To recover life (literally or figuratively)
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G326 means to live again, come to life again, or revive. This record is evidence-limited: the local count basis is about two, while the source companion follows two literary settings and cites both repetitions of the phrase within Luke's one parable.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀναζάω (G326) · Open the biblical lexicon
G326 means to live again, come to life again, or revive. This record is evidence-limited: the local count basis is about two, while the source companion follows two literary settings and cites both repetitions of the phrase within Luke's one parable.
The BSB source-word alignment has 2 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include is alive again (1), sprang to life (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 15:24. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (1), Romans (1).
G326 means to live again, come to life again, or revive. This record is evidence-limited: the local count basis is about two, while the source companion follows two literary settings and cites both repetitions of the phrase within Luke's one parable. In Luke 15:24 and 15:32, the father describes the returned son or brother as dead and alive again, lost and found.
The language is metaphorical restoration within the parable, not a technical statement about bodily resurrection. In Romans 7:9, sin comes to life when the commandment arrives and Paul says he died. There the subject that revives is sin, and the wider argument explicitly denies that the law is sinful. With such limited evidence, these settings establish contrast rather than a broad doctrine: living again can figure restored relationship in one passage and renewed sinful activity in another.
The limited evidence presents two contrasting literary settings: the lost son's relational restoration in Luke 15 and sin's renewed activity when the commandment comes in Romans 7.
For this son of mine was dead and is alive again! He was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.
The father celebrates that his son was dead and is alive again.
Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
Sin sprang to life when the commandment came, and Paul died.
But it was fitting to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
The older brother is told it is fitting to celebrate because the lost brother is alive.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Resurrection to life—whether literal revival or moral/spiritual restoration from spiritual death
Resurrection to life—whether literal revival or moral/spiritual restoration from spiritual death
[in Al.: Gen.45:27 * ;] to live again, regain life (cf. cl. ἀναβιόω; Cremer, 722; and for other exx., v MM, VGT, see word): metaphorically of moral revival, Luk.15:24 (WH, mg., ἔζησεν); of sin, Rom.7:9.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
5 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I come to life again, revive
Read verseI come to life again, revive
Read verseI come to life again, revive
Read verseI come to life again, revive
Read verseI come to life again, revive
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.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 2 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 2 lexical occurrence verses.
ἀναζάω is built from these roots:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Ask first who or what comes to life again. In Luke 15, the father uses death-and-life language for the return of his lost son, and he repeats it when inviting the older brother to share the celebration. Teachers may proclaim restoration and the father's joy without turning the parable's metaphor into a technical resurrection term or assigning every detail of the story a doctrinal referent.
In Romans 7, sin is the subject that comes alive when the commandment arrives. Paul's next verses call the commandment holy, righteous, and good, so the passage does not blame God's law for sin's action. The limited evidence warrants this carefully bounded contrast. It does not warrant claims about lexical tone outside these settings or a complete resolution of the larger interpretive debates over Romans 7.
Luke.15.24
The compound verb expresses living again or reviving. The prefix contributes the sense of renewed action, but the subject and discourse supply the moral and theological force. Luke applies it metaphorically to a returned son; Romans applies it to sin's renewed activity. The form alone does not mean bodily resurrection.
Luke's paired images of death and life, lost and found, belong to Scripture's wider restoration language, while Romans 7 engages the commandment and sin within Israel's law. Because the local evidence is limited, broader Old Testament parallels should remain illustrative and should not be presented as lexical derivation.