Life
Life in scripture is never a self-contained possession. It is breath on loan from the One who first breathed into the dust, a brief sojourn under the heavens, a gift offered through tree and fountain and word, and finally a person — the Son in whom "was life," who manifests himself in his people and gives them life that does not fade. The canon traces this arc from a garden where the tree of life stands, through the brevity of human days, to a city where that same tree bears fruit every month and a river of the water of life flows from the throne.
The Breath in the Nostrils
Life begins with breath, and breath belongs to God. Yahweh "formed the man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living soul" (Gen 2:7). Job confesses the same dependence in the middle of his suffering: "my life is yet whole in me, And the breath of God is in my nostrils" (Job 27:3); "The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life" (Job 33:4). Daniel's rebuke to Belshazzar names what the king has refused to acknowledge: "the God in whose hand is your breath, and are all your ways, you have not glorified" (Dan 5:23). Isaiah draws the conclusion: "Cease yourselves from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for what is he to be accounted of?" (Is 2:22). The same breath that animates the dust can be withdrawn — and given again. Ezekiel's valley of dry bones turns on it: "Thus says the Sovereign Yahweh to these bones: Look, I will cause breath to enter into you⁺, and you⁺ will live" (Eze 37:5). The Psalmist gathers creature and Creator into one motion: "You send forth your Spirit, they are created; And you renew the face of the ground" (Ps 104:30).
Life from God, Death from God
Because life is breath on loan, the giving and taking belongs to Yahweh alone. Hannah's song states it plainly: "Yahweh kills, and makes alive: He brings down to Sheol, and brings up" (1 Sam 2:6). Moses' song says the same: "I, even I, am [the Speech], And there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal" (Deut 32:39). Deuteronomy fits the believer's whole vocation under that gift: "love Yahweh your God, to obey [his Speech], and to stick to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days" (Deut 30:20). Qoheleth marks the return journey: "the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it" (Eccl 12:7). Sirach gathers the same theology of dependence: "Good and evil, life and death, poverty and riches, are from Yahweh" (Sir 11:14); and over against the death every flesh meets, "Opposite evil [is] good, and opposite death [is] life" (Sir 33:14).
Brevity, Vapor, Pilgrimage
The lifetime that lies between breath given and spirit returned is short. Jacob, standing before Pharaoh, calls his hundred-and-thirty years a pilgrimage: "few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they haven't attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage" (Gen 47:9). David prays from the same posture: "we are strangers before you, and sojourners, as all our fathers were: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no hope [to remain on the earth]" (1 Chr 29:15); "I am a stranger with you, A sojourner, as all my fathers were" (Ps 39:12); "I am a sojourner in the earth: Don't hide your commandments from me" (Ps 119:19).
Job's images saturate this — "Man, who is born of a woman, Is of few days, and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down: He flees also as a shadow, and does not continue" (Job 14:1-2); "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle ... my life is a breath" (Job 7:6-7). The Psalter refuses to sentimentalize the math: "Look, you have made my days [as] handbreadths; And my lifetime is as nothing before you: Surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity" (Ps 39:5); "The days of our years are seventy years, Or even by reason of strength eighty years; Yet is their pride but labor and sorrow; For it is soon gone, and we fly away" (Ps 90:9-10); "he knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for common man, his days are as grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone" (Ps 103:14-16). Qoheleth puts the same vapor under a different word: "who knows what is good for man in [his] life, all the days of his vain life which he spends as a shadow?" (Eccl 6:12). Sirach: "in time, he says, 'I have found rest; And now I will eat from my good things.' He does not know when he will pass on; And he leaves it [all] to another and dies" (Sir 11:19); "All flesh becomes old like a garment; And the everlasting statute is, You will surely die" (Sir 14:17).
The New Testament does not soften it. James asks, "What is your⁺ life? For you⁺ are a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away" (James 4:14). Peter, citing Isaiah, sets the contrast: "All flesh is as grass, And all its glory as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls: But the word of the Lord stays forever" (1 Pet 1:24-25). Hebrews names the patriarchs' self-understanding — "they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Heb 11:13) — and applies it to the church: "we do not have a city that stays here, but we seek after [the city] which is to come" (Heb 13:14); "I urge you⁺ as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly desires, which war against the soul" (1 Pet 2:11). The same self-understanding carries forward into Diognetus: Christians "dwell in their own countries, but as sojourners; they partake of all things as citizens, and endure all things as strangers; every foreign land is their country, and every country a foreign land" (Gr 5:5); "They dwell on earth, but have citizenship in heaven" (Gr 5:9); "The immortal soul dwells in a mortal tabernacle; and Christians sojourn among corruptible things, looking for incorruption in the heavens" (Gr 6:8).
Long Life Promised
Within that brief span, scripture does promise length of days — but as covenant gift to the obedient, not as a right. The fifth commandment ties it to honor: "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you" (Exod 20:12). Deuteronomy generalizes: "You⁺ will walk in all the way which Yahweh your⁺ God has commanded you⁺, that you⁺ may live, and that it may be well with you⁺, and that you⁺ may prolong your⁺ days" (Deut 5:33); "that your⁺ days may be multiplied, and the days of your⁺ sons, in the land which [the Speech of] Yahweh swore to your⁺ fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth" (Deut 11:21). Wisdom repeats it: "My son, do not forget my law; But let your heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and years of life, And peace, they will add to you" (Prov 3:1-2); "The fear of Yahweh prolongs days; But the years of the wicked will be shortened" (Prov 10:27). The genealogies of Genesis 5 supply the canonical examples — Adam, Seth, Enosh, Mahalalel, Jared, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah — each life measured in centuries because the promise is being kept along a single redemptive line. The vigorous old age of Moses, who at a hundred and twenty was still strong (Deut 34:7), and Caleb, eighty-five and undiminished (Josh 14:11), runs along the same grain. The Psalter renders it as image: "They will still bring forth fruit in old age; They will be full of sap and green" (Ps 92:14).
Life Tested, Life Hated
Brevity is one pressure on life; suffering is another, and scripture lets sufferers say so. Job recoils from his own days: "I loathe [my life]; I would not live always: Leave me alone; for my days are vanity" (Job 7:16). Qoheleth: "I hated life, because the work that is wrought under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a striving after wind" (Eccl 2:17). Jeremiah curses the day of his birth (Jer 20:14-18). Elijah, exhausted, asks Yahweh to take his life — "It is enough; now, O Yahweh, take away my soul; for I am not better than my fathers" (1 Kings 19:4). Jonah twice prefers death to mission (Jonah 4:8). Jesus presses the same paradox onto discipleship: "If any man comes to me, and does not hate his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own soul also, he can't be my disciple" (Luke 14:26).
But the trial is itself a refining. The Psalmist welcomes it: "You have proved my heart; you have visited me in the night; You have tried me, and find nothing" (Ps 17:3). The prophets give the image: "I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried" (Zech 13:9); the messenger of the covenant "will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver" (Mal 3:3). James names the outcome: "Blessed is the man who endures trial; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which [the Lord] promised to those who love him" (James 1:12).
The Fountain and the Living Water
Brevity is not the last word, because scripture also speaks of life with God as a fountain that does not run dry. "With you is the fountain of life: In your light we will see light" (Ps 36:9). Wisdom and the fear of Yahweh are figured the same way: "The law of the wise is a fountain of life, That one may avoid the snares of death" (Prov 13:14); "The fear of Yahweh is a fountain of life, That one may avoid the snares of death" (Prov 14:27). The prophets diagnose Israel's sin precisely as forsaking that fountain: "my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jer 2:13). Zechariah promises its reopening: "In that day there will be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness" (Zech 13:1). Isaiah issues the universal invitation: "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come⁺ to the waters" (Is 55:1).
Jesus picks the image up at the well: "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me a drink; you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water" (John 4:10); "the water that I will give him will become in him a well of living water forever" (John 4:14). Ezekiel's temple-river is the canonical picture of how that water spreads: "every living soul which swarms, in every place where the rivers come, will live ... everything will live wherever the river comes" (Eze 47:9), and on its banks "every tree for food, whose leaf will not wither, neither will its fruit fail: it will bring forth new fruit every month, because its waters issue out of the sanctuary; and its fruit will be for food, and its leaf for healing" (Eze 47:12). The Apocalypse closes with the same scene: a Lamb who "will guide them to fountains of waters of life: and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (Rev 7:17); "a river of water of life, bright as crystal, that proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb ... And on this side of the river and on that was a tree of life that bears fruit twelve [times per year], every month yielding its fruit: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations" (Rev 22:1-2); "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to him who is thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely" (Rev 21:6); "the Spirit and the bride say, Come ... he who is thirsty, let him come: he who will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev 22:17).
The Tree and the Fruit
The tree of life stands at both ends of the canon. In the garden, "out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen 2:9). After the fall, access is barred lest the man "put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" (Gen 3:22). The figure migrates into wisdom literature as a metaphor for what gives life now: wisdom is "a tree of life to those who lay hold on her" (Prov 3:18); "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life" (Prov 11:30). Hosea pictures Yahweh himself in the same image: "I am like a green fir-tree; from me is your fruit found" (Hos 14:8). Jeremiah pictures the trusting man as "a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out its roots by the river ... will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green" (Jer 17:8); the Psalmist renders the same image — "he is like a tree planted by streams of water: its fruit it yields in season, and its leaf does not wither" (Ps 1:3). The garden tree is finally restored in the city: "To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God" (Rev 2:7); the river-bordering tree of Revelation 22 closes the loop.
The Word as Life
Bread and breath alone do not sustain life — the word does. Moses learns it in the wilderness: "man does not live by bread only, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh does man live" (Deut 8:3). Jesus stakes the same claim about his own words: "It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I have spoken to you⁺ are spirit, and are life" (John 6:63). James names regeneration by it: "Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth" (James 1:18). Paul tells the Philippians to hold this word out: "holding forth the word of life" (Phil 2:16). And the same word bridges Old Testament prophecy and apostolic preaching: "All flesh is as grass ... But the word of the Lord stays forever. And this is the word of good news which was preached to you⁺" (1 Pet 1:24-25). John writes his epistle so the readers may handle exactly that — "concerning the Speech of life — and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you⁺ the life, the eternal [life], which was with the Father, and was manifested to us" (1 John 1:1-2).
Christ the Life
The figures converge on a person. "In him was life; and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). The Father has given the Son the same self-grounded life: "as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself" (John 5:26). Jesus claims it as his mission: "I came that they may have life, and may have [it] abundantly" (John 10:10). He claims it as his identity: "I am the resurrection, and the life: he who believes on me, though he dies, yet he will live" (John 11:25); "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Paul says of the gospel itself that Christ "abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the good news" (2 Tim 1:10). John reduces the matter to a clean disjunction: "God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son, has the life; he who does not have the Son of God, does not have the life" (1 John 5:11-12). The risen Christ takes the title himself: "the Living one; and I became dead, and look, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades" (Rev 1:18).
Life Out of Death
The way into this life runs through death — Christ's, and the believer's joined to his. "Except a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it stays alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24); "He who loves his soul loses it; and he who hates his soul in this world will keep it to eternal life" (John 12:25); "whoever would save his soul will lose it; but whoever will lose his soul for my sake, the same will save it" (Luke 9:24). Paul reads baptism along the same logic: "We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life" (Rom 6:4); "if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him" (Rom 6:8). The seed-image returns in 1 Corinthians: "that which you yourself sow is not quickened except it dies" (1 Cor 15:36). Sirach already named the precedent in Elijah's ministry: "Who raised up a corpse from death, And from Sheol by the favor of Yahweh" (Sir 48:5).
The Surrendered Life
What that death-and-life looks like in the body is surrender. Jesus' own meat is to do the will of the one who sent him (John 4:34), and his Gethsemane prayer marks the pattern: "not what I will, but what you will" (Mark 14:36). Paul lays the same logic on his readers: "reckon⁺ also yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Rom 6:11); "present your⁺ bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God ... be transformed by the renewing of the mind" (Rom 12:1-2). The personal confession is Galatians' famous line: "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me: and that [life] which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, [the faith] which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself up for me" (Gal 2:20); "to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil 1:21). It is a life hidden and yet to be revealed: "you⁺ died, and your⁺ life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ will be manifested, [who is] your⁺ life, then you⁺ will also be manifested with him in glory" (Col 3:3-4). The apostolic ministry embodies it: "always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor 4:10-11). Diognetus echoes the paradox of the Christian among the nations: "they are put to death, and made alive" (Gr 5:12).
The Old Life Put Off
Surrender to Christ entails a definitive break with the former pattern. Paul names the cut: "our old man was crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be done away" (Rom 6:6). The same imperative shapes Ephesians and Colossians: "put away, as concerning your⁺ former manner of life, the old man, that waxes corrupt after the desires of deceit; and that you⁺ are renewed in the spirit of your⁺ mind, and put on the new man" (Eph 4:22-24); "do not lie one to another; seeing that you⁺ have put off the old man with his activities, and have put on the new man, who is being renewed to knowledge after the image of him who created him" (Col 3:9-10). Peter looks back at what is finished: "the time past may suffice to have worked the desire of the Gentiles" (1 Pet 4:3).
The Deeper Life
Beyond conversion, the New Testament expects depth. Jesus' parable measures the wise builder by a foundation that goes down: he "dug and went deep, and laid a foundation on the rock: and when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it" (Luke 6:48). Paul prays that the Ephesians "may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you⁺ may be filled to all the fullness of God" (Eph 3:18-19). The Psalter pictures the same depth as cultivated meditation — "in the law of Yahweh, does he delight; and in his law does he meditate, day and night. And he is like a tree planted by streams of water" (Ps 1:2-3) — and Paul's "think on these things" gathers the contemplative posture (Phil 4:8).
A Life Made Conspicuous
Such a life cannot stay hidden. The apostolic existence was lit up for the world: "we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men" (1 Cor 4:9). The same visibility is demanded of every believer: a city set on a hill is not hidden, and a lamp goes on the stand "that those who enter in may see the light" (Luke 11:33). Diognetus extends the figure to the whole church — Christians, dwelling among the corruptible, are the visible evidence of incorruption.
Life Continuous and Unfading
Finally, the life Christ gives does not stop. He says so plainly: "If a man keeps my speech, he will never see death" (John 8:51); "whoever lives and believes on me will never die" (John 11:26). Yahweh is "not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Mark 12:27). Daniel had already glimpsed the resurrection in two directions: "many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan 12:2). The Psalter's tree-image — leaf that does not wither, fruit in old age — finds its eschatological counterpart in the city's tree, whose fruit does not fail and whose leaf does not wither, because its waters issue from the sanctuary (Eze 47:12). The whole movement of scripture, from the breath in Adam's nostrils to the river in the new Jerusalem, is the story of a God who gives life, who takes it back into his hand, who gives it again in his Son, and who finally invites the thirsty to come and drink without price (Rev 22:17). For a more focused treatment of the final span of that life see Eternal Life; for its great negation, Death.