Topic
Asleep
10 passages cited, from 1 classic reference work.
These works date from 1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Jonah 1:5ISBE
Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
- Matthew 8:24ISBE
And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.
- Matthew 26:43ISBE
And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy.
- John 11:11ISBE
These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
- Acts 7:60ISBE
And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
- Acts 13:36ISBE
For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:
- 1 Corinthians 15:6ISBE
After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
- 1 Corinthians 15:18ISBE
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:14ISBE
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
- 2 Peter 3:4ISBE
And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 10 references
a-slep' (yashen, "sleeping," radham, "deep sleep"; katheudo, "to fall asleep," aphupnoo, "to fall asleep"): A state of repose in sleep, Nature's release from weariness of body and mind, as of Jonah on shipboard (Jon 1:5); of Christ in the tempest-tossed boat (Mt 8:24); of the exhausted disciples in Gethsemane (Mt 26:43 the King James Version).
Used with beautiful and comforting significance of death (koimaomai, "to put to sleep").
Sleep implies a subsequent waking, and as a symbol of death implies continued and conscious life beyond the grave. In the presence of death no truth has been so sustaining to Christian faith as this. It is the distinct product of Christ's resurrection. Paul speaks of departed believers as having "fallen asleep in Christ" (1Co 15:6,18); as proof of the soul's immortality he terms the risen Christ "the first- fruits of them that are asleep." Lazarus and Stephen, at death, are said to have "fallen asleep" (Joh 11:11; Ac 7:60); so of David and the ancient patriarchs (Ac 13:36; 2Pe 3:4). The most beautiful description of death in human language and literature is Paul's characterization of the dead as "them also which sleep in Jesus" (1Th 4:14 the King James Version). This blessed hope has wrought itself permanently into the life and creed and hymnology of the Christian church, as in the hymn often used with such comforting effect at the burial service of believers: "Asleep in Jesus! blessed sleep!"
Dwight M. Pratt
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.