Easter Bible Verses: 15 Verses on the Resurrection

Easter Bible verses about the resurrection

Every verse in this guide is quoted from the World English Bible, with a line about where it comes from.

• 1 Corinthians 15:3–4. “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures”. Paul wrote this around AD 55, passing on words he had been taught, which many scholars trace to the first few years after Jesus’ death.
• 1 Corinthians 15:20. “But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruit of those who are asleep.” The first fruit was the first sheaf of a harvest, given to God as a promise of the rest.
• Romans 6:9. “knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him!” Others in the Bible were raised only to die again someday. Paul says Jesus was raised for good.
• 2 Timothy 2:8. “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the offspring of David”. Paul’s charge to a young leader, written from prison near the end of his life.
• 1 Thessalonians 4:14. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.” Written to a young church grieving members who had died.

Easter verses about death defeated

• 1 Corinthians 15:55. “Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?” Paul taunts death with words borrowed from Hosea 13:14.
• Isaiah 25:8. “He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces.” Isaiah pictures God hosting a feast for all peoples on his mountain, where he ends death for good.
• Hebrews 2:14–15. Jesus shared our flesh and blood “that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Easter frees people from the fear of dying as well as from death.

Easter verses about new life

• Romans 6:4. “just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.” Paul ties Easter to baptism, and to the way Christians live afterward.
• Colossians 3:1. “If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.” Easter changes what you set your heart on.
• 1 Peter 1:3. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”. Peter opens his letter with this blessing, written to scattered Christians going through hard trials.
• Romans 8:11. “he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” The promise isn’t only for the soul. Easter is about bodies too.

Easter in the Old Testament

• Psalm 118:24. “This is the day that the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it!” Psalm 118 has been sung at Easter for centuries. Two verses earlier comes the stone the builders rejected (Psalm 118:22).
• Job 19:25. “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.” Job said this after he had lost everything, his health included.
• Hosea 6:2. “After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.” A call for Israel to return to God. Many Christians hear Easter’s third day in it.

Short Easter verses for cards

Short verses fit best. Write the reference under the verse, then add a line of your own.

• For family: Psalm 118:24.
• For someone who is grieving: 1 Thessalonians 4:14 or Isaiah 25:8.
• For a new Christian or a baptism: Romans 6:4.
• For friends from church: 1 Corinthians 15:20.

Where is the Easter story in the Bible?

Each Gospel ends with it, and each tells it from a different angle. Paul adds a list of people who saw Jesus alive, including more than five hundred at once (1 Corinthians 15:5–8).

If Easter comes in a year of loss, our Bible verses for grief sit well beside these.

What does the word Easter mean?

In many languages, the name comes from Pascha, the Greek form of the Hebrew word for Passover: Pâques in French, Pascua in Spanish, Pasqua in Italian. Jesus died and rose during Passover week, and Paul calls him “Christ, our Passover” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

The English word has a different story. An eighth-century monk named Bede wrote that the Anglo-Saxon name for April came from Eostre, a goddess, though no other early writer mentions her. In the King James Version, the word Easter appears once, in Acts 12:4, where the Greek word means Passover.

Easter moves because it follows the moon, as Passover does. Western churches celebrate on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after March 21, so Easter falls between March 22 and April 25. Orthodox churches use the older Julian calendar and often celebrate later.

Common questions