John 12:17 - Exposition

The multitude therefore which was with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, were bearing witness. The seventeenth verse goes back to the ( ὄχλος ) multitude who are mentioned in John 11:42 ; i.e. to the friends of Mary and Martha and to other inhabitants of Bethany, as well as visitors from Jerusalem ( John 11:31 ). All these are involved in the explicit declaration, ὁ ὤν μετ αὐτοῦ . Which was with him when £ he called Lazarus out of his grave, and (not only so, but) raised him from among the dead . Those who had actually beheld the miracle, and were as eye and ear witnesses of the event, who had hovered about Bethany since his return to it,—these were bearing witness . They spread themselves abroad in the crowd of Galilaean pilgrims and others, and were uttering their testimony on all sides. The word is used absolutely, as in John 19:35 , and the imperfect tense should not be turned here into a mere preterit.