G110 — ἀθανασία (athanasia)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: G110
Original: ἀθανασία
Transliteration: athanasia
Pronunciation: ath-an-as-ee'-ah
Part of Speech: Feminine noun
Root: Alpha-privative (ἀ-) + θάνατος (thanatos, G2288) — "death" → "deathlessness"
Occurrences: 3 in NT (3 unique verses, 3 tokens)
First Occurrence: 1 Cor 15:53 — "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality."
Hapax Legomenon: No (but extremely rare — only 3 occurrences across 2 books)

Lexicon Definition¶

From a compound of ἀ (alpha, as a negative particle) and θάνατος (thanatos, G2288, "death"); deathlessness, immortality.

Louw-Nida Semantic Domain¶

Domain: 23 — Physiological Processes and States
Subdomain: 23.007 — Live, Die
Gloss: immortality
Other words in subdomain: ᾅδης (hades, G86), αἷμα (haima, G129), ἀναζάω (anazao, G326), ἀνάστασις (anastasis, G386), ἀποθνῄσκω (apothnesko, G599), ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi, G622), ἀφθαρσία (aphtharsia, G861), ἄφθαρτος (aphthartos, G862)

Domain Neighbors¶

Strong's	Lemma	Total Verses	Primary KJV Translation(s)
G86	ᾅδης (hades)	11	hell, grave
G326	ἀναζάω (anazao)	3	alive again, revive
G386	ἀνάστασις (anastasis)	40	resurrection
G599	ἀποθνῄσκω (apothnesko)	106	die, dead
G861	ἀφθαρσία (aphtharsia)	8	incorruption, immortality, sincerity
G862	ἄφθαρτος (aphthartos)	7	incorruptible, immortal
G2288	θάνατος (thanatos)	119	death
G2348	θνήσκω (thnesko)	13	die, be dead

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Count	%
immortality	3	100%

Completely uniform — every occurrence is rendered "immortality" in the KJV.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
1 Timothy	1	0.9
1 Corinthians	2	0.5

Confined entirely to Pauline epistles. No OT background through the LXX (no Hebrew source found). Absent from the Gospels, Revelation, and all other NT writings.

Morphological Profile¶

All three occurrences appear in the same grammatical form:

Reference	Form	Parsing
1 Cor 15:53	ἀθανασίαν	Accusative Singular Feminine
1 Cor 15:54	ἀθανασίαν	Accusative Singular Feminine
1 Tim 6:16	ἀθανασίαν	Accusative Singular Feminine

The accusative case in all three indicates the word functions as a direct object — something that is "put on" (1 Cor 15:53–54) or "possessed" (1 Tim 6:16).

Semantic Categories¶

1. Eschatological Transformation at the Resurrection¶

1 Cor 15:53 — "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality."
1 Cor 15:54 — "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."

Both occurrences use the verb ἐνδύω (endyo, "put on" as a garment). Immortality is something mortal beings do not presently possess but will receive — depicted as clothing the mortal body at the resurrection.

2. Exclusive Divine Attribute¶

1 Tim 6:16 — "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom [be] honour and power everlasting. Amen."

Here athanasia is predicated of God alone (μόνος, "only"). It is presented as an inherent attribute of deity, distinguished from all created beings.

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
θάνατος (thanatos)	G2288	1x (33%)	Death "swallowed up" when immortality is put on
μόνος (monos)	G3441	1x (33%)	"Who only hath immortality" — exclusive divine possession
φῶς (phos)	G5457	1x (33%)	"Dwelling in the light" — colocated with the divine attribute
κράτος (kratos)	G2904	1x (33%)	"Honour and power everlasting" — doxology context
αἰώνιος (aionios)	G166	1x (33%)	"Everlasting" — temporal scope of divine honor
νῖκος (nikos)	G3534	1x (33%)	"Death is swallowed up in victory" — result of putting on immortality
δεῖ (dei)	G1163	1x (33%)	"This mortal must put on" — necessity of transformation

With only 3 verses, co-occurrence counts are inherently low. The most theologically significant collocation is with μόνος in 1 Tim 6:16.

Word Family / Cognates (thanatos family)¶

G2288 θάνατος (thanatos) — death (119v); the root noun negated by alpha-privative in athanasia
G2289 θανατόω (thanatoo) — to put to death, to kill (11v); causative verb form
G2348 θνήσκω (thnesko) — to die, be dead (13v); the primary verb "to die"
G2349 θνητός (thnetos) — mortal, subject to death (6v); adjective paired directly with athanasia in 1 Cor 15:53 ("this mortal must put on immortality")
G2286 θανάσιμος (thanasimos) — deadly, fatal (1v — Mark 16:18); adjective from thanatos

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
ἀφθαρσία (aphtharsia)	G861	"immortality" (2v), "incorruption" (4v)	Aphtharsia (from ἀ- + φθείρω "to corrupt/decay") emphasizes imperishability and freedom from decay/corruption. Athanasia specifically negates death itself. In 1 Cor 15:53–54, both appear together: corruptible puts on aphtharsia (incorruption) while mortal puts on athanasia (immortality). The pairing is deliberate: corruption/incorruption and death/deathlessness are parallel but distinct concepts.

Antonyms¶

G2286 θανάσιμος (thanasimos) — deadly, fatal, poisonous (1v — Mark 16:18)

Semantic Domain¶

Domain 23.007 — Live, Die: Positioned among words dealing with life, death, resurrection, and the afterlife. Athanasia stands at the "life" pole as the absolute negation of death, alongside the related ἀφθαρσία (G861) and ἄφθαρτος (G862).

Hebrew Source¶

No Hebrew source found via LXX mapping. This word is confined to the Greek NT without direct OT Hebrew precedent, though the concept of deathlessness is present in OT imagery (e.g., "tree of life" in Gen 2–3; "he will swallow up death in victory" Isa 25:8 — the very passage quoted in 1 Cor 15:54).