Abstract

Despite a representative number of New Testament examples which portray death as being a sleep, many Christians believe that immediately after death they are transported to heaven to live eternally with the Lord. By believing this Platonic idea, Christians not only skip completely over the last two temporal events in the scheme of salvation-history--the parousia and bodily resurrection, but they also adopt Greek philosophical principles. The purpose of the dissertation was to investigate the pagan and biblical teaching of the "sleep of death," especially as characterized by the term $\kappa o\iota\mu\acute\alpha o\mu\alpha\iota$ and its synonymous semantic field, in an attempt to shed light on why Jesus' "sleep of death" words were misunderstood by his disciples and unbelievers and to determine whether or not $\kappa o\iota\mu\acute\alpha o\mu\alpha\iota$ could help establish the reality of an interim period between death and resurrection. ;The Introduction justified the investigation by explaining the research problem at length, endorsed the basic presuppositions, set forth hermeneutical procedures, and outlined the contents of the dissertation. Diachronically and synchronically, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin equivalents were established. Chapter I compiled non-Christian Greek and Latin literature. Chapter II investigated the linguistic evidence from the Hellenistic period. Chapter III surveyed the semantic domain in Hebrew and Aramaic. Chapter IV reviewed the New Testament tradition. Chapter V comprised a brief look at the post-biblical reflection. The Conclusion set forth the meaning of $\kappa o\iota\mu\acute\alpha o\mu\alpha\iota$ in the New Testament, the meaning of $\kappa o\iota\mu\acute\alpha o\mu\alpha\iota$ for contemporary Christians, and its relative significance for a Christian understanding of death. ;The principle conclusions reached in this study are related to the doctrine of thanatology in the New Testament. First, while the biblical tradition verbally assimilated the pagan notion of the "sleep of death," it conceptually departed from it with respect to its ontological model. Second, the "wholistic dualism" model is compatible with biblical anthropology, thanatology, and eschatology. Monism, therefore, is not the only ontological option for the postmortem state. Lastly, $\kappa o\iota\mu\acute\alpha o\mu\alpha\iota$, in a predominant sense, theologically and functionally situates each deceased Christian in the preparousia disposition of the intermediate state in an intimate, conscious relationship with Christ