John 11
The Death of Lazarus
1 Now someone was being sick, Lazarus from Bethany, from the town of Mariam and Martha her sister. 2 Now it was Mariam the [one] having anointed the Lord with perfume and having wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 So the sisters sent to Jesus saying: Lord, behold, whom you philia-love is sick. 4 Now Jesus having heard said: This [one] being sick is not to death but for the glory of God, in order that the son of God be glorified through it. 5 And Jesus agape-loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.6 So as he heard that he is sick, then indeed he abided in the place where he was two days. 7 Thereupon after this he says to the disciples: Let us go to Judea again. 8 The disciples say to him: Rabbi, now the Jews were seeking to stone you, and you again go back there? 9 Jesus answered: Aren't there twelve hours in the day? If anyone walk in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if he walk in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.
11 He spoke these [things] and after this he says to them: Lazarus our friend1 has fallen asleep. But I go in order that I may awaken him. 12 So the disciples said to him: Lord, if he is fallen asleep, he will be saved. 13 But Jesus had spoken concerning his death. But those [ones] supposed that he speaks concerning the sleep of slumber. 14 So then Jesus said to them bluntly: Lazarus has died, 15 and I rejoice for [of you], in order that you believe, because I was not there; but let us go to him. 16 So Thomas the [one] being called Didimus said to the fellow-disciples: Let us also go in order that we may die with him.
17 So, coming, Jesus found him already having four days in the tomb.2 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem from [about] fifteen stadions3. 19 Now many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mariam, in order that they console them concerning [their] brother. 20 So Martha, as she heard that Jesus comes, met him; but Mariam was sitting in the house. 21 So Martha said to Jesus: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 And now I know that as much as you ask4 God, God will give to you. 23 Jesus says to her: Your brother will be resurrected. 24 Martha says to him: I know that he will be resurrected in the resurrection in the last day. 25 Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the zoe-life5 . The [one] believing in me even if he die he will zoee-live5, 26 and everyone zoe-living5 and believing in me will not die to eternity. Do you believe this? 27 She says to him: Yes Lord, I have believed that you are the Christ, the son of God, the [one] coming into the world.
28 And having said this she departed and called Mariam her sister saying privately: The teacher is present and calls you. 29 Now as that [one] heard, she rose swiftly and was going to him. 30 For Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was still in the place where Martha met him. 31 So the Jews being with her in the house and consoling her, having seen that Mariam swiftly arose and went out, followed her having supposed that she departs to the tomb in order that she may weep there. 32 So Mariam, as she came where Jesus was, having seen him, she fell before him at his feet, saying to him: Lord, if you were here, my brother would not have died.
33 So Jesus, as he saw her weeping, and the Jews having come with her weeping, he was deeply moved in [his] spirit and troubled himself, 24 and said: Where have you placed him? They say to him, Lord, be coming and behold. 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews were saying: Behold how he was philia-loving him. 37 But some of them said: Wasn't this [one] having opened the eyes of the blind able to do also in order that this [one] not die?
Lazarus Raised From the Dead
38 So Jesus, again being deeply moved in himself, comes to the tomb. Now it was [a] cave, and [a] stone was lying upon it. 39 Jesus says: Remove the stone. Martha the sister of the [one] having died says to him: Lord, he stinks already, for it is the fourth [day]. 40 Jesus says to her: Did I not say to you that: If you believe, you will see the glory of God? 41 So they removed the stone. Now Jesus lifted up his eyes and said: Father, I thank you that you heard me. 42 For I have known that you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing around I spoke, in order that they believe that you have sent me. 43 And having said these [things] he cried out with [a] great voice: Lazarus! Come out! 44 And the [one] having been dead came out, his feet and hands having been bound with bandages, and his face was bound with [a] handkerchief. Jesus says to them, Loose him and let him be going.The Response of the Jewish Leaders
45 So, many of the Jews, the [ones] having come to Mariam and having seen what he did, believed in him. 46 But some of them departed to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus did. 47 So the chief-priests and the Pharisees gathered council6 and were saying: What do we do, for this man does many signs? 48 If we allow him thusly, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take both our place and nation.49 But [a] certain one of them, Caiphas, being chief-priest of that year, said to them: You know nothing, 50 nor consider that it profits you that one man die in behalf of the people and the whole nation not perish7 . 51 But he did not say this from himself, but being chief-priest of that year he prophesied that Jesus was [about] to be dying in behalf of the nation, 52 and not in behalf of the nation only, but in order that the children of God having been scattered be gathered into one. 53 So from that day they resolved that they kill him.
54 So Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but departed from there to the region near the wilderness, to [a] city being called Ephraim, and there he abided with the disciples. 55 Now it was near the Passover of the Jews, and many went up to Jerusalem from the region, before the passover, in order that they may purify themselves. 56 So they were seeking Jesus and were saying with each other having stood in the temple: What does it seem to you, that he not come to the festival? 57 But the chief-priests and the Pharisees had given commandments that if anyone knows where he is he report it, in order that they arrest him.
1PHILOS (φιλoς )
2According to Jewish belief, the soul of a person was thought to hover around the body for a short time after death. But once the body begins to corrupt and the features change, usually by the fourth day, that is a sign that the soul has now departed, and corruption is irreversible.
3stadion = 1/4 mile
4AITEO "ay-TEH-oh" (αιτεω) "request", "demand", "beg" something for oneself. Far from humbly requesting—it's more like 'demanding'. Jesus uses AITEO only of the prayer of others, not of His own (cf. John.16:26)—and not requesting things for Himself, only for others. AITEO seems to suppose a lesser degree of intimacy than EROTAO (ερωταω), hence AITEO is used of the requests of the disciples to God, but EROTAO of the requests of the disciples to Jesus, and of those of Jesus to the Father ( John.14:16). AITEO is demanding/begging/pleading, EROTAO is polite and friendlier. Both AITEO and EROTAO occur in John.16:26.
5from ZOE "ZOH-ay" (ζωη)—Life 'collectively', interdependent, interconnected. Although it means 'life' in the conventional sense (for example: Matt.9:18, Matt.27:63, Luke.2:36, Acts.25:24, Rom.7:2, 2Cor.1:8, 1Thes.4:17, 1Tim.5:10, Rev.19:20), Jesus uses ZOE exclusively of 'life eternal' (with the possible exceptions of Luke.15:13, Luke.16:25). The other N.T. writers use ZOE in both senses—temporal and eternal, generally clear from the context. The Father is the 'zoe-living God' (see Matt.16:16). The Septuagint (LXX) in Gen.2:7 has "...[God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of zoe-life, and the man became a zoe-living psyche-life" (and see 1Cor.15:45); and Gen.3:20 (LXX) "And Adam called his wife's name ZOE, because she was the mother of all zoe-living." Contrast PSYCHE (ψυχη): an individual manifestation of life/consciousness. See John.12:25 where both ZOE and PSYCHE occur. Greek also has the word BIOS (βιoς ) for 'life' in the sense of biological processes.
6SANEDRION (σανεδριoν)
7APOLLUMI (απoλλυμι) To lose something that one previously possessed. Can also mean `ruin' or `destroy'—see Rev.9:11 where the angel of the Abyss is named `Apollyon' (same root word).