---
title: Daniel 12:2
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/daniel-12-2/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/daniel-12-2.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Daniel 12:2
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Daniel 12:2

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> And many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "And many of those asleep in the dust of the earth will wake up, some to everlasting life and others to reproach and to everlasting contempt."

## JW Usage

Read as supporting the Watchtower's two-stage hope: a resurrection during the thousand-year reign in which those who never knew Jehovah are taught and given an opportunity, followed by a final judgment. The "everlasting contempt" is understood as permanent destruction for those who then refuse, rather than as conscious punishment.

## Protestant Usage

The verse gives two outcomes and no third. Some awake to everlasting life, others to reproach and everlasting contempt. There is no intermediate group who awake to be instructed and then sorted. Jesus takes this verse up at John 5:28-29 and keeps the same structure: those who did good to a resurrection of life, those who practised vile things to a resurrection of judgment. Both are described by what they had already done. For the wider question of a second opportunity after death, the three clearest texts are Hebrews 9:27 (die once, then judgment), Luke 16:26 (a fixed chasm no one can cross, with the rich man pointed back to Moses and the prophets), and 2 Corinthians 6:2 (now is the day of salvation). Handle this kindly. The Watchtower's teaching here is motivated by a real concern for God's fairness toward those who never heard, and it is better to agree that God is just and then ask where Scripture locates that justice, than to argue as though the concern were illegitimate. Compare John 5:29, Luke 16:26, Acts 24:15.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [One Death, One Judgment — No Second Chance in the Millennium](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/postmortem-salvation-rebuttal.md) — Hebrews 9:27 / Luke 16:26 / 2 Corinthians 6:2 — postmortem evangelism rebutted [Eschatology]