Sleeping and Falling Asleep in Death

The characteristic metaphor for death in the Bible is undoubtedly sleep. Throughout the Bible, this image is used more than seventy times to describe the condition of the dead. Why is that?

First, sleep, like death, is only temporary. A person sleeps until the time comes to awaken and rise. Similarly, Scripture teaches that the dead are sleeping until the time when they are awakened and rise (cf. Ephesians 5:14).

Second, someone who is asleep is completely unaware of their surroundings. A sleeping person sees nothing, hears nothing, and perceives nothing (cf. 1 Samuel 26:12). Paul describes this in the same way when he says, metaphorically (!), that Israel is asleep (Romans 11:8). It may well be true that people regularly dream while sleeping, but dreams play no role whatsoever in this biblical figure of speech. If someone nevertheless wanted to draw a conclusion from the phenomenon of dreaming, they would have to say that the dead experience only a virtual reality. The point, however, is that it is not dreaming but sleeping that serves as an image of death.

Furthermore, it is important to establish that the Bible never says the body sleeps, but rather the person himself. Jesus did not say: Lazarus’ body is sleeping. No, He said: “Lazarus, our friend, has found repose” (John 11:11).

It is also highly significant that when Jesus awakens Lazarus (and several others) from the sleep of death, we hear nothing about any disappointment on the part of those who had been dead because they were called back from a glorious place. Nor is there a single word about extraordinary experiences during the time they were dead. Nothing of the sort! Why not? The simple answer is that these people were asleep, and therefore they saw nothing, heard nothing, and perceived nothing.

In short, the universal biblical image of sleep is a magnificent illustration and confirmation of the words of Ecclesiastes: “the dead know nothing whatsoever” (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

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