How many people were raised from the dead in the Bible?

The term "Firstborn from among the dead" affirms most strongly what has been said about being first in rank rather than first in time. We do know from Scripture that, as well as the Lord Jesus and those spoken of in Matthew 27:52-53, when "many bodies of the saints which slept, arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection", there are eight persons in Scripture who were raised. That again, being eight, seems to indicate that God intended to make a new start. But there could be no new start, there could be nothing for God, unless one of sufficient rank should institute a new race, and here He is.

In the Gospels we have detailed accounts of the Lord Jesus raising three persons from among the dead. They were, respec­tively, a girl aged twelve (Matt. 9:18-19, 23-26; Mark 5:21-24, 35-43; Luke 8:40-56), a young man (Luke 7:11-17), and Lazarus (John 11:1-45).

That the Lord Jesus is master over death the Scriptures give adequate testimony. Jairus' daughter, at the point of death, the widow of Nain's son, carried to the place of burying, and Lazarus, four days dead already, may well be only a selection of the cases where our Lord raised individuals from among the dead - "the dead are raised up". That the Lord Jesus Himself arose from the dead we have no fewer than ten separate sets of witness. The power of God ("He is able to subdue all things to Himself"), will touch "every family in the heaven and upon earth" and a scene "which His own hand hath dressed" is one of the ingredients of the hope of all those who "love His appearing".

Three times only, as far as we know, did the Lord Jesus, while upon earth, raise the dead to life; viz., the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus. Each of these cases has its special characteristics and instruction. The daughter of Jairus had but just expired when the Lord entered the chamber, and turned the weeping of the night into the joy of the morning. The son of the widow of Nain was being carried to his grave when the procession of death was arrested by the Prince of Life; and Lazarus was in his tomb, had been dead four days, ere, at the bidding of Him who was the Resurrection and the Life, he came forth again into the light of day. Thus did Christ vindicate His power as the Son to quicken whom He would, for "the hour," said He, "is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live." (John 5: 25.)

Three times only, as far as we know, did the Lord Jesus, while upon earth, raise the dead to life; viz., the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus. Each of these cases has its special characteristics and instruction. The daughter of Jairus had but just expired when the Lord entered the chamber, and turned the weeping of the night into the joy of the morning. The son of the widow of Nain was being carried to his grave when the procession of death was arrested by the Prince of Life; and Lazarus was in his tomb, had been dead four days, ere, at the bidding of Him who was the Resurrection and the Life, he came forth again into the light of day. Thus did Christ vindicate His power as the Son to quicken whom He would, for "the hour," said He, "is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live." (John 5:25.)

When the Lord went to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the tomb, it was "that the Son of God might be glorified thereby" (John 11:4). He also raised the little daughter of Jairus and the son of the widow of Nain. But these were by no means all. It was characteristic of the ministry of Christ on earth, not only that "the blind receive their sight and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear" but that "the dead are raised up" (Matt. 11:5).

But the Lord raised the widow’s son also, and the daughter of Jairus, and Lazarus; He raised the last after corruption consequent upon death had set in. Who but the Son of God could so work?

Such a prayer as Elijah uttered over the dead child, had probably never ascended to heaven before: "O Jehovah my God, I pray Thee, let this child's soul come into him again." Wonderful! There is no previous record in Scripture of any person, Jew or Gentile, old or young, ever having returned from the dead. Yet the prophet prayed thus! His faith was in advance of Abraham's on Mount Moriah, when he laid Isaac upon the altar "accounting that God was able to raise him up from the dead: from whence also he received him in a figure" (Heb. 11:19). Both Abraham and Elijah believed that nothing was impossible with God, and that even death would present no difficulty to Him; but it was one thing for Abraham to reckon that God could raise a lad from the dead, and quite another for Elijah to ask definitely that this great miracle might be wrought.

What effect His words had on her we are not told; what effect the word of command had on the son we learn: "He that was dead sat up." Life had returned to the frame, and he began to speak. It was not a galvanised corpse; it was a living man. But, not content with displaying power, the Lord thought of the widow, for He delivered the son to his mother. He saw her. He had compassion on her. He comforted her. He touched the bier. He commanded the young man to arise. He gave him to his mother. Such are the successive steps in this most interesting story. Henceforth, Nain stands out on the page of history; a little place, probably with no previous eventful record to make it famous, its name will never be forgotten, nor has the site of the village ceased to be known.

We have spoken of resurrection. It was that in one way, but very different to the resurrection we look for if we die. The son was brought back to earth. Saints who die pass out of the grave never to return to it. The man's resurrection was a sample, somewhat, of that of the nation by-and-bye, of which Ezekiel (27) and Daniel (12:2) have written, and will be enjoyed when the kingdom is established in power.

Was this the first occasion on which a dead person was by the Lord restored to life? We read of no instance earlier, and the impression made by it would quite accord with such a supposition. "There came a fear," wrote Luke, "upon all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God has visited His people" (7:16). Great prophets, as Elijah and Elisha, restored dead ones to life. They had prayed about it, and their prayers were answered. He who was walking about among men was not inferior to them, for He could command where they did not: a great prophet then He must be, at whose word death relaxed its grasp. "God had visited His people." The prophetic words of Zacharias were in process of fulfilment: "He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up an horn of salvation for us, in the house of His servant David" (1:68-69). So spoke the aged priest. "God has visited His people" was, as it were, the response of the multitude at the gate of the city of Nain. But the report of the Lord's miracle reached beyond the bounds of Galilee. "This rumour of Him went forth throughout all Judea, and throughout all the region round about." And John the Baptist, in his prison in the castle of Machaerus, on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, heard of it through the instrumentality of his disciples.

"Women received their dead raised to life again." We remember the Shunamite woman, who reproduces in her history, in a minor way, that of Abraham and Sarah, the child of promise being given to one without natural hope, and then taken away in death, only to be raised again. Something similar is seen in the history of Elijah.