I also wonder at the phrasing, because the act of being 'reborn'
entails what perhaps modern psychology terms the 'ego-death'.
It is a transcendence from materialist awareness into
spirituality, and in its true form can only really occur once,
simply as a matter of logic. Its an idea which has a fairly
wide narrative beyond psychology too, into shamanism.
And I vaguely recall it mentioned in Eastern thought too.
The 'second death' is another idea, perhaps similar.
In this sense death is also followed by judgement,
and both: being reborn, and second death, are not the
same as physical death.
As it is Paul's word is not directly that of Jesus.
And Jesus does bring Lazarus back to life, did
he never die again after that?
Lazarus is also not the only event of someone
transcending past death, although that detail
I cannot recall right now.
Bible does refer to death in more than one way, it's true.
First death occurs by those who have sinned before in their life. So everyone will go through this at one point or another. This death just means we leave this body. It doesn't mean that we are fully gone.
Second death is the worst kind to experience and is only reserved for those not going to heaven. They will go to hell for enternity and be in pain forever. So, even though they're alive in a form to experience this, they don't really live a life of some kind because they experience only torment 24/7.
The other death is the sleep kind. Notice no death in the bible is a permanent stage of being gone. You still exist but you exist elsewhere than on earth. First death means you no longer are in your home place on earth. Second death bible says you're in hell. But the other death is just sleep. It's just you are gone from your normal life for a short amount of time but resume it a little bit later. When you resume it's not called a rebirth. Bible never calls thar a rebirth so it's just normal life resumed.
Rebirth is only used once in the bible if I remember correctly. It's for when a sinner changes their life destiny of going to the second death by accepting Christ who is life the bible says. So rebirth is just reserved to those who want a life in Christ and in His kingdom.
What of the second coming, when all the dead come back to life?
We are also told of those that died during the flood anticipating the time
when they live again. Also some dead came back to life just after
the crucifixion too.
Not every word in the Bible is sacrosanct however, because even
the book of Ecclesiastes states that God does not exist! My research
has lead me to reckon that Ecclesiastes was likely written by
Aristotle - though I am uncertain. My point being though, that
the bible has been compiled in a philosophical tradition, and just
because it is the best record of God and the Soul, does not mean
we have to take every statement at face value.
Though I have never found fault with anything attributed directly
to Jesus or John, there are loads of comments made by Paul
that are fairly weak. He was in no way the best example;
and even himself admits that he teaches through foolishness.
And his idea that women should not be given respect in discussions
shows him to be something of a false prophet. Christ trusted
the Mary's more than any others.
But we also need to look at the matter simply as perspective.
What it looks like when I leave my corpse behind is quite
different to how it appears from my own perspective.
That's why I agree with you that the word 'sleep' is most apt.
That concept itself dates back to Plato.
When my mind is free of this body, I will still have a sense
of bodily existence it seems. The spirit may have metaphoric
hands and eyes and such. But how is that significantly different
to physical hands and eyes?
How is my life beyond this one different to this?
A good philosophy to read is the 'holographic universe',
which describes death as simply the mind shifting from
one plane of existence to another. The corpse is similar
to the way a snake sheds a skin.
There is no way to categorically prove how death occurs,
and even if we have direct personal experience of a past
life - like I in fact do - that is still no reason to just assume
that it is a universal reality that all undergo. It could
well be that some people just never re-incarnate again.
It seems at times, that those who do not believe in the Soul
might actually just not have one.
Others may reincarnate endlessly. Eventually we may
end up as being a 'god' of our own universe too.
Enter Horatio!