Rest for Israel, Peace for the Body

From a language perspective, when used as nouns, peace means a state of tranquility, quiet, and harmony, whereas rest means relief from work or activity by ceasing action or sleeping. When used as verbs, peace means to make peace, whereas rest means to cease from action, motion, work, or performance of any kind. In the common context, rest has more to do with ceasing from a physical activity, whereas peace is mostly connected to a calm state of mind. We can simplify it further to say that rest is mostly a physical thing whereas peace is more of a soul, or spiritual state.

An interesting observation and trend is noticed in the scriptures when rest and peace are tallied up between the Jewish books in the Old and New Testaments versus the Pauline epistles.

• Rest: Bible = 268; Paul = 7
• Peace: Bible = 382; Paul = 47