νεκρός (Nekros)

MEANINGDead, corpse. Ephesians 2:1 --- 'dead in trespasses and sins.' Describes the spiritual condition of those outside Christ. Calvinism reads total volitional incapacity; the project reads separation from God's life with retained volitional capacity --- evident from the active verbs Paul immediately uses for the nekros.

GRAMMARIn Ephesians 2:1-3, nekros is immediately followed by active participles and indicatives: periepatesate (you walked --- aorist active indicative), poiountes (doing/fulfilling --- present active participle), ēmetha (we were --- continuous imperfect). The 'dead' people are described as actively walking, conducting themselves, fulfilling desires. Nekros + active verbs = separation from life, not paralysis of will.

SIGNIFICANCEThe internal refutation of the Calvinist reading: if nekros means total volitional incapacity, Paul's description of the nekros people walking and doing in Ephesians 2:2-3 is logically impossible. The prodigal's nekros state (Luke 15:24) preceded his voluntary 'coming to himself' (Luke 15:17) --- showing the dead can make genuine choices. Thread 4 requires this: genuine human response is possible even in the nekros condition, enabled by prevenient grace.

KEY VERSE / SCRIPTURESEphesians 2:1, 5; Colossians 2:13; Luke 15:24 (the prodigal 'was dead and is alive'); Romans 6:11.

CROSS-REFERENCESEphesians 2:1-3 · Luke 15:17-24 · οὐ πιστεύετε ou pisteuete (John 6:36 --- do not vs. cannot)