Sense: life source
n. — the inherent capacity for producing (and maintaining) living beings; especially understood as a life characterized by healthiness, happiness, exuberance, energy, vitality, and the like.
. . . and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, . . .
2 Timothy 1:10
When analyzing the meaning of a word in context, the first step is often to determine whether the commonly understood (or prototypical) sense fits the context. For this word, that sense would probably be “the condition of living or the state of being alive.” Our God-given minds work so quickly that we often make these decisions without realizing it. For example, if I were to say, “I was at the foot of the mountain,” you wouldn’t picture a mountain with hairy legs and feet. Your mind immediately makes the connection from “a physical foot” to “the bottom of something.” But even “bottom” is not fully accurate, because we do not mean the underside of the mountain, but the “lowest part of something.” Words can be so confusing! It’s a good thing we have the Bible Sense Lexicon to help us wrangle through such tough calls. In our passage, what has been brought to light through the gospel? Is it merely the fact of “not being dead”? No, it is a new source of undying immortality through the way Jesus purchased by his death and resurrection!
What is the Bible Sense Lexicon?
Sense of the Day is based on content from Logos’ Bible Sense Lexicon, which organizes biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words by meaning based on a variety of semantic relationships. Sense of the Day provides examples of senses in context, along with insight into their application for theology and interpretation.
The Bible Sense Lexicon is a Logos dataset available in Logos 5 Gold and higher base packages. If you’re enrolled in the Logos Academic Discount Program, you can also find the Bible Sense Lexicon in the Biblical Languages base package. Take your studies even further by exploring semantic domains, engaging the biblical text like never before.
Learn more about the Bible Sense Lexicon.