ἀποθνήσκω

ἀποθνήσκω — apothnḗskō

ἀποθνῄσκω, imperfect ἀπέθνῃσκον (Luk 8:42); 2 aorist ἀπέθανον; future ἀποθανοῦμαι, Rom 5:7; Joh 8:21; Joh 8:24 (see θνῄσκω); found in Greek writings from Homer down; to die (ἀπό, so as to be no more; (cf. Latinemorior; English die off or out, pass away); German absterben,versterben);

I. used properly

1. of the natural death of men: Mat 9:24; Mat 22:24; Luk 16:22; Joh 4:47; Rom 7:2, and very often; ἀποθνῄσκοντες ἀποθνῄσκοντες subject to death, mortal, Heb 7:8 (Buttmann, 206 (178)).

2. of the violent death — both of animals, Mat 8:32, and of men, Mat 26:35; Act 21:13 etc.; 1Pe 3:18 L T Tr WH text; ἐν φόνῳ μαχαίρας, Heb 11:37; of the punishment of death, Heb 10:28; often of the violent death which Christ suffered, as Joh 12:33; Rom 5:6, etc.

3. Phrases: ἀποθνῄσκειν ἐκ τίνος, to perish by means of something, (cf. English to die of), Rev 8:11; ἐν τῇ ἁμαρτία, ἐν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις, fixed in sin, hence, to die unreformed, Joh 8:21; Joh 8:24; ἐν τῷ Ἀδάμ by connection with Adam, 1Co 15:22; ἐν κυρίῳ in fellowship with, and trusting in, the Lord, Rev 14:13; ἀποθνῄσκειν τί, to die a certain death, Rom 6:10 (θάνατον μακρόν, Chariton, p. 12, D'Orville edition (l. i. c. 8, p. 17, 6, Beck edition; cf. Winers Grammar, 227 (213); Buttmann, 149 (130))); τῇ ἁμαρτία, used of Christ, 'that he might not have to busy himself more with the sin of men,' Rom 6:10; ἑαυτῷ to become one's own master, independent, by dying, Rom 14:7 (cf. Meyer); τῷ κυρίῳ to become subject to the Lord's will by dying, Rom 14:8 (cf. Meyer); διά τινα i. e. to save one, 1Co 8:11; on the phrases ἀποθνῄσκειν περί and ὑπέρ τίνος, see περί, the passage cited δ. and ὑπέρ I. 2 and 3. Oratorically, although the proper signification of the verb is retained, καθ' ἡμέραν ἀποθνῄσκω I meet death daily, live daily in danger of death, 1Co 15:31, cf. 2Co 6:9.

4. of trees which dry up, Jud 1:12; of seeds, which while being resolved into their elements in the ground seem to perish by rotting, Joh 12:24; 1Co 15:36.

II. tropically, in various senses;

1. of eternal death, as it is called, i. e. to be subject to eternal misery, and that, too, already beginning on earth: Rom 8:13; Joh 6:50; Joh 11:26.

2. of moral death, in various senses;

a. to be deprived of real life, i. e. especially of the power of doing right, of confidence in God and the hope of future blessedness, Rom 7:10; of the spiritual torpor of those who have fallen from the fellowship of Christ, the fountain of true life, Rev 3:2.

b. with the dative of the thing (cf. Winers Grammar, 210 (197); 428 (398); Buttmann, 178 (155)), to become wholly alienated from a thing, and freed from all connection with it: τῷ νόμῳ, Gal 2:19, which must also be supplied with ἀποθανόντες (for so we must read for Rec.elz ἀποθανόντος) in Rom 7:6 (cf. Winer's Grammar, 159 (150)); τῇ ἁμαρτία, Rom 6:2 (in another sense in Rom 6:10; see I. 3 above); ἀπό τῶν στοιχείων τοῦ κόσμου so that your relation to etc. has passed away, Col 2:20 (ἀπό τῶν παθῶν, Porphyry, de abst. animal. 1, 41 (cf. Buttmann, 322 (277); Winer's Grammar, 370 (347))); true Christians are said simply ἀποθανεῖν, as having put off all sensibility to worldly things that draw them away from God, Col 3:3; since they owe this habit of mind to the death of Christ, they are said also ἀποθανεῖν σύν Χριστῷ, Rom 6:8; Col 2:20. (Compare: συναποθνῄσκω.)