meaning of giving up the ghost

What Does it Mean that Jesus ‘Gave Up the Ghost’?

The phrase “gave up the ghost” is an old English translation of the Greek phrase “paradidōmi to pneuma.” The old English phrase means the moment a person dies as if the soul is released when the body transpires. 

I recently went to my uncle’s funeral. My uncle was a great man who loved his wife and family with all his heart. He lived a long life, almost 80, when he passed suddenly taking out the trash one evening.

We celebrated and grieved my uncle near his home in Ohio. We told stories and comforted one another. For those of faith, we declared we would see him again one day, as he was a man of faith and service in his local church.

Despite being older, his death was unexpected and quick. It was not what any of us would have chosen. I can’t say for sure, but perhaps it wasn’t what my uncle would have chosen, either. However, whether the death is sudden or at the end of a long illness, death is the appointment for us all.

Every human being is appointed to die once and then face the judgment seat of God ( Hebrews 9:27 )), where every knee will bow, and tongue will confess ( Philippians 2:10-11 ).

This is the future for all men and women. The time is appointed for us by God, not by our choosing, no matter what we believe. As sinners, we are already slaves of death.

This is the gospel that God sent his Son for the world so those who would believe in Jesus wouldn’t be slaves of death but have imperishable, eternal life.=

At the center of the gospel is the person, Jesus, who was sent as a sacrifice for our sins. This Son of God had never sinned and by extension, never under the slavery of death.

This is the background for a mysterious statement from the King James Version of the Bible. At his death on the cross, Jesus “gave up the ghost.”

What Is the Context When Jesus ‘Gave Up the Ghost’ in Luke 23:46 ?

Chapter 23 of Luke recounts the events leading up to the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Jesus had been arrested and tried by the Sanhedrin, the religious ruling council of the Jews, people who were supposed to be upholding the Old Testament Law and the truth of God.

Since the Jews were a conquered people, they didn’t have the authority to carry out a death sentence, so they sent Jesus to Pilate, the local Roman governor.

Luke 23 begins with Pilate’s questioning of Jesus. When Pilate realizes this is both a religious matter dealing with the local kingship of Judah, he sends Jesus to Herod.

Upon being questioned by Herod, Jesus said nothing, even though the chief priests and scribes accused Jesus. Herod and his troops mocked the Son of God, placing a type of kingly robe on him as a joke, and sent Jesus back to Pilate.

Pilate could still find nothing wrong with Jesus and decided to simply chastise Jesus and release him, since by local law and agreement with the Jews around Passover , he could release one prisoner to the Jews.

The Jewish leaders roused the people to instead called for Pilate to release murderous political revolutionary Barabbas. The Jews cried, “Crucify!” until Pilate relented and delivered Jesus up to be crucified.

Jesus forgives the men who drove the nails into his hands, all while being mocked by the crowd. If he was the Son of God and could do such miracles, why didn’t he save himself?

This is a valid question.

After dealing with the two thieves, one of whom is promised the Kingdom because he defends the innocence of Jesus, the sun darkened, and the veil of the Temple was torn in two.

At this point, we get to the crux of it. Luke 23:46 in the KJV says, “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”

He gave up the ghost.

What Was the Significance That Jesus ‘Gave Up the Ghost’?

The phrase “gave up the ghost” is an old English translation of the Greek phrase “ paradidōmi to pneuma .” The old English phrase means the moment a person dies as if the soul is released when the body transpires.

Other translations don’t use this old phrase for death, however. Even the New King James Version changes it to, “He breathed his last.”

Why is it important for the KJV to use “gave up the ghost”?

First, we can look into the text of Luke 23:46 to give a hint. What words did Jesus say before dying? Jesus said nothing randomly, nor did he speak of his own, as he clearly expressed. He only spoke what the Father spoke ( John 12:49 ), so these final words were intentional and had meaning.

Before his death, Jesus said, “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.” Here Jesus states he chose the moment of his death, that he had the power to choose exactly when he died.

Some might argue it is possible Jesus simply understood he was about to die; the moment was close. This happens to people who aren’t the Son of God, a mystical reality where regular everyday people sometimes know they are about to die and express it just beforehand.

Even without looking at other gospel accounts of his death, we see the moment carried extreme significance. The sky darkened. The veil was torn in two. These were important symbols of a spiritual breaking of the old ways and bringing of the New Covenant.

Further, we have other evidence from Jesus’ words of his power to choose when he died. In John 10:17-18 KJV, Jesus says, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”

By his own words, then, Jesus told people no one took his life, Pilate, Herod, the Sanhedrin, or even the men putting the nails in his hands. It was completely his choice. The Father commanded, but Jesus chose to obey.

God is love, and love doesn’t force, coerce, or manipulate. Love speaks truth and gives a choice. Because Jesus was the Son of God and loved us and his Father, he obeyed; knowing the joy set before him ( Hebrews 12:2 ), he chose the cross.

Therefore, we see why the King James makes an interesting choice with the phrase, “gave up the ghost.” When used to describe the death of regular people, “giving up the ghost” doesn’t mean they chose to die in the moment, only that their soul left their body.

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But with Jesus, the term takes on a deeper meaning. He chose to come to the Earth as a man and die on the cross. Unlike every other human being, he had the power over death while alive and chose exactly when it would happen in obedience to his Father.

What do other accounts add to this discussion?

What are Other Gospel Accounts of the Moment of Jesus’ Death?

Luke is the only gospel recording Jesus’ words after crying out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” after crying out with a loud voice and immediately preceding “giving up the ghost.”

Mark and Matthew give us different last words from Jesus, which are “Eli, Eli, sabachtani?” which meant, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ( Matthew 27:46 and Mark 13:34 ). Jesus says this when the darkness covers the Earth, also written about in the other Gospels.

However, both Matthew and Mark include Jesus crying out with a loud voice before he died, and afterward, Jesus yielded up his spirit.

Yielding his spirit is the same sentiment as “into your hands I commend my spirit” and “he gave up the ghost.” Jesus yielding his spirit also meant he chose to die at that moment.

John’s gospel provides a slightly different perspective on the moment of Jesus’ death. The final words in John 19:28-30 are “It is finished!” followed by bowing his head and giving up his spirit.

“It is finished” correlates with the completion of the work of Christ in salvation and also the signs around his death like the earthquake and the veil being torn in two.

Again, we have “he gave up his spirit” in death, a clear indication of a personal choice by Jesus to die exactly then, revealing his power over death even while living in a human body.

But didn’t he show this power over death in other narratives, as well? He raised the dead several times, notably Lazarus ( John 11 ). He declared during the raising of Lazarus that he, himself, was the resurrection and the life.

He who is resurrection and life cannot be subject to death in any way. He already was the resurrection before he physically manifested that reality in literally rising from the dead.

This is the life he gives to his followers.

What Are Important Lessons We Can Learn from Luke 23:46 ?

As stated before, God is love, and he will not force us to follow him. We must choose to die to ourselves and live for God. However, that choice is only available because Jesus paved the way, the firstborn from the dead, and invites us into a work we could not do.

We can’t overcome the power of death on our own. Only Jesus could accomplish that by choosing to die as the perfect righteous Son of God in a human body to defeat the power of death over humanity. This is a finished work Christ invites us into through faith and grace.

If we will believe, we can then make the choice. God will not force us. Nor will he manipulate or coerce us to love and follow him. Even the power to make the choice comes from his grace, which we don’t deserve and could never earn.

But if we do, then we also choose to die to ourselves and follow the teachings of the Bible.

Jesus said in Mark 8:34-35 , “When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

Just like Jesus, we must see the joy before us, the eternal life offered, and endure our own cross. This is a life we would lose anyway since we are slaves of sin and death, and no amount of effort on our part can break those chains.

We must offer up our lives willingly, overcoming sin and death by the blood of the Lamb, the word of our own testimony, and not loving our own lives ( Revelation 12:11 ).

When we willingly choose to give up our lives for Jesus and the Gospel, the power of death over us is eternally broken. We are filled with the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead ( Romans 8:11 )). Jesus, who is the Resurrection, lives within us through the born-again New Creation. Even when our bodies die, we will be resurrected in new bodies like Jesus had ( 1 Corinthians 15:49 ).

Even Death itself can’t kill the Resurrection, and we are able to say now and later, along with all the saints of God, “Oh Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?”

Like Christ, let us give our lives, our souls, willingly unto the God who will translate us into an eternal life no worldly power can kill, giving us victory now and later over the power of Death.

For further reading:

What Did Jesus Mean by ‘Father, Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit’?

What Is the Significance of Jesus’ Last Words on the Cross?

Is the Holy Ghost Different from the Holy Spirit?

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The meaning and origin of the expression: Give up the ghost

Give up the ghost

• Death and dying

What's the meaning of the phrase 'Give up the ghost'?

To die, or in the case of inanimate objects, to cease working.

What's the origin of the phrase 'Give up the ghost'?

There are many uses of this phrase in the Bible, including this, from Miles Coverdale's Version, 1535, Acts 12:23:

Immediatly the angell of the LORDE smote him, because he gaue not God the honoure: And he was eaten vp of wormes, and gaue vp the goost.

The metaphorical use of the phrase, that is, in relation to something not living and not able to become a ghost, is 19th century; for example, James Kirke Paulding's, Westward Ho! , 1832, includes:

"At length it gave up the ghost, and, like an over-cultivated intellect, became incurably barren."

What Does "Give up the Ghost" Mean?

Give up the ghost is an English saying that is most commonly associated with ceasing to exist or function. The more common application of this idiom has to do with death, with the implication being that at the point of death the body gives up the spirit or ghost, which is then free to move on to another sphere or realm. A slightly different application of give up the ghost is utilized when an individual chooses to cease working on what is perceived as a lost cause, or chooses to cease activity on some task that has proven beyond his or her capabilities.

The origins of the idiom give up the ghost are sometimes traced back to the earlier versions of the Christian Bible. Versions as early as the 16th century included the use of the phrase in the Book of Acts of the Apostles, found in the New Testament of the Christian scriptures. In this particular text, Herod is struck down by an angel of the Lord, and is said to give up the ghost, or die.

In English-speaking countries, "give up the ghost" is only one of many colorful expressions used to describe the act of death. Such phrases as passing away, kicking the bucket, cashing in one’s chips, headed for a dirt nap, and buying the farm are only a few of the idioms and expressions that are used in the place of simply saying that an individual has died. Some of the colorful phrases used to describe dying are intended to imply that the spirit of the deceased is moving on to another realm of existence, while others that are considered less somber are sometimes used to either ease the sorrow that occurs when a loved one dies or perhaps even celebrate the death of an individual who is not particularly popular.

While often having to do with death, a broader application of this phrase has to do with simply giving up. For example, if an individual works hard to make a success of a business but is unable to make any profit with the operation, he or she may choose to giver up the ghost and shut down the enterprise. In like manner, the phrase can even refer to giving up on a romantic situations, such as a suitor giving up the ghost when it becomes obvious that the object of his or her affection will never return those romantic feelings.

After many years in the teleconferencing industry, Michael decided to embrace his passion for trivia, research, and writing by becoming a full-time freelance writer. Since then, he has contributed articles to a variety of print and online publications, including LanguageHumanities, and his work has also appeared in poetry collections, devotional anthologies, and several newspapers. Malcolm’s other interests include collecting vinyl records, minor league baseball, and cycling.

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Discussion Comments

Being German, I've come to notice, that this phrase does also exist in the English language and it immediately struck me as a literal translation from German to English. "Den Geist aufgeben" is a metaphor for dying in German, where "Geist" ist used for both a spook as well as for mind or some sort of an inner, aware energy, that ceases when a life ends.

I would imagine, that with the Protestant translation directly from Martin Luther´s Bible, this phrase got absorbed into English, where the similar word "ghost" is pretty much only used in a sense of a spook.

I'm surprised this article didn't mention an earlier incident in the New Testament. While Jesus Christ was dying on the cross, He made several utterances, some to the crowd and some to God. One of His last utterances was "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit". It was at that point His spirit, or Holy Ghost, left His body. I've always associated the idiom "giving up the ghost" with that passage in the Bible.

I've been known to say a machine that cannot be repaired has given up the ghost. Any time spent on trying to revive it would be wasted. I think a lot of other people understand the idea of an older device simply conking out from years of operation. When I go shopping at the computer store, I'll tell the clerk my old laptop gave up the ghost.

Post your comments

Q: #280. What does "gave up the ghost" mean in the Bible?

By: steve shirley.

    A: This phrase (or a form of it) is used 19 times in the Bible. In the Old Testament, two Hebrew words are used for the word “ghost” in this phrase: “ gava ” and “ nephesh .” In the New Testament, two Greek words are used: “ ekpneo ” and “ ekpsucho .” The literal meaning is basically “to breathe out” or “to expire.” In short, to “give up the ghost” is a euphemism for dying.

     As far as I know, this phrase is only used in the KJV version of the Bible. Other versions like the NKJV, NASB, and NIV generally use the term “breathed His last” instead. (In Mt 27:50 and Jn 19:30 it is said that Jesus “gave up or yielded His spirit” [different Greek word] instead of “breathed His last” likely to put emphasis on the fact that Jesus did this of His own free will.) However, when the KJV Bible was written in the 1600’s, to “give up the ghost” was a common term for dying (I read that Shakespeare used the term in one of his plays, written at about the same time.). This phrase has now pretty much faded away just like other interesting KJV phrases such as “ouches of gold” (Ex 28:11), “collops of fat” (Job 15:27), and “old cast clouts” (Jer 38:11-12).

Copyright: https://JesusAlive.cc © Steve Shirley

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Synonyms of giving up the ghost

• as in dying
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Thesaurus Definition of giving up the ghost

Synonyms & Similar Words

• passing (on)
• passing away
• checking out
• stepping out
• buying the farm
• popping off
• kicking the bucket
• biting the dust
• conking (out)
• disappearing
• predeceasing

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• flourishing

Thesaurus Entries Near giving up the ghost

giving up the ghost

giving up (to)

Cite this Entry

“Giving up the ghost.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/giving%20up%20the%20ghost. Accessed 9 Oct. 2023.

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give up the ghost

• 1.1 Etymology
• 1.2 Pronunciation
• 1.3.1 Translations
• 1.4 See also

English [ edit ]

Etymology [ edit ].

Literally, to release one's spirit or soul from the body at death. From Middle English " gaf up þe gost ", " ʒave up þe gost ", from Old English phrases as " hēo āġeaf hire gāst " ( literally , "she gave up her ghost [spirit]"), " þæt iċ gāst mīnne āġifan mōte " ( literally , "that I must give up my ghost [spirit]"). Compare German den Geist aufgeben and Dutch de geest geven .

Pronunciation [ edit ]

Verb [ edit ].

give up the ghost ( third-person singular simple present gives up the ghost , present participle giving up the ghost , simple past gave up the ghost , past participle given up the ghost )

• 1611 , The Holy Bible,   [ … ] ( King James Version ), London: [ … ] Robert Barker ,   [ … ] , →OCLC , Mark 15:37 : And Ieſus cryed with a loude voice, and gaue vp the ghoſt .
• ( intransitive , idiomatic , figurative ) To quit ; to cease functioning. My old computer finally gave up the ghost the other day.
• 1993 February 8, “A Magical History Tour”, in Time : But McCartney, 50, is hardly ready to give up the ghost of his creative past.
• 1995 , Bad Boys : Burnett holds the door while Lowrey holds Francine. She's broken, crying, and giving up the ghost of her past.
• 2000 January 14, Kevin Maney, “Gates closes an era Microsoft prepares to lay out a road map”, in USA Today : Its Windows CE, ostensibly for consumer electronics, is flailing, largely because Microsoft has taken a PC mentality to develop CE, unable to give up the ghost of its heritage.

Translations [ edit ]

See also [ edit ].

• draw one's last breath

Definition of 'give up the ghost'

Give up the ghost in american english, give up the ghost in british english.

• give up the ghost

Examples of 'give up the ghost' in a sentence give up the ghost

Browse alphabetically give up the ghost.

• give up hope
• give up the chase
• give vent to
• give voice to
• All ENGLISH words that begin with 'G'

Related terms of give up the ghost

• to give up the ghost

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Mysterious Ghost Words And How They Ended Up In The Dictionary

Antiquated words are one thing. Take "thee," "thou," "thy," and "thine," for example: you'll almost never see anyone use those over "you," "your," and "yours" these days. Yet the archaic terms were once regular fixtures in English and still have clear definitions (via Academia.com ). Go to a dictionary and you'll likely find them, with examples. But what if you come upon a word in that dictionary that has never been used and doesn't really exist?

Meriam-Webster calls such words ghost words, "a word form never in established usage." The Cambridge Dictionary concurs, with slightly different wording, and offers an explanation for how such ghost terms came to be. The answer isn't spirits of words from other languages come back to haunt their English killers. Ghost words, by and large, come from mistakes. People making up lists may misread, mispronounce, or inappropriately combine or mangle words, resulting in phantom terms with no prior root and presumed definitions.

Walter William Skeat coined the phrase "ghost word" in 1886. Skeat was president of the London Philological Society , and his annual address that year looked at the challenge posed by ghost words through the example "abacot." An abacot was, according to Webster at the time, a former "cap of state" — meaning a hat — used by the English monarch (the correct term for such is bycocket). Skeat praised the work of the Society's editors, who realized there was no foundation for the word "abacot" and expunged it from the New English Dictionary that was being prepared.

There have been several infamous ghost words

Ghost words may not be technically real, and the London Philological Society may have zealously worked to catch and remove them from lists and dictionaries, but that hasn't stopped some of them from gaining a certain amount of currency. "Abacot" may have been such a ghost word; the man who took it off the list apparently felt the need to defend himself (per Walter William Skeat's address to the Society in 1886). Skeat also cited "kime" as an example in his address. "Kime" won some notoriety when it appeared in a notable publication, the Edinburgh Review, in an 1808 article by Sydney Smith. Writing about presumed customs within Hinduism , Smith claimed that "some [Hindus] run kimes through their hands." A critic of the critic extrapolated from the context some diabolic instrument of torture, but "kime" was just a misprint of the word "knife," as Smith explained in a subsequent edition.

A less dramatic example of a ghost word is "dord." Between 1934 and 1947 (per Merriam-Webster ), this word appeared between "Dorcopsis" and "doré," per Smithsonian , and was defined as a synonym of density used by physicists and chemists. But in 1939, an editor of the dictionary got suspicious and did a little digging. He found no examples of "dord" ever being used. The ghost word was traced to a 1931 paper that indicated upper and lower-case Ds could be used to abbreviate density: "D or d." Someone mashed the note into a new word.

Dictionaries use ghost words for copyright protection

The people who compile and edit dictionaries, one assumes, would be the least enthusiastic about ghost words. The job practically demands being a stickler for accuracy in definition, etymology, and usage. But some of those editors have found a use for these otherwise troublesome ghost words — though naturally, a new purpose brings with it a new word to describe said purpose.

According to World Wide Words , the personal blog of Oxford Dictionary contributor Michael Quinion, dictionary publishers will sometimes include deliberately false entries in their editions, a practice shared with mapmakers and guides to wine tasting. The term for such a word is nihilartikel, a combination of a Latin word ("nihil," or nothing) and a German one ("artikel," or article). Quinion still distinguished between a nihilartikel and a ghost word, calling the latter an example of error rather than deliberate falsehood, but both are examples of words that don't really exist (nihilartikel was proposed as such a word itself, but it has been traced back to the German language as an obscure but genuine term).

The reason nihilartikels are inserted into maps, dictionaries, and other lists is to catch copyright infringement. Unless you plan on reading the dictionary from beginning to end, you're almost certainly never going to encounter the false word and be led astray. But if a search turns up the nihilartikel in a competitor's work, the dictionary publisher who put it in knows they have a copycat on their hands.

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Meaning of give up the ghost – Learner’s Dictionary

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