Precisely waht is meant by sleep. I understand it to refer to death and separation from the body.

Why did Jesus use the term when it already has a more obvious and contradictory meaning? Ruling out an attempt at deception on the part of our Lord what is the explanation?

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Eoghan
member,Thurso Baptist Church
Scotland

specialist subject: Creationist Genetics (Bottleneck effect of the Ark)
interests: holiness (practical theology)
member of Biblical Creation Society (available as a guest speaker in the far north of Scotland)

Well since Jesus is God, and God is the giver and taker of life, and He knew that she would be raised, then He could rightly call her as sleeping and not dead. Let God be true and every man a liar.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Christ Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCGA
Facebook - The Calvinist Vent
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It is God that multiplies our sorrows.... God, as a righteous Judge, does it, which ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as many as they are, we have deserved them all, and more: nay, God, as a tender Father, does it for our necessary correction, that we may be humbled for sin, and weaned from the world by all our sorrows; and the good we get by them, with the comfort we have under them, will abundantly balance our sorrows, how greatly soever they are multiplied. - Matthew Henry

I Think there is a bit more to it. The term "asleep" and "sleeping" and "sleep" all seem to have a particular meaning in the NT. It seems to be applied to all "dead" believers. Is this a contradiction of a common misconception of a Sadducee use of "dead"?

I think it is a cultural term like we say today that people "have passed away." Paul uses the term asleep in 1 Thessalonians 4 also.

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Jordan
Reformed Presbyterian
Stillwater, Oklahoma

Given that the OT uses the phrase, "and [so and so] slept with his fathers," referring to the person's death, it might be that Jesus is pointing out a very important reality here, which comes to a head at the end of the Gospel in his debate with the Saducees.

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Christopher Taylor
Ruling Elder: Village Seven (PCA)
Colorado Springs, CO

Thanks guys I will be discussing it with my kids today in our family bible study