Bible Strands
Luke 15:24
For this son of mine was dead and is alive again! He was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The father speaks to his household at the moment of his younger son's return, having just ordered the fattened calf killed (v. 23). The older son is still in the field, unaware.
The words — νεκρός (nekros) is the word for dead, not sick or weakened; the father declares his son was clinically dead, not merely wayward. The contrast "was dead… is alive again" is the verse's engine.
The thread — Paul uses the same dead-to-alive language in Ephesians 2:5 ("made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses"). The lost-and-found motif runs through Ezekiel 34:16 and Luke 19:10.
Why it lands — The father's word "dead" forces a choice: your sin is a crisis or it is a death sentence, and the celebration is not contingent on your performance. The older son's reaction (v. 25) is the natural human response to this claim, and the verse asks which side of the house you are on.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
Cross-references
- Ephesians 2:5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!
- Ezekiel 34:16 I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the broken, and strengthen the weak; but the sleek and strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with justice.’
- Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
- Colossians 2:13 When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses,
- Luke 15:4 “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?
- Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
- Luke 15:32 But it was fitting to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
- Romans 6:11 So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
- Luke 15:7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous ones who do not need to repent.
- Isaiah 35:10 So the redeemed of the LORD will return and enter Zion with singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.