John 11:1-16

II

ANTITHESIS BETWEEN THE BELIEVING AND THE UNBELIEVING JEWS OF JUDEA AND JERUSALEM AT THE GRAVE OF LAZARUS. CHRIST, IN CONSEQUENCE OF HIS RAISING OF LAZARUS FROM THE DEAD, HIMSELF DEVOTED TO DEATH. SYMBOLISM OF DAY’S WORK AND OF SLEEP. THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD.

John 11:1-57

A. Christ’s death-bringing journey to Bethany to raise His friend from the dead. Symbolism of day-life and night-life. Symbolism of sleep

(John 11:1-16.)

1Now [But] a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of [from] Bethany, the town 2of Mary and her sister Martha. (It was that [the] Mary which [who afterwards] anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) 3Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick. 4When Jesus heard that, he said [And Jesus hearing it, said], This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might [may] be glorified thereby.

5Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. 6When he had heard therefore [When therefore he heard] that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was [he then remained in the place where he was, two days]. 7Then after that saith he [Then after this he saith] to his [the] disciples, Let 8us go into Judea again. His [The] disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought [just now were seeking, νῦν ἐζήτουν] to stone thee; and goest thou thither again? 9Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man 10walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. 11These things said he: and after that [this] he saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth 12[hath fallen asleep]; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples [The disciples therefore said to him]1, Lord, if he sleep [hath fallen asleep] he shall do well [become whole, recover]2. 13Howbeit Jesus spake [But Jesus had spoken] of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep [he was speaking of the rest of sleep, περὶ τῆς κοιμήσεως τοῦ ὕπνου]3. 14Then [Then therefore, τότε οὖν] said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. 15And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him. 16Then said Thomas, which [who] is called Didymus [i. e. twin child], unto his fellow-disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

In the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the most stupendous of the revivifying (quickening) miracles of Jesus, we see at once the ultimate occasion of His death, and the first foreshadowing of His resurrection. Bayle relates of Spinoza [the Jewish philosopher]: “On m’ a assuré qu ’il disait à ses amis, que s’il eût pu se persuader la résurrection de Lazare, il aurait brisé en piéces tout son système et aurait embrassé sans répugnance la foi ordinaire des chrétiens.” [Dict. art. Spinoza].4

The special plea of modern criticism against the reality of this miracle is the silence of the Synoptists. This fact may be explained: 1. By the character of the Gospels, each one of which being a particular view of the life of Jesus, uses only such historical matter as suits its total; 2. by historical circumstances which made it seem advisable to the Synoptists, who wrote earlier, to omit from their records the history of the family of Bethany, probably in order to avoid attracting to it the attention of Jewish fanatics in Jerusalem (see Leben Jesu, II. 2, p. 1132); 5 3. by the preponderance of Galilean tradition in the Synoptists, which may well be connected with the fact that a great portion of this tradition was derived from narratives of the life of Jesus addressed by the earlier disciples of Galilee to the later disciples at Jerusalem. We have proof in the writings of the Synoptists that they were well aware of the frequent sojourn of Jesus at Jerusalem; Matthew 23:37; Luk 10:38.6

[The narrative is divided into three parts: (1) The preparation, which is ruled by the idea of death, 1–16; (2) The raising of Lazarus, or the triumph of life over death, 17–44; (3) The effect, (a) the positive effect: confirmation of the faith of the disciples, 45; (b) the negative effect: exciting the opposition of the Sanhedrin to deadly hatred, 47–57.—The miracle carries its own evidence to every fair and unprejudiced mind. But as the performance of it was a moral test to the Jews, so is its narrative to the readers and critics: a savor of life and a source of comfort to believers, a stumbling-block to unbelievers. There are four false theories, opposed to the true one: 1. The rationalistic view of a raising from a trance, in spite of the ἤδη ὄ̇ζει, John 11:39! (Paulus, Gabler, Ammon, Kern, Schweizer, modified by Gfrörer and Weisse). 2. The mythical hypothesis of an unconscious poem of the primitive Christian fancy. (Strauss, in his large “Life of Jesus,” while in his new Leben Jesu, p. 476 ff., he represents the historic Lazarus of John as a free fiction of the fourth Evangelist based upon the parabolic Lazarus of Luke.) 3. The theory of a conscious symbolical or allegorical representation of the death-conquering glory of Christ and His disciples. (Baur, Weizsäcker). 4. The infamous hypothesis of a down-right imposture or pious fraud, an intrigue of the family of Bethany, to which Jesus lent Himself as an instrument with the view to make an impression upon the unbelieving Jews. (Renan, Vie de Jésus, p. 359 f.). All these theories owe their origin to a disbelief in the supernatural. They neutralize each other and explain nothing at all. The only alternative is: historic truth, or dishonest fiction. The historic truth is abundantly attested by the simplicity, vivacity and circumstantiality of the narrative, the four days in the tomb (John 11:39), and the good sense and moral honesty—to say the very least—of Lazarus and his sisters, the Evangelist and Christ Himself.—P. S.]

John 11:1. But there was a certain man sick.—The δέ indicates that Jesus’ stay in Peræa was terminated by the sickness and death of Lazarus.

Lazarus, from Bethany.—The designation of Lazarus: from Bethany [άπό, like ἐκ, denotes descent, or, as here, residence], as also the designation of Bethany as the town of Mary and Martha her sister (comp. John 1:44), presupposes the acquaintance of the readers with the family of Bethany, and places Mary, as the most prominent personality of the group, in the foreground. After her, mention is made of Martha, as her sister; after both, Bethany is designated; after Bethany, Lazarus.

Bethany on the Mount of Olives, distinct from the Bethany beyond Jordan, in the environs of which Jesus is now, probably, again abiding (see John 1:28), is distant three-quarters of an hour [about two miles] from Jerusalem, in a south-easterly direction, on the other [eastern] side of the Mount of Olives, over whose southern portion the road leads. From its situation on the declivity of the mountain, Simonis thus construes it: בֵּית עֲנִוָּה, locus depressionis, Low Borough, Valley Borough; with more probability, however, Lightfoot, Reland and others hold that it derives its name from its date-palms: בֵּית הִינֵי, locus dactylorum, House of Dates, Date Borough (see the palm-entry, Matthew 21:0).7 In the history of the Passion, Bethany appears as a peaceful refuge for the Lord from hostile Jerusalem; Matthew 21:17; Matthew 26:6, etc.8

[Bethany is never mentioned in the Old Testament or the Apocrypha, and is known to us only from the New Testament, but possesses an unusual charm as the place where more than in any other Jesus loved to dwell and to enjoy domestic life. There was a house of peace with three children of peace, where the Prince of Peace went in and out as a friend. There He received the hospitable attentions of busy Martha, and commended the contemplative Mary (Luke 10:38 ff.); there He performed His greatest miracle on their brother Lazarus, and proved Himself to be the Resurrection and the Life; there Mary anointed Him against the day of His burial; from Bethany He commenced His triumphant entry into Jerusalem; to Bethany He resorted for the rest of the night during the few days before His crucifixion; and near this village He loved so well, He ascended to heaven. At present it is a poor, wretched mountain hamlet of some twenty families, and is called, from Lazarus, El-Azarîyeh (by Robinson) or El-Lazarieh (according to Lord Lindsay and Stanley); the traditional sites of the house and tomb of Lazarus are still shown. Stanley and Grove give a very unfavorable account; but Bonar and Lindsay describe the situation of Bethany, as viewed from a distance, as “remarkably beautiful,” “the perfection of retirement and repose,” “of seclusion and lovely peace.” It is no doubt with Bethany as with Jerusalem and Palestine generally: it is a mere shadow of the past, a scene of desolation and death; yet not without traces of former glory, and not without hope of a future resurrection.—P. S.]

John 11:2. It was the Mary who (afterwards) anointed the Lord with ointment, etc.—John supposes the history of the anointing to be familiar through the evangelical tradition; and this trait shows the vividness and copiousness of that tradition and at the same time the historical character of this Gospel. In the next chapter he proceeds to relate the history of the anointing itself [as required by the course of his narrative]. The evangelist designs here to bring into view the friendly relation existing between Jesus and the brother and sisters of Bethany, in explanation of the following history. Comp. Com. on Matthew, chap. 26; Luke, chap. 10. Touching the vast difference between Mary of Bethany and the great sinner or Mary Magdalene, comp. the Art. Maria Magdalena in Herzog’s Real-Encyklopædia [vol. ix. p. 102 ff.].9 On the character of the two sisters comp. the Com. on Luke, chap. 10. 10 Hengstenberg’s romance founded upon the story of the family of Bethany, is well known.

[Hengstenberg devotes twenty-six pages of his Commentary on John (vol. ii. pp. 198–224) to prove that Lazarus of Bethany whom the Lord raised from the dead, is none other than the poor Lazarus of the parable, and that Mary of Bethany is the same with the unnamed sinner who washed the Saviour’s feet with her tears of repentance (Luke 7:36 ff.) and with Mary Magdalene (Luke 8:2). In the former he is original; in the latter he follows the tradition of the Latin church which identified the two or three Marys, down to recent times when it was rightly opposed by several Roman Catholic as well as Protestant divines. Out of the scattered hints of the Gospels Hengstenberg, with more ingenuity than sound judgment and good taste, weaves the following religious novel, which is worthy of a place in a Romish legendary. Mary, originally of Magdala, a village on the western coast of the lake of Galilee, near the city of Tiberias, led a disreputable life, but was converted to Christ, who expelled from her seven devils, i.e., her wild passions, and gave her rest and peace. She clung to Him with boundless devotion and followed Him on His journeys in Galilee (Luke 8:2) and to Judea. While the Lord labored in and around Jerusalem she resided at Bethany in the house or country-seat of her sister Martha, who had married a rich but low-minded Pharisee, Simon the Leper. Here she anointed the Lord and wiped His feet with the tears of repentance, six days before His passion (Luke 7:0, which is assumed to be the same with the scene described John 12:0.) Her brother Lazarus, after a similar life of dissipation and consequent poverty, resorted also to the protection of Martha and lived off the parsimonious charity of his brother-in-law. He is the beggar at the gate of “the rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day” (Luke 16:19 ff.). He died, was buried, and carried to Abraham’s bosom, but was raised again by Christ, to which an allusion may be found in the parable (John 11:31, “though one rose from the dead”). Mary and Lazarus were so dearly loved by Him, not on account of their virtuous and lovely character, but as striking examples of the power of redeeming grace. They illustrate His saying that it is easier for publicans and sinners to enter the kingdom than for righteous Pharisees.—The grounds for this strange combination are the identity of names (Lazarus of the parable—the only name mentioned in any parable of the New Testament—and Lazarus of Bethany; Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany), and the similarity of the anointing scene related by Luke, John 7:36 ff., and the one described by John, John 12:3, as well as Matthew, Matthew 22:3 ff.; and Mark 14:3. But the differences of locality (Magdala and Bethany), of time (the beginning and the close of Christ’s ministry), and of circumstances, in the anointing scenes, are sufficient to neutralize the superficial appearance of identity. Besides, there are strong arguments against Hengstenberg’s hypothesis. 1. Luke’s Gospel which is constructed on the chronological order (Luke 1:3), can not be charged with such a glaring chronological mistake, as to place the anointing of Christ in Bethany in the first year of Christ’s ministry, when according to Matthew, Mark and John it occurred only six days before His passion and had special reference to His near burial. 2. Luke, in introducing Mary of Bethany in Luke 10:39, gives no intimation that she was the unnamed sinner of John 7:0 or the Mary Magdalene whom he had already honorably mentioned inLuke 8:2; nor does John give any hint of such identity when he introduces Mary Magdalene in Luke 19:25. To explain this fact, Hengstenberg (p. 208) resorts to the far-fetched conjecture of intentional concealment of the identity from family considerations and apprehensions of abuse. 3. If Lazarus lived in miserable dependence on a mean brother-in-law, it would have been cruel to call him back from Paradise. 4. There is an intrinsic improbability, as urged already by Origen and Chrysostom, that Jesus should have selected for His special friendship persons whoso former lives were stained by gross impurity.—The view of Hengstenberg has been generally rejected by German commentators, but Bishop Wordsworth (on Luke 11:1), without mentioning his name, seems to adopt it as far as the identity of the Lazarus of the parable and the Lazarus of the miracle is concerned. He finds in the parable a prophecy of the miracle, in the latter a fulfilment of the former. Godet (II. 320) aptly says of Hengstenberg’s dissertation that it only proves the facility with which a man of learning and acumen can prove any thing he wants to prove.—But while we must utterly reject the identification of the two Lazaruses, it is quite possible that the Lazarus of John 11:0 was either a son or a brother-in-law of Simon the Pharisee. An article in Smith’s Dict. (vol. II., p. 1614) identifies him with the young and rich ruler who came to Jesus and was loved by Him, Matthew 19:0; Mark 10:0; Luke 18:8, but this conjecture is without proof and contrary to the chronological order of events. The traditions concerning the later life of Lazarus and his labors in Marseilles, where he is said to have founded a church and suffered martyrdom, are worthless. The ecclesiastical applications of the name of Lazarus (Knights of St. Lazarus, lazaretto, lazar-house, lazzarone) are derived from the Lazarus of the parable and connected with the etymology (Lazarus=לֹא עֵזֶר, auxilio destitutus, no help, helpless, or better=לַעְזָר, abridged from אֶלְעָזָר, Eliazar, Deus auxilium, the German Gotthilf). The Lazarists, a French Society of missionary priests, were named after Lazarus of Bethany (from the College of St. Lazarus in Paris which they acquired in 1632).—P. S.]

John 11:3. Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.—If we read in these words the indirect expression of a positive entreaty that Jesus would come, possibly we overlook the situation of the parties. It is as evident to the sisters in Bethany as to the disciples that imminent peril of death threatens the Lord in Jerusalem and its surrounding country. We are not warranted in assuming that they rated the sickness of their brother higher than the deadly peril impending over Jesus. In fact, in their very appreciation of His danger we read the explanation of their tender message in its delicate historicalness. They give emphasis to their communication thus: whom Thou lovest; it is the expression of an ardent, heart-felt desire wherewith they inform Him of what may happen. [ὅν φιλεῖς is more solicitous of help than the mere name, and yet more modest, than “who loves Thee,” or the designation of “friend,” as the Lord in His condescending love calls Lazarus, John 11:11.—P. S.]

John 11:4. Jesus hearing it said [εἶπεν] This sickness, etc.—[Alford: “The only right understanding of this answer, and our Lord’s whole proceeding here is,—that He knew and foresaw all from the first,—as well the termination of Lazarus’s sickness and his being raised again, as the part which this miracle would bear in bringing about the close of His own ministry.”—P. S.] In the lack of ἀπεκρίνατο (replied) there is no warrant for the assumption that these words did not form part of a message sent to the sisters, although they were addressed to the disciples also. It was, in reality, His prophetic utterance concerning the entire sickness.—Is not unto death [πρὸςθάνατον].—The expression was an ambiguous one and involved a trial of faith for the sisters. They might thus understand it: The sickness will not result in death, will not be fatal; and to this interpretation the rest of the sentence might seem to point: for the glory of God, etc. From these words it was possible to draw the inference that Jesus would at all events preserve Lazarus from death; perhaps by an exercise of healing power from afar. But this was not His meaning. The certainty and the necessity of the death of Lazarus were manifest to Him from the beginning; He foreknew also that He should raise him from the dead. In this sense, therefore, we are to understand His words: The end and aim of this sickness is not death, but the glorification of God by a raising of the dead, which shall also glorify the Son of God.11 Therein lay a trial of faith for the sisters (Brenz, Neander). A human instrumentality in order to the divine awakening of the dead was also thus ordained. The sick man and his sisters waited hopefully for the Lord even until the coming of death; then, if they would not be perplexed by the promise of Jesus (see John 11:40), on which their hopes were based, they must take refuge in the mysterious expression: to the glory of God. Not only does the text afford no ground for the supposition that a second message concerning the further progress of the malady was sent to the Lord, informing Him of the incorrectness of His favorable opinion (Paulus, Neander), but such a supposition is directly contrary to the text (see John 11:14).—That the Son of God may be glorified thereby.—This was the purpose of God. Not that God should be glorified by the glorification of Christ (Meyer), but that the glorifying of God through the miracle wrought in His name should also glorify the Son of God,—and this in a striking manner, in the presence of a great multitude and in the vicinity of Jerusalem. They who accused Him of working miracles by the power of Satan, should be witnesses to this astounding miracle, performed by Him after a solemn invocation of that God, whom they called their God and as the blasphemer of whom they denounced Him. It is noteworthy that after this fact He is no more charged with having a demon and working miracles by the assistance of Beelzebub. Christ’s prayer to God at the grave of Lazarus was, however, introduced by the sending of the man who was born blind to the pool of Siloam, that being the property of the temple and of the God of the temple.

John 11:5. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.—[and—and: happy family! Bengel.]—Reference of these words: 1. De Wette: Explanatory of John 11:3; John 2:0. Meyer: explanatory of the consoling assurance contained in John 11:4; John 3:0. Baumgarten-Crusius: preparatory to John 11:6. “Although He loved them all, He tarried.” Why is Martha here the prominent person and Mary simply designated as her sister? Martha stood in peculiar need of a still greater trial of faith, of purification from her petty cares; and in order to these results, death must be felt in all its terrors and deliverance in all its rapture. In this sense Jesus loved her. Thus the connection with John 11:6 might also be expressed by a “therefore,” etc. But since the evangelist has not specified this connection more positively, room is left for both conjectures (“although” and “therefore”). The expression ἠγάπα, not ἐφίλει (as John 11:3), may not have been chosen solely “on account of the therewith mentioned sisters” (Meyer), but also on account of the loftily severe conduct of the love of Christ. [ἀγαπᾶν may be used of divine love, but φιλεῖν expresses human love and the personal relation of friendship. The relation of Jesus to the female sex exhibits a tenderness truly human with a purity and dignity truly divine. Comp. the remarks on p. 167.—P. S.]

John 11:6. When therefore he heard that he was sick, then (at that time), indeed, he remained two days.—Τότε μέν [tum quidem, omitted in the E. V.]. The μέν leads us to expect a δέ after ἔπειτα, which has, however, been omitted in order that the conclusion of the sentence might appear independently in all its significance. Explanation of the delay of Jesus:

1. In order to test the faith of the interested parties (Olshausen after the ancients). This motive cannot be rejected as “inhuman arbitrariness” (Meyer). It was undoubtedly influential, although not exclusively so.2. Jesus was detained in Peræa by important business (Lücke [Neander, Tholuck] and others.) Here, without doubt, we have the grand motive and the foundation of the previously mentioned one, for it would have been an utter impossibility for Jesus to remain two days away from Bethany in inactivity. Meyer objects to this explanation on the ground that nothing of the kind is stated in the text. But it is implied everywhere that Jesus was never inactive and that He had days’ works, times (καιροί) and hours, appointed Him by God.

3. Meyer [and Alford]: The motive is indicated John 11:4 : the glorification of God through the miracle. This was undoubtedly a final and supreme motive, one, however, that never stands alone; it is invariably associated with concrete, moral motives. Assuming this to be the sole motive, the delay of two days was totally unnecessary, since Lazarus had already been dead a long time.

Bretschneider and his followers have based their arguments against the authenticity of the history itself upon this delay, which they did not comprehend. We must further beware of the false idea that Jesus first suffered Lazarus to die, and then went to raise him from the dead. As Lazarus had already lain in the grave four days, when Jesus arrived at Bethany, he would (assuming the distance to have been a day’s journey) have been two days in the grave, if Jesus had set out for Bethany immediately upon receiving the message. Hence He caused no fruitless waiting by the bedside of the sick man. The sisters had deferred sending the message to Jesus until Lazarus was at the point of death, because they knew the danger attending the return of the Saviour to Judea. So fine a historical trait cannot have been invented.

Two days.—On the great activity of Jesus in Peræa see the Com. on Matthew. He was to depart from a province in which there were many that believed on Him.

John 11:7. Let us go again into Judea (from Peræa), etc.—He does not say, to Bethany. To Judea, “to the land of unbelief and deadly enmity.”12 The πάλιν is doubtless indicative of the fact that Jesus had previously journeyed with the disciples from Peræa to Judea, to attend the feast of the consecration of the temple.

John 11:8. But just now13 the Jews were seeking to stone Thee.—Dissuading, in view of the obvious peril of death. In this connection the form of the message sent by the sisters is to be explained. These words, as well as John 11:16, prove that the disciples were not apprehensive as to their own safety merely, but that the Lord was the principal subject of their anxiety.

John 11:9. Are there not (fully) twelve hours, etc.?—“In Palestine, where the clays are of nearly equal duration, they are divided, the whole year through, into twelve hours.” Gerlach.14 Jesus probably uttered these words in the early morning, in view of the rising sun,15 just as the day was beginning; in like manner the words: I must work as long as it is day (John 9:4), were spoken in face of the setting sun. In the first place, this was not said to allay the apprehensions of the disciples on their own account (Chrysostom, Neander); it had reference to the life-journey of the Lord Himself: Christ employs, however, such general terms, that the words are applicable to the life-journey of the disciples also. Under the figure of the day, the idea of the life-day of the individual and of the day’s work appointed him is again presented, as in John 9:4 f. Here, however, the God-given, fully meted out day of life is the main point. If there the meaning be: I must work with speed, for My day draweth near its close—there is but little time remaining—the twelve hours will soon be over; so here the signification is: I can still work without peril of death,—I can still make the journey thither,—My twelve hours are not yet at an end. The determination of the day to twelve hours has led Grotius and others to this explanation: Are there not only twelve hours—contrary to the sense of the figure, which portions out the one day into twelve assured sections. Lyra and Luther have discerned in the twelve hours the image of the changing moods of men: “the hearts of the Jews are fickle.” This is at all events an import of minor weight and prominency. Entirely arbitrary and gratuitous is the interpretation of Augustine; according to him, the twelve hours are the twelve apostles, who must follow the Lord as the hours follow the sun.

But now arises the question, whether, by the twelve hours, Jesus intended to express simply His present safety from mortal peril, or whether He would intimate at the same time that, in the future, death was inevitably prepared for Him; that a time of suffering and death was impending, when He must desist from active work. That we are to understand Him as having reference to both facts, the subsequent sentence proves: but if any man walk in the night, etc. The one consideration does not exclude the other; on the contrary they form together a higher unity. To walk and to work as long as the assured day of life lasts, but after that, to rest, and not by wilful working in the night of suffering and death, to plunge into danger and ruin,—such is the teaching of the outward life-regimen, prescribed to us in the distinction of day and night.

But again, the expression, and particularly the “stumbling in the night” points to a still higher antithesis: as the day was made to symbolize the day of life, so the day of life becomes the symbol of duty and of heavenly light in divinely appointed duty; and the evening and night of life are an image of the darkness outside of duty. This was especially applicable to the disciples. Now, when the day of life was still assured to them, they would willingly have abstained from walking and working; but when the Saviour’s night of suffering arrived, then they desired to walk and to act. Judas walked, stumbled, and fell into bottomless perdition; Peter walked, and fell after the most perilous fashion. I walk in the day, and as long as the day lasts, in perfect security; take care that ye do not now desire prematurely to rest, and then, at an unseasonable time, when the night has come, to walk.Meyer admits only the former apprehension: “The working time appointed Me by God has not yet passed away; so long as this lasts, no man can prevail against Me; but when it has expired, I shall fall into the hands of My enemies, just as he who walks at night stumbles, because he is destitute of light” (and thus Apollinaris, Jansen [ Maldonatus, Corn. a Lapide ] and others). Tholuck apprehends in this the symbol of working as predominant over that of walking, with reference to the περιπατεῖν, which undoubtedly implies such an idea, because now the work of Jesus was a walking to Bethany; nevertheless, this is not the prevailing view; to warrant its adoption as such, another verb would be requisite. With the primary figure of the day of life, Lücke, after Melanchthon, has rightly connected the figure of the day of duty. Luthardt: “He who moves within the bounds of duty, does not stumble, makes no false steps, for the light of the world, i.e. the will of God, enlightens him; but he who walks, i.e. is active, outside of the limits of his vocation, will err in what he does, since not the will of God, but his own pleasure is his guide.” And still further, beyond even this second figure, has the spiritual interpretation of this saying been carried out. Chrysostom and others: The walking by day is that blameless conduct wherein one has nought to fear; Erasmus and others: It is fellowship with Christ; De Wette: It is a pure, guiltless, clear course of action;—the twelve hours being the ways and means of activity, the night, deficiency in wisdom and integrity. All these considerations, however, are included in a just perception of the antithesis of day and night.

The great law of physical life: the day-time for walking and working, the night-time for resting and sleeping, is a symbol of the law of moral life: during the whole day of life to fulfil with joyous and fearless activity the whole duty, and then, in the night of suffering and death, to submit calmly to God’s providence, and rest and cease from labor in Him. But this law of moral life is conditioned by that of religious life: to work in the day of the light of God and Christ; not in the night of self-will, whereby we should prepare for ourselves a fall into perdition. And thus this thought also is indicated: that a false prolongation of life by evasion of duty is the immediate preparation for a night, in which one must of necessity stumble and fall; while a resigned and passive demeanor in the divinely appointed night of death becomes a walking in a loftier sense, a going to the Father (Leben Jesu, ΙΙ. 2, p. 1118). Still this is but the result of the ethical idea, not the immediate sense of the figure itself.

Twelve, brought forward with emphasis, signifying, objectively, life full-measured, rich, with its manifold appointments; subjectively, Christ’s joyful assurance of life.

If any man walk.—The living man a walker and worker, a pilgrim and workman of God.—In the day.—The present day a symbol of the day of life, which, together with its day’s task, is appointed to man.—He stumbleth not.—As men run against objects at night. He does not stumble upon an occasion of his death.—For he seeth.—The light shines upon him so that he avoids the stumbling blocks that obstruct his road even in the day-time. Thus, in a moral sense, man sees in the light of his calling the dangers which he can and should avoid, without being obliged to abandon his vocation.

But if any man walk in the night.—The exceptions to the law of physical life (nocturnal working and walking) do not here come under consideration. Such is the rule in the physical life:—a rule which obtains in a still greater degree in the moral life. A self-seeking excitement—tumultuous living—of life prepares for itself death in the twilight of suffering, and destruction in the night of death. As Jesus has no desire to walk=work in the night, this remark is intended especially for the disciples.—He stumbleth.—See the account of the disciples in the history of the Passion.—The light is not in him.—No day-light from heaven, no light in the eyes; this holds good both in a physical and in a symbolical sense. The weakening of the antithesis of day and night to tempus opportunum and inopportunum (Morus, Paulus, etc.) is not incorrect but altogether insufficient.

John 11:11. And after this.—After the tranquilizing words a pause.

Our friend Lazarus.—Thus Christ was acquainted with his sickness, with the hour of his death and the nature of it, by virtue of His divine-human consciousness. Our friend. An expression of hearty love and fellowship, in which they also do and should share. [Bengel notices the kind condescenion with which our Lord shares His friendship with the disciples. Only twice more does Christ call men by the endearing name of friends, viz., the apostles, John 15:14-15; Luke 12:4. Figuratively John the Baptist called himself a friend of Christ (John 3:29). Abraham is called a “friend of God” (James 2:23; comp. 2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8), but more in the passive sense: the favorite of God.—P. S.]

Hath fallen asleep.—This expression is not selected simply in view of the approaching awakening. Comp. Mat 9:24; 1 Thessalonians 4:13. It is the kinship of sleep and physical death, that Christ here proclaims. Sleep is the periodical death on earth; death is the final sleep for earth in the period of its present existence;—sleep is the concentration of outward life to the interior, in the nocturnal consciousness and vegetation of the body; death is the concentration and internalization of life in the transit of the soul to another state of existence.—But I go.—The confidence of the Lord in His mission.

[Bengel: “Death, in the language of heaven, is the sleep of the pious, but the disciples did not here understand His language. The freedom of the divine language is incomparable; but men’s dullness often degrades Scripture to our sadder mode of speaking. Comp. Matthew 16:11.” The scriptural designation of death as a sleep from which the pious awakes in the glorious morning of eternity (Matthew 9:24; Matthew 27:52; Acts 7:59; Acts 13:36; 1Co 15:6; 1 Thessalonians 4:13; Revelation 14:13), furnishes no basis for the false doctrine of the sleep or unconscious condition of the soul from death till resurrection (psychopannychia), against which Calvin wrote his first theological treatise. The life union of the believer with Christ can not be suspended or lost in the darkness of unconsciousness; on the contrary, it passes through death to a higher degree of clearness and joy, being translated into the immediate presence of the Lord, although it does not attain to its perfect maturity till the time of the general resurrection, when the whole body of Christ, and consequently every member of it, will be fully grown.—P. S.]

John 11:12. He shall be restored (be saved).—i.e. recover by means of sleep as a health-bringing crisis. Their misapprehension of the Lord’s words and their application of them to bodily sleep have a psychological connection with their repugnance to the journey to Bethany. According to Bengel and Luthardt, they thought that the sleep had been produced by the agency of Jesus while yet absent (to which the πορεύομαι is considered to refer); according to Ebrard, that a cure had already been effected by the same agency (after John 11:4). The text affords no ground for either assumption.—Of the rest of the sleep.—Of the rest of dream-life; i.e., of real sleep in antithesis to the sleep of death.

John 11:14. Plainly: Lazarus is dead.—Παῥῥησίᾳ, here, without circumlocution, John 11:10; John 11:24.

John 11:15. I am glad for your sakes.—He is glad that He was not there. This does not mean, glad that He was not there to see Lazarus die, because his death might have raised doubts in the minds of the disciples (Paulus; against this construction Bengel remarks, that none ever died in presence of the Prince of Life),—but glad because now the greater miracle of a raising of the dead should take the place of a healing of the sick. He rejoices—not at his death—but in anticipation of the sign from God.—That ye may believe.—[The subjective intent with regard to the disciples themselves; the objective intent being the glory of God, John 11:4.—P. S.] With reference to their still weak faith, and to the trials of faith which they are about to encounter. Meyer: “Every new step of faith is in measure a new believing.” Comp. John 2:11.—But let us depart.—The ἀλλά terminates the conversation in order to the departure, as John 14:31.

John 11:16. Then said Thomas.—תְֹּאם תֹּאמָא [Aramaic] corresponding to the Greek Δίδυμος [Didymus], twin.16 In the Gospels (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15) he is mentioned in connection with Matthew, in the Acts (1:13) with Philip. He was probably a Galilean, as he is mentioned John 21:2 together with the Galilean fisher-apostles. Tradition has made him a veritable twin and bestowed the name of Lysia on his sister. In yet another relation he was pronounced a twin. According to Eusebius, H. E. Ι. 13, 5, he was called Judas; he is also designated in the Acta Thomæ, and has doubtless in this way been confounded with Judas, “the brother of Jesus.” Tradition assigns Antioch as his birth-place, states that as an apostle he preached Christianity among the Parthians and that he was buried at Edessa. According to later authority (as early, however, as Gregory of Nazianzen) he made an apostolic journey to India and there, after the latest tradition, suffered martyrdom. Apocryphal literature has appended his name to an Evangelium Thomæ and the Acta Thomæ.

His characteristics are vividly portrayed in the sayings preserved by St. John; thus here John 11:16; John 14:5; John 20:24 (21:2). In ecclesiastical tradition he is one-sidedly designated as skeptical, from his conduct in the moment of temptation. For various delineations of his character see the Art. Thomas in Winer. According to Winer, he had a bias towards the visible and comprehensible; he was, above all things, desirous of seeing clearly and was then rashly, even violently, decided. According to Tholuck, he united a mind inclining to doubt and despondency with intense acuteness of sensibility. From the passages cited it would appear that his doubting was the result of profound earnestness approaching to melancholy, and allied to a yearning after truth; hence, he became the critical spirit of the circle of apostles;—and hence, too, he displays the utmost decision in living in conformity to his convictions (see Leben Jesu, ΙΙ. 2, p. 697; Com. on Matthew, p. 183).

John 11:16. Let us also depart that we may die with Him.—With reference to Jesus [Meyer, Alford], not to Lazarus (Ewald, following Grotius). Thomas foresees, as he believes, that Jesus is going to His death and is ready to die with Him. Weak faith, strong love; an unequal relationship which is thus explained: a vigorous germ of faith, reflected in his not yet purified and glorified love to Jesus; a weak, dull development of faith, held in check by the carefulness of his hitherto empirical view of the world.

[It is the language of mingled melancholy, resignation and courage, controlled by love to Christ. It is in full accordance with the character of Thomas as it appears on other occasions, John 14:5; John 20:5 ff. He is ever inclined to take the dark view, but deeply attached to his Lord, and ready to die with and for Him. He represents the honest, earnest and noble skeptics, who do not hold fast to the Invisible as if they saw Him, who require tangible evidence before they believe, but who submit to the evidence when presented, and exclaim before the risen Saviour: My Lord and my God!—P. S.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The raising of Lazarus, the death of the Lord. Christ as dying for the resurrection of the world.

2. The three dead-awakenings of Christ in their gradation: The child on its death-bed,—the youth on his bier,—the man in his grave; the awakening in the hushed circle of friends,—in presence of a funeral procession of acquaintances,—in the midst of the Jews.

3. How the opinion of Jesus concerning the sickness of Lazarus applies in a broader sense to every sickness, considered with reference to its final aim, and so in a peculiar sense to the sickness of the believer.

4. The love of the Lord to His friends is holy, and therefore manifoldly and inscrutably deep and mysterious in its manifestation, like the providence of God itself.

5. The delay and haste of Jesus.

6. Symbolism of day-life and night-life. The duty of the day is the day of the duty. This is applicable to the day of life as well as to the individual day.

7. Symbolism of sleep. Christ has changed death into sleep; but as the death of His people is sleep, so is the spiritual sleep of unbelievers death.

8. The noble and therefore open doubt of Thomas in antithesis to the wicked, secret and reserved doubting of Judas.

9. The mysterious rapport of spirit and life between the praying Christ in Peræa and the praying household in Bethany.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

[Literature: On the raising of Lazarus see the numerous and valuable notes of Dr. Mallet on John, John 11:12 in the “Bremer Post,” from the close of the year 1857 to the year 1859. Similarly John 11:0 Sermons on the eleventh chapter of St. John’s Gospel by Dr. Schroeder, Pastor at Elberfeld, 1853. As also the list of books in Heubner, p. 389. Historie von Lazaro, by Sutellius, Wittenberg, 1543; Joh. Arnd’s Lazarus redivivus, Jena 1620; Balthasar Muenter, Public Lectures on the discourses of Jesus, etc., ninth volume, 1793; Lilienthal, Predigten über die Auferweckung des Lazarus, 1764; Ewald, Lazarus, Berlin 1790; Herder, Homilies, No. 19; Seiler, Pastoral-Theologie, ΙΙ. p. 93–101; Hanstein, Erinnerungen an Jesu, vierte Fortsetzung; Wichelhaus, Weg zur Ruhe; Bourdaloue, Sermon, etc.; Massillion, Fournier, Bethanien, Berlin, 1837; Theremin, Predigten, ΙΙΙ. no. 8; W. Huelsemann, die Geschichte der Auferweckung des Lazarus, Leipzig, 1835. [Gumlich, in the Studien und Kritiken, 1862, pp. 65 ff., 248 ff.; Trench, Notes on the Miracles, pp. 312 ff. Sea also a large list of English sermons, lectures and practical treatises on John 11:0 in Darling’s Cyclopædia Bibliographica, vol. I., pp. 1115 ff.—P. S.]

The three sections from John 11:1-57 together, as a homiletical trilogy: 1. The journey of Jesus to Bethany to the grave of His dead friend, or the journey into peril of death, in order to the raising of the dead; 2. the miracle at Bethany, or the raising of the dead in the face of mortal enemies; 3. the message from Bethany, or the death-fate impending over the Lord in consequence of the message of the Prince of Life.—”`Now there was one sick,” or how the distress of His people draws the Lord unto them: 1. down from heaven into human misery; 2. over the Jordan into peril of death; 3. forever back from the rest of heaven into the conflict of earth; 4. in the future, from the throne of glory to the judgment-seat.

Our section, John 11:1-16. The pious household of the sick man.—The fellowship of a believing family: 1. a relationship of blood and spirit; 2. fellowship of suffering and triumph.—The imperishable glory and blessedness of the names of the just. How they shine eternally in the light of the love of Jesus.—“That the Son of God may be glorified thereby.” Or how Christ has always in the highest sense made a virtue of necessity: 1. Of oppression, deliverance; 2. of danger, a triumph; 3. of temptation, a victory; 4. of misery, redemption; 5. of death, a festival of resurrection.—Brothers and sisters after the flesh, as spiritually kindred in Scripture and history.—The message from Bethany: 1. How strong; 2. how tender.—Christ, the Master, over against His people; 1. They call and He tarries; 2. they dissuade and He goes.—Christ’s heavenly knowledge of the earthly circumstances of His people.—“Let us go again into Judea.” Or Christ returns in spite of His enemies.—The twelve hours of the day, or life-time and life’s duty in their indissoluble unity: 1. The certainty of life within the bounds of duty. The servant of God does not die until his work is performed. 2. The sacredness of duty within the bounds of life.—Day and night in relation to the life of duty; 1. Within, day; 2. without, night.—The order of the antithesis between day and night, an image of the antithesis between life-time and death. (Now—work, then—rest).—The inverters of this order, who pass their time in idleness now, shall then incur fearful pains.—Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. How this is applicable to every departed believer: our friend sleeps.—This also is true: the Awakener is already on the way.—The misunderstanding of the disciples.—“Let us go!” Or the same words in their two-fold meaning: 1. In the mouth of Christ; 2. in the mouth of Thomas.—The three expressions of doubt proceeding from Thomas and the victory of his faith. A. The expressions of doubt: 1. A doubt as to the victory of life; 2. a doubt as to the way to heaven (chap. 14); 3. a doubt as to the certainty of the resurrection (chap. 20). B. The victory of his faith. 1. Prepared by his ardent love to Jesus and to the brethren (chap. 11); 2. introduced by his longing desire for a higher disclosure (chap. 14); 3. decided by his joy at the manifestation of the Risen One (chap. 20.)

Starke: Majus: In distress and misery we should dispatch sighs and tears as our messengers to Christ, and remind Him of our covenant that we have made with Him.—Zeisius: Not to the physician of the body, as is the general custom, but to Christ, the omnipotent Physician of soul and body should the sick first of all resort. Psalms 133:1.—Cramer: We pray well when we ground our petitions on the love of Christ, that is, on His love to us, not on ours to Him.—Hedinger: To be sick and to be a dear child of God go well together.—When we pray, we must not limit the Lord in respect to time and method.—Quesnel: God’s manner of regarding sickness and prayer for the sick often differs materially from that of praying relatives and friends. He is concerned for His honor and the eternal salvation of the sufferer, Romans 8:28; Philippians 1:20.—Hedinger: Help is oftentimes delayed, only that deliverance may be all the more glorious:—Quesnel: God sometimes denies us a small favor, that He may show us a greater one.—There is no believer who is not at times forced to cry out: O Lord, how long! Psalms 13:0; Matthew 27:46.—Majus: Jesus does not forget His own, although it sometimes seems as if He did; before they are aware, He is with them.—When God calls a man to venture something, he must shun no danger.—They who seek to escape the cross are never at a loss for excuses.—Hedinger: Death a sleep, Isaiah 26:19; Isaiah 57:2.—The ways of the Lord, which apparently militate against faith, must often serve to strengthen it.—Ibid.: It is well, if thou be ready to go with Christ unto death.

Braune: In no narrative is the Lord’s fulness of love more clearly and richly revealed, and nowhere is the heart of the Redeemer more fully unveiled to us.

John 11:4. Honor, therefore, the Christian, and ye honor God; the two things are inseparably connected.

John 11:14. Jesus rejoiced when men wept; He may likewise be angry, when men are glad.

Gerlach: The dead man was not a stranger to Him, like the young man of Nain and the daughter of Jairus (although it is a question, whether these were essentially strangers to Him), but he believed on Him.—In all such cases Jesus proceeds in precisely the same manner as divine Providence, which generally affords relief in the most wonderful ways only when the utmost need is reached. Thus, forsooth, dares no human helper act, who holds not the issues in his power.—When God carries the torch before us and bids us follow, we may courageously advance, even though menaced on all sides by death.

Gossner: The Church of Jesus resembles this house, where Jesus stopped. It has Marys, clinging with ardent devotion to the Lord; it has Marthas, active and fruitful in good works; it has Lazaruses, sick or even dead (better: it has suffering and dying members), but who are healed and raised up by the word of Jesus.—Love and a cross; man cannot make the two rhyme, but it is thus that God always rhymes. Heubner: We can distinguish a three fold love in Jesus: 1. Towards all men; 2. towards believers on Him; 3. towards individuals; a peculiar friendship for them, as here for this family, and for John.—Happy the household, the hearts of whose members love to Jesus unites.—One of the three was sick; the others suffer with him.—The sickness of loved ones is a means of strengthening and intensifying the bonds of love.—“Lazarus, by his weakness and death, assists in the accomplishment of a greater and more glorious work than if he had personally preached in all the world.” (Sutellius.)—Before God all the discord of suffering humanity is already melted into harmony.—Habet Dominus suas horas et moras.—As sleep is the withdrawal of life inwards, for the gathering of new strength, so likewise is death, etc.

Schleiermacher: But two houses are mentioned in which Jesus was peculiarly at home; one was the house of Peter (Matthew 8:14), when He began to dwell at Capernaum and as often as He abode there afterwards; the other is the house of Lazarus and his sisters at Bethany, in the vicinity of Jerusalem. (The third is doubtless the country-house of Gethsemane, the fourth the house in Jerusalem, where He kept the Passover; but a veil hangs over the respective families.)—We may be right in believing that He would not leave this region (Peræa) so suddenly, without saying farewell to those that believed on Him, leaving with them yet other sound words of doctrine and establishing more firmly their faith and love;—all this He must do before He could depart thence with a good conscience and tranquil heart.—From the raising of Lazarus they were to derive the hope that the promise, so frequently heard by them and so deeply graven on their hearts, should in like manner be fulfilled in the case of the Lord.

Schröder: The brother and sisters of Bethany; Lazarus, Martha, Mary. Was it not, perhaps, a step-ladder of spiritual life? Well, if we take Lazarus for the beginning, Martha may be our point of transit, but Mary ever our aim and end.

John 11:3-5. The love of the Lord a tabernacle of God among men. The outer court (John 11:3), the Holy Place (John 11:4), the Holy of Holies (John 11:5).

John 11:6-10. The way of Jesus: He acts in darkness, He walks in light.

John 11:11-13. The death of His friends a sleep. They fall asleep, they rest, they awake.

[Craven: From Augustine: John 11:4. This death , itself was not unto death, but to give occasion for a miracle; whereby men might be brought to believe in Christ, and so escape eternal death.

John 11:11-14. To our Lord, he was sleeping; to men, who could not raise him again, he was dead.—From Chrysostom: John 11:3. They sent, not went, partly—1. from their great faith in Him; 2. because their sorrow kept them at home.

John 11:5. We are instructed not to be sad if sickness falls upon good men, and friends of God.

John 11:9-10. The upright need fear no evil, the wicked only have cause for fear: Or, If any one seeth this world’s light, he is safe; much, more he who is with Me.—From Theophylact: John 11:15. I am glad for your sakes, for—1. had I been there I should have only cured a sick man; but 2. having been absent, I shall now raise a dead man.—From Brentius: John 11:3. The message is like all true prayer; it does not consist in much speaking and fine sentences.—From Lavater: John 11:6. Jesus proposed to help them in His own way, that is as God.—From M. Henry: John 11:2. Extraordinary acts of piety, will not only find acceptance with Christ, but will gain reputation in the church, Matthew 26:13.

John 11:3. His sisters sent unto Him; though God knows all our wants, He would know them from us, and is honored by our laying them before Him.—He whom Thou lovest—not, he who loveth Thee; our greatest encouragements in prayer are fetched from God Himself, and from His grace.—Note 1. there are some followers of Jesus for whom He hath a special kindness, John 13:23; John 2:0. it is no new thing for those whom Christ loves to be sick; 3. it is a great comfort (blessing) when we are sick, to have those about us who will pray for us; 4. we have great encouragement in our prayers for the sick, if we have reason to believe that they are such as Christ loves.

John 11:4. The afflictions of saints are designed for the glory of God; The Son of God is glorified thereby, as His wisdom, power and goodness are glorified—1. in supporting the sufferers; 2. in relieving them; (3. in ordering their sorrows for their welfare. E. R. C.)

John 11:6. It is not said, He loved them, and yet He lingered; but, He loved them and therefore He lingered: He lovingly delayed—1. that He might try the sisters, and through trial, bless; 2. that He might have opportunity for doing more for Lazarus (and his sisters) than for any others.—God hath gracious intentions even in seeming delays, Isaiah 49:13-14; Isaiah 54:7-8.

John 11:7. When Christ knew they were brought to the last extremity (John 11:14) He said—Let us go into Judea; Christ will arise in favor of His people when the set time is come, and the worst time is commonly the set time—man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.—Let us go; Christ never brings His people into any peril without accompanying them in it.

John 11:7-8. Christ’s gracious purpose of revisiting persecuting Judea, and the wonder of the disciples thereat; His ways in passing by offences, are above our ways.

John 11:9-10. Christ shows—1. the comfort and satisfaction of walking in the path of duty; 2. the pain and peril of not walking in this path.—Christ ever walked in the day; and so shall we, if we follow His steps.

John 11:11. Our friend Lazarus sleepeth: see here how Christ calls—1. a believer, friend; 2. a believer’s death, sleep.—Note 1. there is a covenant of friendship between Christ and believers; 2. those whom Christ owns as His friends, all His disciples should take as theirs [our friend); 3. death does not break the bond of friendship.—A Christian when he dies does but sleep; he—1. rests from the labors of the day past; 2. is being refreshed for the next morning.

John 11:13. How carefully the evangelist corrects the mistake of the disciples; those who speak in an unknown tongue, or use similitudes, should learn to explain themselves.

John 11:14. Christ takes cognizance of the death of His saints, for it is precious in His sight, Psalms 116:15.

John 11:15. Let us go unto him—not, unto his sisters; death, which separates from all other friends, cannot separate us from Christ.

John 11:16. Let us go that we may die with Him, i. e. with Christ (?); Thomas here—1. recognizes the danger of following Christ; 2. expresses a gracious readiness to die with Him; 3. manifests a zealous desire to bring his fellow disciples to a similar readiness.—From Burkitt: John 11:4. God is glorified when His Son is glorified.

John 11:9-10. Learn—1. Every man has his working time assigned him by God in this world; 2. whilst this time is unexpired he shall not be disabled (for the performance of the work given him.—E. R. C.). he shall not die; 3. every man has his night in which he must expect to stumble, i.e. to die.

John 11:15. To the intent ye may believe; the faith of the strongest—1. needs confirmation; 2. is capable of increase.—From Scott: John 11:1-5. Those families in which love and peace abound are highly favored; but they whom Jesus loves and by whom He is beloved, are most happy.

John 11:1. Jesus did not come to preserve His people from affliction; but—1. to save them from sin and the wrath to come; 2. to convert sorrows and temporal death into means of completing that salvation.

John 11:1-6. We cannot judge of Christ’s love to us by outward dispensations.—From Alford: John 11:4. The glorifying of the Son of God in Lazarus himself is subordinately implied; men are not mere tools, but temples, of God.—From Stier: John 11:4. The indefinite answer of Jesus—1. includes a consolation which dispels the fear of death as to the issue; but 2. leaves “this sickness” to itself, to run its appointed course.—The resurrection of Lazarus, the comprehensive concluding symbol of all the miracles exhibiting the glory of God in Christ.—From Barnes: John 11:3-5. Whom Thou lovest; this shows that—1. peculiar attachments are lawful to Christians; 2. those friendships are peculiarly lovely which are tempered and sweetened with the spirit of Christ.

John 11:11-14. The word sleep is applied to death—1.because of the resemblance between them; 2. to intimate that death will not be final.—From Williams: John 11:15. Instead of raising up Lazarus from sickness, as they whom He loved had desired, they are all by this miracle to be raised up, together with Lazarus, unto the life of Faith, which will never die.—From A Plain Commentary (Oxford): John 11:6. “To faithful suppliants there is no better sign than for their prayers not to be soon answered, for it is a pledge of greater good in store.”—From Ryle: It was meet that the victory of Bethany should closely precede the crucifixion at Calvary.

John 11:1. How much in life hinges upon little events, and especially on illness; sickness is one of God’s great ordinances.

John 11:2. The good deeds of all saints are recorded in God’s book of remembrance.

John 11:3. The humble and respectful confidence of the message.

John 11:5. Jesus loves all who have grace, though their temperaments differ—Marthas as well as Marys.

John 11:6. Christ knows best when to do anything for His people.—The pain of a few was permitted for the benefit of the whole Church.

John 11:8. How strange and unwise our Lord’s plans sometimes appear to His short-sighted people.

John 11:15. are not Jesus does not say, I am glad Lazarus is dead; but, l am glad I was not there: we may not rejoice in the death of Christians, but we may rejoice in the circumstances attending their deaths, and the glory redounding to Christ and the benefit accruing to saints from them.

John 11:16. The despondency of Thomas; a man may have notable weaknesses of Christian character, and yet be a disciple of Christ.—From Owen: John 11:10. Spiritual light is as necessary to the spiritual traveler, as the natural sun is to one who walks on the earth.]

Footnotes:

John 11:12; John 11:12.—Lachmann αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταί in accordance with Codd. D. K.; Tischendorf simply αὐτῷ in accordance with Cod. A. etc.; according to Meyer, the latter might he the original reading. [In ed. viii. Tischend. reads, with Cod. Sin.: εἶπον οὖν αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταί. (Cod. Sin. εἶπαν). So also Westcott and Hort. Alford brackets οἱ μαθηταί, but retains αὐτῷ.—P. S.]

John 11:12; John 11:12.—[Lange inserts the gloss: without our making a perilous journey thither.—P. S.]

John 11:13; John 11:13.—[Or “of the taking of rest in sleep,” or “of taking rest in sleep.”—P. S.]

[4][“I have been assured that he would say to his friends: If he could have convinced himself of the resurrection of Lazarus, he would have dashed to pieces his entire system [of pantheism] and embraced without repugnance the common faith of Christians.” This is sound reasoning. If Christ could raise the dead to life, it was an easy task for Him to heal the sick, and to command the powers of nature, and He must have been truly the Son of God. This miracle was a fulfilment of what He said concerning His person as the Fountain of life, and a prophecy of His resurrection. It contains, as then for the family of Lazarus, the disciples and friends of Jesus, so now and for all time, the most solid comfort, and effectually disperses the gloom and terror of the grave.—P. S.]

[5][According to tradition (Epiph. Hær. 66) Lazarus lived thirty years after his resurrection and died sixty years old. But the Gospels were probably written after the year 60. Epiphanius, Grotius, Herder, Olshausen, Bäumlein, Godet and Wordsworth agree with Lange in explaining the silence of the Synoptists from a prudential regard to the surviving family of Lazarus, but Meyer (ed. 5th, p. 439) and Alford (Proleg., p. 15) reject this supposition, because such concealment was alien from the spirit and character of the Evangelists, and because the Gospels and Epistles were at first not published to the world at large, but to believing communities. Meyer explains the omission from the plan of the Synoptists who confined themselves to the Galilean activity of Jesus till His solemn entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:0 and parallels), while John, omitting the Galilean miracles of the raising of the daughter of Jairus and the widow’s son from the dead, describes the resurrection miracle which took place in Judea.—P. S.]

[6][Cyril remarks that the resurrection of Lazarus furnishes the true explanation of the plaudits and hosannas of our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem as described by the Synoptists.—P. S.]

[7][Stanley (Sinai and Pal. p. 144) agrees with this last derivation, but admits that even then the palm tree was probably rarely found on the high land in Palestine. The olive and fig now only remain. Arnold (art. Bethania in Herzog’s Encycl., II. p. 116) derives tho name from the Chaldee or Aramæan בֵּית עַנְיָא, domus miseri, House of the afflicted (comp. Buxt. Lex. Chald. col. 631 sq.). Origen and Theophylact call it οἶκος ὑπακοῆς, as if related to עָנָה, respondit, exaudivit, i.e., where the prayer of the needy is heard and answered.—P. S.]

[8]With respect to the Bethany of the present day, see Notes on Matt., John 21:0; Art. B. in Winer [Smith, Kitto and others], the books of Eastern travel; the legends on Lazarus see in Thilo, Cod. Apocr., p. 711; Fabric. Cod. Apocr., III, p. 415. On the name of Lazarus see Com. on Luke 16:20 [p. 254, Am. Ed., also art. Lazarus in Smith’s Dict.—P. S.]

[9] [The Roman tradition (since Tertullian, De pudic. 11), contrary to its usual habit of multiplying scriptural personalities, identifies Mary of Bethany with Mary of Magdala and the unnamed sinful woman who anointed the Saviour’s feet (Luke 7:37 ff.), although Irenæus, Origen and Chrysostom clearly distinguish them. To account for the difference of locality, it was arbitrarily assumed that Mary of Bethany in Judea had a country-seat at Magdala in Galilee. But the anointing recorded by Luke (7), differs as to time, place and character from the anointing in Bethany (Matthew 26:0; Mark 14:0; John 12:0). The superstitious Pope Gregory I. gave his sanction to this hypothesis of the identity of the three Marys, so that it even passed into the service of the Roman Breviary for July 22d and several mediæval hymns, e.g., one de S. Maria Magdalena (in Daniel’s Thesaurus hymnol. tom. I. p. 221):

“Lauda, mater ecclesia,

Lauda Christi clementiam,

Qui septem purgat vitiaPer septiformem gratiam.

“Maria, soror Lazari,

Quæ tot commisit crimina,

Ab ipsa fauce tartariRedit ad vitæ limina,” etc.

Comp. other hymns on Mary Magdalene in Mone, Lat. Hymnen des Mittelalters, vol. II. pp. 415–425. On all points of exegesis and criticism the Romish traditions are worth very little or nothing at all.—P. S.]

[10][Martha represents the active, practical, Mary the contemplative, passive, type of piety. They are related to each other as Peter and John among the apostles. Romish asceticism has perverted Mary into a nun and abused the eulogy of the Lord, Luke 10:42 (“Mary hath chosen the good part”) for an overestimate of monastic seclusion from the world and its daily duties.—P. S.]

[11][Alford: “It need hardly be remarked, with Olshausen and Trench, that the glorifying of the Son of God in Lazarus himself is subordinately implied. Men are not mere tools, but temples of God.” Comp. John 11:15, that ye may believe.—P. S.]

[12][Luthardt, Godet and Gumlich discover the same design in πάλιν. But it corresponds rather to the πάλιν πέραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου in John 10:40.—P. S.]

[13][νῦν with the imperfect ἐζήτουν refers to the recent past as being still present, 10:31. Kühner II. p. 385.—P. S.]

[14][Alford thinks that the twelve-hour division was probably borrowed from Babylon, and refutes the view of Townson and others, that John adopts the so-called Asiatic method of reckoning time: see on John 1:40; John 4:6.—P. S.]

[15][So also Gumlich and Godet.—P. S.]

[16][Hengstenberg fancies that Christ gave Thomas this name to designate his double nature and vacillation between unbelief and faith, and refers for this to Genesis 25:23 f.! Christ did not thus brand His disciples; the names He gave (to Peter and the sons of Zebedee) were names of honor.—P. S.]