centering worship on the immortal God.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that G110 proves a full anthropology by itself.
- Do not claim resurrection hope is merely survival of an immaterial part.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Imperishable existence that characterizes God alone and becomes believers' future resurrection reality.
Strong's G110
Lexical occurrences 3 verses Greek text appearances 3 times Word forms 1 form 3 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link 1 Corinthians 15:50-53 Source Gloss
deathlessness
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Imperishable existence that characterizes God alone and becomes believers' future resurrection reality.
(ἀ-θάνατος, undying; V. MM, VGT, see word), [in LXX: Wis.3:4 4:1 8:13,17 15:3, 4Ma.14:5 16:13 * ;] immortality: 1Co.15:53,54 1Ti.6:16 (cf. Cremer, 285 f.).
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
1 Corinthians 15:53 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἀθανασίαν. aqanasian
immortality
Read verse 1 Corinthians 15:54 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἀθανασίαν, aqanasian
immortality
Read verse 1 Timothy 6:16 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἀθανασίαν, aqanasian
immortality
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns 1 Aligned forms 3 Case pattern Accusative (3) Number pattern Singular (3)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Accusative · Singular · Feminine 1 Cor 15:53 · 1 Cor 15:54 · 1 Tim 6:16 3×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
The imperishable, deathless state that believers will inherit at resurrection
Showing 1 selected witness from 3 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ἀθανασία is built from these roots:
For the Preacher and Teacher
Teach G110 against despair before death and speculation about independent human deathlessness. A faithful teacher should begin with the nearest passage, observe who acts, what is being named, what problem or promise is in view, and what response the text calls for, then move carefully to related passages. The word keeps Christian hope bodily, dependent, and doxological.
The entry should help readers read Scripture more carefully, not replace the work of tracing the sentence, paragraph, book, and covenant setting. This keeps the word useful for shepherds, teachers, leaders, groups, families, and disciples without letting the word carry claims that belong to the whole passage or canon.
Anchor passage
1Cor.15.53
Doctrinal connections
- Bodily resurrection
- Divine aseity
- Victory over death
The noun denotes deathlessness or immortality. Context decides divine attribute or resurrected destiny.
From Old to New Testament
Old Testament hope in God\'s power over death prepares for resurrection clarity.
Canonical parallel
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain