"In Job, believed to be the oldest book in the Bible, death is again referred to as sleep:
Job 7:21: “Now shall I sleep in the dust”
Job 14:12: “They shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep”.
Jesus described death as “sleep”:
Matthew 9:24: “The maid is not dead but sleepeth.”
Mark 5:39: “The damsel is not dead but sleepeth”
Luke 8:52: “She is not dead but sleepeth”
John 11:11: “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth”
Paul describes death as sleep:
I Cor. 15:20: “Christ is risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that sleep”
I Cor. 15:51: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed”
I Thess 4:13: “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope”
I Thess. 4:14: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus”."
