What Does Revelation 20:5 Mean in the King James?
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The same Greek verb says “they lived” in verse 4 and “the rest of the dead lived not” here, making the timing of life the dividing line.
THE MEANING
You encounter two conditions held apart: some are living and reigning with Christ, while the rest of the dead have not yet lived. “The first resurrection” names a beginning in an ordered sequence, and the thousand years mark the boundary before the rest live.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that resurrection is one simultaneous event for all the dead: this verse names a first resurrection and a later one.
THE ROOT
ἔζησαν
ezēsan
GROWS FROM
ζάω
zaō
to live
“lived” in this verse is ezēsan. The Greek repeats the same verb for the group who live and reign in verse 4 and for the rest who do not yet live here. The distinction is carried by when life happens, not by a different word for life.
ALSO GROWS
zōē: life
ζωή
The related noun keeps the verb connected to the life that the rest have not yet entered.
zōopoieō: make alive, give life
ζωοποιέω
This compound shows the same root in the act of bringing life about.
ἀνάστασις
anastasis
GROWS FROM
στα-/στη- (sta-/stē-)
to stand
The word belongs to the “stand” family, with ἀνά (ana, “up”) forming the image of standing up. Calling this the “first” resurrection fits an unfolding sequence of rising.
ALSO GROWS
histēmi: stand, set in place
ἵστημι
This root supplies the standing image inside the word for resurrection.
anistēmi: rise, stand up
ἀνίστημι
This related verb makes the movement in resurrection visible: a rising into a standing state.
THE PATTERN
Resurrection unfolds in an ordered sequence, with distinct times and outcomes rather than all the dead rising at once.
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.THE THREAD
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.The Greek verb translated “lived” here and in verse 5 is the same form of ζάω (zaō, “to live”). Verse 4 applies it to those who reign with Christ; verse 5 uses it for the rest, marking their life as not yet.
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