What Does “...He rose AGAIN...” in the Apostles’ Creed Mean?

I am preaching a 20-week message series on the Apostles' Creed at CrossPoint. The underlying purpose of the series is to reinforce what we believe as a church and why we believe.

Several people have asked why the Creed says, “He rose AGAIN” in the second paragraph, when it refers to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

One person commented that it would sound clearer if it said, "He rose from the dead . . ." or “He rose…”

Well, here is an answer I found this week.

In the Greek text of the Apostles' Creed the word translated “rose again” is “anistemi”. The word is a verbal compound having perfective force. A verbal compound in perfective force is “expressing action as complete or implying the action of completion, conclusion, or result.” It means simply “to raise up” or “to make stand again” or “to restore to life.” While perhaps sounding a bit archaic, the translation “rose again” certainly is an accurate rendering of the Greek text, having the same perfective force.

Also, an adverbial use of “again” in English colloquial usage is not without precedent. For example, to say “the boy fell down and got up again” does not mean that he fell down more than once and arose more than once. So, even in current English usage to say Jesus “rose again” does not necessarily imply (and of course does not in fact imply) that Jesus rose a second time.

Let me know if this helps. It certainly helped me. Bottom line, the Creed wants to reinforce the resurrection of Jesus Christ as being complete, final and absolute.