B. The raising of Lazarus. The trial and victory of faith at the open grave. The heart of Jesus. The glory of the God of Israel and the glory of Jesus united in a glorious work, for a sign for the Jews from Jerusalem

(JOHN 11:17–44)

17Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain [been] in the grave four days already.17 18Now Bethany was nigh unto [near] Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs 19off: And [But]18 many of the Jews came [had come, ἐληλύθεισαν] to Martha and Mary,19 to comfort them concerning their brother [the brother, π. τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ].20 20Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him [when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him]: but Mary sat still 21[omit still] in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.21 22But I know, that even now [And even now I know that]22 whatsoever thou wilt [mayest] ask of God, God will give it 23thee [will give to thee]. Jesus saith to her, Thy brother shall [will] rise again. 24Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall [will] rise again in the resurrection 25[of all] at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead [should die], yet shall he [he will] 26live: And whosoever [every one that] liveth and believeth in me shall never die 27[lit: will not die for ever, οὐ μὴ ἀποθάνῃ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα]. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe [have believed, become a believer]23 that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come [who cometh] into the world. 28And when she had so said [having said this] she went her way [away] and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come [is here, πάρεστι], and calleth for (omit for] thee. 29As soon as she heard that [it], she arose quickly, and came24 unto him. 30Now Jesus was [had] not yet come into the town, but was [still] in that 31[the] place where Martha [had] met him. The Jews then [therefore] which [who] were with her in the house, and comforted [were comforting, παραμυθούμενοι] her, when they saw Mary, that she [saw that Mary] rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave [thinking25 that she was going to the tomb] to weep there. 32Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him [Mary therefore, when she came … seeing him, or, as soon as she saw him], she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died [comp. John 11:21, 22]. 33When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which [who] came with her, he groaned [ἐνεβριμήσατο, was deeply and indignantly moved, stirred up26] in the [his] spirit, and was troubled [troubled himself, ἐτάραξεν ἑαυτόν], 34And said, Where have ye laid him? They say unto him, Lord, come and see.

35Jesus wept.

36, 37Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! And [But] some of them said, Could not this man, which [he who] opened the eyes of the blind [man, τοῦ τυφλοῦ, 38see chap. 9] have caused that even this man should not have died [die]? Jesus therefore again groaning in [deeply moved within] himself cometh to the grave 39[tomb]. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it [against it]. Jesus. said [saith] Take ye [omit ye] away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead,27 saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh:28 for he hath been dead four days 40[he hath his four days]. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not [Did I not say] unto thee, that, if thou wouldest [omit wouldest] believe, thou shouldest [shall] see the glory of God?

41Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid [omit from the place where the dead was laid].29 And Jesus lifted up his [the] eyes [to heaven, 42or upward, ἄνω] and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And [Yet] I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people [for the sake of the multitude] which stand by [around] I said it, that they may [might] believe that thou hast sent [didst send] me. 43And when he thus had [had thus] spoken, he cried [out] with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

44And he that was dead [the dead man] came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

John 11:17. Four days already.—Jesus comes into the vicinity of the place and learns that Lazarus has already been buried four days. The journey from Peræa to Bethany is estimated at ten hours,—a day’s. journey. One day, therefore, is consumed by His journey, two days by His stay in Peræa after the receipt of the message, and still another day by the journey of the messenger. Hence it results that Lazarus, who, in conformity to the Jewish custom, was buried on the day of his death, died shortly after the departure of the messenger, or while he was preparing to depart. The first and last days enter into the computation as parts of days. And so, when Lazarus died, his sisters must have known, with perfect certainty, that their messenger had not yet reached the Lord, or, at all events, that Jesus could not so soon be with them. They could not, therefore, with the feeling common to humanity, attribute the death of Lazarus to any delay on the part of Jesus; on the contrary, it is far more probable that they reproached themselves with delay in despatching the messenger. But this very trait, like their timid message, finds its explanation in the condition of affairs; they were well aware of the peril involved in His coming. Be it also observed that plain-spoken Martha says: “If Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died,”—and not: “if Thou hadst come sooner.”

John 11:18. About fifteen furlongs (stadia) off [ὡς ἀπὸ σταδίων δεκαπέντε].—A stadium (ατάδιος and in the classics also στάδιον) a distance of 125 paces. The fifteen stadia about three-quarters of an hour [about two miles]. Ancient construction (Tholuck): Trajection of the preposition ἀπό, which relates to Jerusalem. In opposition to this, Winer, [p. 518]: The ἀπό designates the locality beyond the fifteen stadia, and is to be considered as referring to the stadia. The latter construction seems far-fetched.30 The short distance is mentioned in order to account for the presence in Bethany of so many Jews from Jerusalem. The use of the preterite (Bethany was) is to be explained by its connection with the historical narrative.

John 11:19. Many of the Jews,—i.e. not necessarily members of the Sanhedrin (John 11:46), but people of Pharisaic or Judaistic views. Possibly they wished to regain this family in the absence of Jesus, whose friendship for them may have been known. However, many of the kindred of the family may have been among these Jews and we have no grounds for representing all who came to condole with them as miserable comforters.

To Martha and Mary. Πρὸς τὰς περί M. κ. M. Properly, to the two sisters, with the persons about them. According to later Greek usage it might be indicative simply of the two sisters. “But the New Testament contains no instance of its use in this sense and there is here an especial decorum in the expression, since those who came to them were men. It reveals, moreover, an establishment of the better class.” (Meyer).31 But the more obvious and definite allusion is, probably, to the company of mourners and wailing women.

To comfort them.—The conventional condolences and consolations lasted seven days, according to 1 Sam. 31:13; 1 Chron. 10:12; Maimonides, De luctu, cap. xiii.; Lightfoot [pp. 107 sqq.], and others.

John 11:20. Then Martha, when she heard, etc.—She appears as mistress of the house and receives the message. She goes without delay to meet the Lord and does not first communicate the sews to Mary; John 11:28 also leads us to suppose that such was the case (Meyer in opposition to Tholuck).—But Mary sat in the (interior of the) house; “because, according to Geier, De luctu Hebr. [pp. 210 sqq.] and others, it was the custom to be seated in receiving condolences,” or “sitting was a part of the mourning rite with the Greeks and Hebrews.” But certainly not for this reason alone. The different conduct of the two sisters in our Gospel is in perfect accordance with the characters in Luke 10:38–42. [This agreement between two Gospels so widely different is no small proof of the historical character of the two sisters. Both loved our Lord, but Martha was more active, practical, demonstrative; Mary contemplative, pensive and quiet, but moved in the deep. Martha as soon as she hears of the Lord’s approach, hastens to Him. Mary does the same afterwards (John 11:29), but speaks less and feels more. We have a precise analogy in the difference between Peter and John.—P. S.]

John 11:21. Lord, if Thou hadst been here [εἰἦςὦδε, not the language of reproach, but of regret].—Meyer translates: If Thou wert here,—not abiding in distant Peræa. That would mean: if this were Thy constant place of abode. This would convey an excellent sense if Bethany had ever bean the permanent dwelling-place of Christ; this, however, was not the case.—My brother would not have died.—Strongly expressed: ἐτεθνήκει. [On the different readings see TEXT. NOTE 5.—P. S.]

John 11:22. And even now [καὶ νῦν without ἀλλά] I know that etc.—She still retains this assurance. She gives strong expression to her confidence: 1. Whatever Thou mayest ask God, 2. God will give it to Thee—in the original, the“give” [δώσει σοι] takes precedence of the rest—; 3. the name of God twice mentioned. Certainly an indirect expression of the boldest hope, to which she dares not verbally give utterance—a hope, namely, of the raising of the dead man. The sisters at Bethany were acquainted with the raising of the daughter of Jairus and of the youth at Nain. Martha also remembered the promise (John 11:4) contained in the message of Jesus (Tholuck, Meyer). Hence not simply: if Thou wilt implore consolation (Rosenmüller), or: that Lazarus may not be cast away (Euthymius), or only an assurance: nevertheless, I consider Thee a favorite of God (Paulus). We must not, however, convert this indefinite and sifting expression into a confident expectation of the raising of the dead man,—as results also from the words: whatever Thou mayest ask.

[This is the only place where αἰτεῖσθαι is used of Jesus as praying to God, instead of ἐρωτᾶν, παρακαλεῖν, προσεύχεσθαι, δει̇σθαι, comp. Luke 22:32; John 14:16; 16:26; 17:9, 15, 20. Bengel calls αἰτεῖσθαι, verbum minus dignum; it is certainly more human and implies a state of dependence and need. It is, however, as Meyer remarks, in keeping with the deep excitement of Martha and her as yet imperfect knowledge of the superhuman relation of Christ to the Father.—P. S.]

John 11:23. Thy brother will rise again.—A grand promise, though corresponding with the indefinite hope in being indefinitely worded; not: I will now raise him up. She might understand Him as referring to the general future resurrection. And besides, specific faith in the raising of the dead must issue from a general faith in their resurrection. It was an ambiguous expression, designed for the trial and development of her faith.32

John 11:24. I know that he will rise again, etc.—Her meaning is obvious: I acquiesce in that, but I hope for something more. Her words are expressive not merely of a sad resignation, but of an indirect query—she is feeling her way (De Wette).

John 11:25, 26. I am the resurrection.—[This is evidently the central idea of this chapter: Christ the Resurrection of the dead, and the Life of the living. The following miracle is the practical proof of what He is in His own person and a pledge of what He will do on the last day. To Himself (ἐγώ), therefore, He first directs the weak faith of Martha; from the future resurrection and the dead brother she was to look to the present (εἰμί), ever-living and life-giving Saviour. The general resurrection of the dead is only a manifestation of the moral power of the person that stood before her. What sublimity and what comfort in this testimony of Christ concerning Himself! Who can measure the effect which it produces from day to day in countless chambers of mourning and before open graves all over the Christian world!—Resurrection is put first, in opposition to the present power of death which is to be overcome; Resurrection is Life itself in conflict with, and victory over, death, it is the Death of death, the triumph over decay and dissolution swallowing up mortality in life. (Luther has forcibly described the marvellous duel between Life and Death on the cross, in an Easter hymn, where the passage occurs: “Wie ein Tod den andern frass; Ein Spott aus dem Tod ist worden.”) Life comprehends spiritual as well as physical life, life eternal of body and soul. Christ is the Victor of death and the grave, because He is the Prince of life in this absolute sense. In the words following the first clause is an explanation and application of the term Resurrection, the second of the term Life. I am the Resurrection: he that believeth in Me, though he have died, will live (will be raised up again). I am the Life: whoever liveth and believeth in Me will never die (will live forever in unbroken life-union with Me, the Prince of life).—P. S.]

I [and no other], i.e., the future resurrection is not an impersonal fate that is to take place at some future time, but a personal effect proceeding from Me who am present with you. It is even now present and active in Me.—And the life.—Life in the absolute sense, in its power to awaken spirit and body. Hence, as well the principle of resurrection (Hunnius, Luthardt), as its essence and result (Meyer). As the vital principle of the resurrection, He exerts a purely quickening influence, which branches into two forms: a. He who believes on Him, if he have died [ἀποθάνῃ, past], shall live, shall continue to live, shall rise again; b. he who is still living, who through belief on Him becomes truly alive, shall never die, i.e. shall not become a prey to death and the sense of mortality.33 The life of Christ is the author of the resurrection in a two-fold sense; it is the root of the waking of the physically dead, because it is the power which effects the moral awakening,—the power which rouses into spiritual life. They that live in Him shall not die; and the dead are not dead, but live again. In both cases, undoubtedly, the saying has reference to the same believer; the two propositions do not resolve themselves, as ancient commentators declare, into the parallel: “for dead believers I am the resurrection, for living ones the remedium mortis.” It is true, however, that the two propositions indicate, after Euthymius and others, the two-fold point of view; whether one be already dead (Lazarus) or still living (Martha, Mary). In both cases, the spirituo-physical or whole life-agency of Christ is meant. The dead rise spiritually and corporeally to the new life of the resurrection. The living are not swallowed up in the death of the world either spiritually or bodily (inasmuch as they transport with them the germ or the concrete body of the resurrection).

Therefore we are not to attach a merely spiritual meaning to the two propositions, just because Jesus is speaking of faith,—as, for instance: he that believeth on Me shall rise again spiritually, and he that hath received life shall retain it for ever; which would, implicite, involve the idea of the resurrection (Calvin). Neither is the first sentence to be referred to the resurrection of the body and the second to that of the spirit (Lampe, Olshausen, Stier). Comp. John 6:51; 8:56.34

Believest thou this?—Christ had said: Every one that liveth and believeth, and had thus laid down a general rule. Now comes the application of it to her. If she believes this, she believes on Him.

John 11:27. I have believed that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God.—It is apparent that Martha does not thoroughly comprehend the grand thoughts in the words of the Lord; she, however, takes for granted that He is designating Himself as the Raiser of believers from the dead, and perceives that this is involved in a belief on the Messiah. She therefore utters a joyful confession of her faith in Him,—Ἐγὼ πεπίστευκα, with emphasis. She does not believe this now for the first time; she has already become a believer, being convinced a. that He is the Christ, b. as the Christ the Son of God; she believes in the full sense of the term, not simply in accordance with the theocratic idea of belief (Meyer), although she has not yet attained to a developed Johannean knowledge; c. that cometh [ὁ ἐρχόμενος] into the world (Present), that is: Who is even now continually engaged in the unfolding of His Messianic glory and work. Observe the truthfulness of Martha, which will not permit her to repeat Christ’s expressions word for word, but moulds her confession into conformity with the measure of her faith. And yet this is enough. Confessions differing in outward form or expression may agree internally and in substance.

John 11:28. And when she had so said, she went away.—Martha knows enough for the moment. With womanly instinct (such as especially belongs to her practical nature) she does not enter upon a deeper investigation of the great thoughts of Jesus; sufficient for her is the practical thought, that He meets her boldest hopes with the assurance that the resurrection is not merely a distant resurrection-time, but rather a present resurrection power resident in His person.

And called Mary, her sister, secretly.35—On account of the Jews who were present. It appears that Mary was still sitting in the interior of the house, surrounded by the Jews. Therefore Martha called her secretly,—λαθρά, a word, no doubt, indicative of a whisper: therefore she simply said: the Master is here—which Mary well understood; and therefore: He calleth thee. She was to go out to Him. The prudence of Jesus, who remained standing outside, is met by the prudence of Martha; common fear, however, is not to be attributed to either. He must remove His disciples from the influence of the Jews; and they, by going out to Him, must make confession of their faith in Him. It was, moreover, the rule of the Lord to avoid making a parade of His miracles, though He did, on this occasion, finally welcome the eventual notice of the Jews. Remarkable consonance of human prudence and divine assurance. We must not suppose that Martha simply gathered the mandate: He calleth thee, from the expectations that Jesus excited in her own breast (Chrysostom, Tholuck [Brückner, Stier]); she tells of a behest of Jesus (Lücke, Meyer).36

John 11:29. As soon as she heard that.—Mary, as the more important personality, now steps into the fore-ground, although Martha, as we see from John 11:39, again makes one of the group.

John 11:30. Now Jesus was not yet, etc.—See note to John 11:28. Jesus might have been assured from the circumstances of the case, that there were Jews in the house of mourning; it was needless for Martha to apprise Him (after Meyer) of the fact.

John 11:31. The Jews… followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there.—It was a custom much practised among the Jews and Greeks, to sit down and mourn by the graves of their dead (Wetstein, on this passage; Geier, De luctu Hebr.). They therefore went with her, doubtless regarding the scene of mourning which they expected to witness, as a ceremony that had to be performed in compliance with Oriental custom. Even in these points the false way of the ancient world, which gratified its feelings by a common lamentation over the dead, stands contrasted with the truth of life, which demands, solitude for its grief. Of course the too great isolation of mourners is to be guarded against as much as the other extreme.

John 11:32. Mary… fell down at His feet.—The first stroke of character which distinguishes her from Martha. The second is, that she says nothing further than: Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. While Martha added to these words: and even now I know, etc. (John 11:22), Mary bursts into tears. Martha may at first strike us as the one who possesses the greater joy in believing, but Mary is the more human and warm in her feelings, and there is more of devotion in the expression of her faith. Her kneeling posture and her tears are more eloquent than the words of Martha. The saying that both utter, constitutes a precious trait from life. They made this remark to each other over and over again at the death -bed of Lazarus: if He were here, etc. Bengel: “Ex quo colligi potest, hunc earum fuisse sermonem ante fratris obitum: utinam adesset Dominus Jesus!”

John 11:33. He was vehemently (indignantly, angrily) affected (stirred up) in (his) spirit and troubled himself [ἐνεβριμήσατο τῷ πνεύματι καὶ ἐτάραξεν ἐαυτόν.—Comp. John 11:38 ἐμβριμώμενος ἐν ἑαυτῷ, but also the weeping between, ἐδάκρυσεν, John 11:35. Note first of all the perfect participation of the Lord in our natural feelings and His sympathy with our sorrows (Heb. 2:17; 4:15), in opposition to the stoic apathy, yet at the same time His perfect control over passion and grief and its violent outbreak.—P. S.]—He was deeply perturbed inspirit. The ἐνεβριμήσατο τῷ πνεύματι (see Matt. 9:30; Mark 1:43; 14:5) makes the passage one of exceeding difficulty. The affection here depicted is explained in three ways: 1. as anger, 2. as grief, 3. as a general affection of the mind, in which there is a combination of different emotions.37

1. Of ANGER. “βριμάομαι with all its compounds has in the classics as well as in the fathers of the Church (and the Byzantines) the signification: to snort (of horses), to mutter (of Hecate), to express anger, to threaten angrily.”38 But again, anger is variously understood:

a. He was angry, in respect of His divine nature, with His human spirit (πνεῦμα) in its passionate emotion (πάθος). So Origen, Chrysostom [Cyril, Theophylact, Euthymius Zigab.], recently Merz [Alford]. This conception is doubly untenable: in the first place, it condemns the human sentiment of grief; and secondly, it creates a conflict in the consciousness of the Lord. [It is also inconsistent with the act of weeping, which follows, John 11:35, and with the parallel expression ἐν ἑαυτῷ—in Himself, John 11:38, which proves that τῷ πνεύματι cannot be the object, but must be the sphere of the emotion=in His spirit.—P. S.]39 Hilgenfeld and others fall upon the same interpretation, with a different conception of it, in imputing a gnostic Christology to this Gospel.

b. He was angry at the power of sin and death (Augustine, Erasmus and others, Luthardt).40 Not to be excluded, but too abstract by itself.

c. At the unbelief of the Jews [Erasmus, Scholten, Wordsworth], and also the sisters (Theodor of Mopsueste, Lampe [Kuinoel],Wichelhaus]). But the sisters were not unbelieving.

d. That He was unable to avert the death of Lazarus (De Wette). This would be impious and is contrary to the connection.

e. At the misconception of His enemies and the want of comprehension displayed by His friends (Brückner). There was, at the moment, no special occasion for such a feeling.

f. At the mingling of the hypocritical tears [crocodile tears] of the Jews with the true tears of Mary (Meyer). Against this, comp. John 11:45 [“Many of the Jews… believed in Him”].41

g. This description of anger has, in the interest of negative criticism, been caricatured by Strauss and others.

2. Of GRIEF. In the passages, Matt. 9:30; Mark 1:43, anger is out of the question. Tholuck: “This verb is equally comprehensive with the corresponding German ‘grimmen,’ i.e. originally, an inward convulsive emotion of anger, grief, etc. Hence Luther renders: Er ergrimmete, which he himself explains by σπλαγχνίζεται.”42 Yet Tholuck observes that the signification of grief is not supported by usage, but only by analogy.43 In favor of this view are—Nonnus, Buzer, Grotius and others, Lücke.44 Tholuck, in the early editions of his Commentary, and Ewald: an emotion of great strength, analogous to the στενάζειν τῷ πνεύματι of Jesus, Mark 7:34 (comp. Mark 8:12).45

3. A GENERAL AFFECTION of the spirit, in which different sentiments combine and alternate. 46This construction is supported: (1) by the choice of the expression, since the Evangelists are familiar with other terms for the definite emotion either of anger or of grief; (2) by the addition: τῷ πνεύματι. The nature of the spirit renders it impossible for any single psychical emotion to rule within it, the spirit is the all-embracing unity of the many-parted life of the soul.47 (3) By the psychological experience, that when the soul is in a state of intense excitement, it is seized at once by the most diverse emotions (see the quotation from Göthe’s Iphigenie: “Es wälzet sich ein Rad von Freud’ und Schmerz durch meine Seele”—“A wheel of joy and grief revolveth through my soul.”—Leben Jesu, p. 1125). (4) By the situation. The weeping of Mary could excite nought but the most heart-felt sympathy. But the tears of the better sort among the Jews were mingled with the tears of the unbelieving. A scene of human lamentation over death presented itself—sympathy in view of the power of death was aroused. Jesus had not to bar out this sympathy; still it was necessary that He should stand on His guard against it—and rouse Himself in indignation against it. Thus His emotion was converted into an ecstatic anticipation of victory. I had at first chosen the expression: Er schütterte sich—He convulsed—agitated Himself. It is significant of violent agitation. But the one upon which I finally settled seems preferable: Er regte sich tief auf, He stirred Himself up from the deep. He moved Himself in the spirit to such a degree that the disciples perceived His agitation in His bodily appearance,—hence: He convulsed Himself; He billowed up,—He surged up. A divine storm of the spirit [ein Gottesge witter des Geistes] passed through His breast, under which His human nature quaked. The fremere invariably arises out of the depths.

[It is not inconsistent with this interpretation of Dr. Lange, if we emphasize sin and death as the chief object of Christ’s mingled emotion and commotion. In this heart-rending scene of mourning: the grave of the departed friend, the broken hearts of the beloved sisters, and the tears of their sympathizers, Jesus saw a miniature photograph of the world of human suffering caused by the terrible curse of sin; all the graves and all the mourners passed in endless procession before His vision; He felt the combined misery and woe of the human family (“der Menschheit ganzer Jammer fasste Ihn an”); He was moved at once with holy indignation at sin which caused all this dreadful desolation, and with tender sympathy for the sufferers, which latter feeling found vent in tears.—And troubled (shook) himself, ἐτάραξεν ἑαυτόν. This is not quite the same with the passive form ἐταράχθη τῷ πνεύματι, which is used on a similar occasion, John 13:21, but it expresses the external manifestation of the inward commotion by a voluntary act. Hengstenberg (II. 261): “Jesus excites Himself for the energetic conflict with Death, the evil enemy of mankind.” Comp. Meyer, Luthardt, Godet, in loc. Augustine, Bengel and Wordsworth derive from the expression the inference that Christ’s affections were not passions, but voluntary emotions (voluntariæ commotiones), which He had entirely in His power, and that the emotion here spoken of was therefore orderly, rational, full of dignity and directed to proper ends.—P. S.]

John 11:34. Where have ye laid him?—Manifestly, the impulse to work the miracle is completed by what has been going on in His inner life.—Come and see.—The answerers—Martha and Mary.

John 11:35. Jesus wept [Ἐδάκρυσεν ὁ Ἰησ.].—Two little words: a whole verse, of infinite value. Significant and pertinent verse-division. On the way to the grave, Jesus weeps. After He has troubled Himself in spirit and has made good His stand against all sympathy with Jewish lamentations for the dead, He is at liberty to give Himself up to His fellow-feeling with the sisters; the tear follows His passion, as a summer rain succeeds the thunder-storm. The objection, that Jesus could not weep if He had a real presentiment of the miracle that He was about to perform, carries with it a doubt as to the compatibility of the divine and the human nature; it is also contradicted by human experience itself.48 Not only the succession of feelings, but likewise the truth and disinterestedness of feeling, are explained by a fact, in accordance with which the deepest grief may invade the mind when it is occupied with the anticipation of joy, and vice versâ; nay, more;—these opposite emotions may even succeed each other with the rapidity of lightning, like a “wheel of fire” in swift revolution. “Chrysologus supposed that Jesus wept for joy; Isodorus Pelus., because the raising of Lazarus would summon him from repose back to the unrest of life (this was the decision even of the Concilium Toletanum) etc. All these explanations of the fathers of the Church are utterly unnatural.” HEUBNER.

[This sentence is the shortest, and yet one of the most significant verses in the Bible. It stands by itself unconnected by any particle with what precedes or what follows. It describes what was seen, and intimates what was felt. Jesus knew that He would shortly raise Lazarus, but in true sympathy He opened His heart to the present grief which opened to Him a picture of the universal desolations of the king of terrors; and with a sympathizing heart, not with a heart of stone, He raised the friend to life again. He felt and acted like a man before He gave a proof of His divine power; so He slept just before He stilled the storm (Matt. 8:24). But His grief was moderate. Δακρύειν signifies a gentle weeping, the expression of a calm and tender grief; it differs from κλαίειν, the crying and wailing of the sisters and their friends, John 11:33, which implies “not only the shedding of tears, but also every external expression of grief” (Robinson, sub. κλαίω). It is remarkable that the very Gospel which most clearly reveals the divinity of Christ, notices this truly human trait of His character. As far as we are informed, Jesus wept or shed tears on three occasions: tears of tender friendship and silent grief at the grave of Lazarus (ἐδάκρυσεν); tears of bitter sorrow and loud lamentation over unbelieving Jerusalem in view of the approaching judgment, Luke 19:41 (ἔκλαυσεν); and bloody tears of agony and sacerdotal intercession in Gethsemane when He bore the burden of the sins of all mankind and wrestled with the powers of darkness, Luke 22:44 (comp. Heb. 5:7, μετὰ κραυγῆς ἰσχυρᾶς καὶ δακρύων). The eternal Son of God in tears! What a sublime contrast; what a proof of His true humanity, condescending love and tender sympathy. How near He is brought in His tears to every mourner. How far more natural, lovely and attractive is a weeping Saviour than a cold, heartless, unfeeling stoic!49 By His conduct at the grave He has sanctified tears of sympathy, provided only we sorrow not immoderately as those who have no hope (1 Thes. 4:13). His tears over Jerusalem and in Gethsemane should call forth our tears of repentance and gratitude.—P. S.]

John 11:36, 37. Behold how he loved him.—This even the Jews could see, without comprehending the full significance of His tears. It is certainly the intention of the evangelist to distinguish these kindly disposed Jews from the others who thus express themselves: Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man, etc. (John 11:37). According to Chrysostom and most of the ancients, as also Luthardt and Meyer, this speech has something of malice in it;50 according to Lücke, Tholuck and others, it is well meant. The idea of malice is supported by 1. the manifest intention to spread abroad an accusation against Jesus, to the effect that He was either unable (want of power) or unwilling (want of love) to avert this death; 2. the circumstance that their words occasion again the convulsive self-agitation of the Lord, and, so to speak, constrain Him to brace Himself anew in the spirit. 3. Here, as in John 11:46, John distinguishes the malicious Jews from those of the better sort by τινὲς δέ. [“John seldom uses δέ as a mere copula, but generally as but, see John 11:46, 49, 51.” Alford]. Hence arises the conjecture that they, starting from the assumption of the powerlessness of Jesus in this case, are desirous to cast a shadow of doubt even upon the healing of the blind man (Meyer). Still less is it to be expected that these citizens of Jerusalem should cite the previous raisings of the dead in Galilee (Strauss) rather than the healing of the blind man, which last was an event of recent occurrence in Jerusalem, still fresh in the memory of all,—an occasion of admiration to some, and to others of Pharisaical offence.51 Their words are the cause of fresh agitation on the part of the Lord, now, however, He is stirred not only in spirit but in Himself, i.e. the emotion is felt in the soul-life also.

John 11:38. To the tomb. It was a cave.—[An indication of the comparative Wealth of Lazarus and his sisters that they had a family vault, such as is here implied. The poor were buried in common places. The large concourse of mourners from Jerusalem, and the very costly ointment with which Mary anointed the feet of our Lord (12:3), lead to the same conclusion.—P. S.] On the Israelitish graves see Com. on Matt. chap. 27.52 On the grave of Lazarus, which is said still to exist, see the books of travel (Robinson, II. p. 310).53—And a stone lay upon [or against] it.—Ἐπέκειτο may mean: upon or before, according as the grave is to be conceived of as a perpendicular vault (such were entered by means of steps), or as a horizontal one. That the tradition makes it a perpendicular sepulchre is not conclusive proof that it was so; yet the expression ἄρατε τὸν λίθον, seems also to testify in favor of a perpendicular grave. In Matt. 28:2 the term is ἀπεκύλιτε.54

John 11:39. Lord, by this time he stinketh [ἤδηὄζει].—The fearful reality of the grave, in which her brother has lain four days, disturbs the practical woman and shakes her faith. She thinks a scandal may result from the bursting forth of the odor of corruption,—especially in the presence of so many people from Jerusalem. For it follows from the reason she assigns for her remark, that she does not already perceive this odor: for he hath been dead four days. [Lit. he is now the fourth day (viz. as a dead man), τεταρταῖος quatriduanus, an adjective marking Succession of days, but used only proverbially, like δευτεραῖος, τριταῖος. δωδεκαταῖος.—P. S.]55 “It is a proverb in the Talmud and the Targum, that corruption sets in the third day after death” (Tholuck after Wetstein). As “the sister of the dead man” [ἡ ἀδελφὴ τοῦ τετελευκότος] she shudders at the thought of seeing her brother in a putrefying state, of witnessing the exposure of that countenance upon which corruption had already set its seal. We cannot, from the words of Martha, draw the inference that a previous embalming of the body by wrapping spices about it, had not taken place; the customary anointing might, however, have been deferred by the sisters, because, almost unconsciously to themselves, a spark of hope was smouldering within them, as they anxiously expected the coming of Jesus. Hence, likewise, Mary had saved the precious ointment of spikenard. There is no more foundation for the statement that at this particular moment Martha, influenced by the utterances of Jesus, John 11:23–26, had merged her hope of a special raising of Lazarus in a higher stretch of faith (Meyer), than there is ground for questioning the momentary tottering of her hope (Tholuck). This only can be said: she is so agitated by the fear lest her brother appear as a putrefying corpse, that she is unmindful for the instant of the duty of submission to the word of Christ, and delays the execution of His command.

John 11:40. Did I not tell thee?—Not only the words, John 11:25, but the whole of His sayings from John 11:4.—The glory of God appears at such time as He reveals Himself in His wonderworking might. Manifestly, therefore, they had faith in the words of Jesus as they took the stone away (41).

John 11:41. Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven.—We have already adverted to the grand aim of this form of the miraculous healing of Jesus. The Jews in Jerusalem are to see in a great sign, not only the miraculous power of Jesus but also His connection with their God in the working of this miracle. Hence the unreserved outpouring of the prayer. But the prayer is a thanksgiving: I thank thee. He is confident of being heard, and this presupposes earlier prayers.56 So that when He says: I knew that thou hearest me always, an intimation is given us of an uninterrupted life of prayer, a continual union, in prayer, of the will of Jesus with the will of the Father—a union resulting in the continual working with Him of God’s omnipotence. Thus Christ accomplishes His miracles as the God-Man; not in pure divinity, or as a super-human God, without the Father (see John 5:19, 26; 6:6), nor in simple humanity amidst sporadic entreaties.57

At the same time this saying introduces the following utterance: but because of the multitude standing around, etc.—Those who, like Baur, have inferred from these words that the prayer of Jesus is debased to a mock-prayer have failed to comprehend the grand idea of it.58 In presence of the Jews of Jerusalem, Jesus calls upon their God as His Father, and is heard.59 Thus Moses, in pursuance of God’s instructions, produces his credentials as the ambassador of the God of Israel, before his nation and before Pharaoh (Ex. 4:3 ff; John 7:9); and thus Elijah on Mount Carmel, before the priests of Baal and the backsliding people, petitions the God of Israel for the decisive sign from heaven which shall corroborate the truth of the Israelitish faith, 1 Kings 18:36 ff. For this cause, the design of this prayer is so distinctly emphasized: that they might believe that Thou didst send Me.—That prayer may not have a reflexive reference to the hearers of it, is a tenet which finds prayer only in pantheistic moods; it would, if consistently acted upon, abolish the idea of motherly, ecclesiastical, judicial prayer (the oath), of prayer offered in performing miracles and of prayer generally.

John 11:43. Lazarus, come forth!—Properly: Lazarus, hither! forth! [δεῦρο ἔξω, without a verb, huc foras! Ici, dehors! The simple grandeur, brevity and force of this resurrection call corresponds with the mighty effect, and may be compared to the sublime passage in Genesis: Let there be light! And there was light. Cyril calls it θεοπρεπὲς καὶ βασιλικὸν κέλευσμα.—P. S.] According to Origen [and Chrysostom] the moment of awakening preceded the thanksgiving of Jesus and the call merely occasioned the forthcoming of the recipient of new life. But, manifestly, the loud call with a powerful voice and majestic utterance should itself be recognized as the moment of awakening.60

John 11:44. Bound hand and foot with grave-clothes.—Since the dead man was so wrapped up, even his face being covered, there happened, according to Basilius (θαύμαζε θαῦμα ἐν θαύματι), Chrysostom and many others, Lampe, Stier, a miracle within a miracle,—namely, that Lazarus was able to go forth in spite of his wrappings.61 Others, again, have assumed that he was wrapped about after the fashion of the Egyptians, his hands and feet being bandaged separately (Olshausen, De Wette). Lücke supposes him to have been wrapped from head to foot so closely that his freedom of motion was not impeded.62 From our passage the windings certainly seem to have been partial; whether they were applied in the Egyptian style or not. Such might also have been the idea of the sisters, particularly as the ceremonies of anointing and interment had not yet been completed. But it is obvious that the miracle of new life might be carried out in a miraculous walking, similar to somnambulism. And indeed it was necessary that the forthcomer should be disencumbered of his wrappings, in order that he might move with perfect freedom,—in accordance with the words of Jesus: Loose him and let him go.—i.e. go home independent of aid. We cannot adopt the inference of Grotius; he holds that Christ did not accompany him: ne quasi in triumphum ducere videretur.

[The terms ἄφετε ὑπάγειν, as Godet observes, have a triumphant tone, like the order to the cripple: “Take up thy bed and walk” (John 5:8). Trench: “St. John here breaks off the narrative of the miracle itself, leaving us to imagine their joy, who thus beyond all expectation received back their dead from the grave; a joy, which was well nigh theirs alone, among all the mourners of all times,

‘Who to the verge have followed those they love

And on the insuperable threshold stand,

With cherished names its speechless calm reprove,

And stretch in the abyss their ungrasped hand.’

He leaves this, and passes on to show us the historic significance of this miracle in the development of the Lord’s earthly history, the permitted link which it formed in the chain of those events, which were to end, according to the determinate decree and counsel of God, in the atoning death of the Son of God upon the cross.”—P. S.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Christ the Resurrection and the Life, the principle of the future resurrection:

a. The foretokens of the principle: the miracles of transformation and the histories of raisings from the dead in the Old Testament, and the raisings of the dead effected by Jesus.

b. The appearance of the principle in the revivifying life and spiritual resurrection of Christ.

c. The operations of the principle until the first resurrection and until the general resurrection.

2. Faith in Christ, the Son of God, embraces the resurrection.

3. The mysterious, holy affections in the life of the Lord. The sensational life in the spirit or the innermost and highest emotion, within which all feelings revolve;—supreme compassion for the misery of men, supreme indignation at the unbelief of the world. The Lord’s bracing of Himself against all sympathy with ungodly sorrow, while at the same time fully sympathizing with the godly sorrow of men.

4. THE RAISING OF LAZARUS.

Different interpretations: (1) Lazarus was apparently dead (Paulus, Ammon, Schweizer and others); (2) the account a myth (Strauss); either a misunderstanding of a conversation concerning the resurrection, held with the two women of Bethany on the occasion of the death of Lazarus (Weisse); or a remodelling of the story of the raising of the young man at Nain (Gfrörer); or a dogmatico-allegorical representation of the δόξα of Christ (Baur).63—At the grave of Lazarus modern skeptical criticism manifestly celebrates its own dissolution—every man tells a different story.

Omission of the history in the Synoptists: (1) The synoptists were not acquainted with it (Lücke and others). (2) It lay beyond the circle of their statements (Meyer). (3) It was omitted out of consideration for the family of Bethany (Herder, Schulthess, Olshausen, Lange, Leben Jesu, II. 2, p. 1133). Meyer assures us that this last explanation runs counter to the mind and spirit of that first age of Christianity (he should say rather: to the spiritual bravado of the Montanists and Circumcellians). Comp. John 12:10.

Instrumentalities of the miracle. a. The general one: Christ the resurrection and the life, the principle of raisings, quickenings, of the dead. b. The special one: Christ, now entertaining a presentiment of His own death and resurrection. It was necessary that Jerusalem and the Supreme Council should behold a sign of His glory beaming very near to them; this robbed them of all excuse c. The most special one: The faith of the sisters and of Lazarus, and the expectation of all,—especially of the dying man,—that Jesus would come and manifest His power and willingness to help; an expectation which Lazarus preserved in death, as Jesus Himself carried down to death His confidence in His own resurrection (see my Leben Jesu, II. 2, p. 327 and 1127 ff.).

The form of the miracle: A prayer for the hearing of the God of Israel, as a testimony to the Lord in the face of Jerusalem.

Its import: The crown of His raisings from the dead, the presage of His resurrection, the first flashing of His δόξα from the Mount of Olives over Jerusalem.

5. “As regards the moral application, there is no need for allegorical interpretation such as is found in Jerome, Augustine, Bourdaloue, H. Martin, etc. This allegorical interpretation is obviously without historical foundation; it is unnatural,—and to make Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, the type of a sinner utterly dead and even stinking,—is also unseemly.” HEUBNER.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The raising of Lazarus as the most glorious of the revivifying miracles of Jesus: 1. In respect of the peculiar circumstances attending it in comparison with the previous raisings of the dead; 2. in respect of its intrinsic significance, as demonstrating that Christ is the Resurrection and the Life, or as a demonstration of His glory; 3. in respect of its decisive effects.—Or: the raising of Lazarus in respect of its essential features: 1. The introductory conversation; 2. the walk to the grave; 3. the prayer of thanksgiving; 4. the awakening call; 5. the appearance of the dead man; 6. the effect of his resurrection.—The arrival of Jesus on the fourth day after the burial of Lazarus. Or: Jesus, coming as a Saviour, never comes too late.—How the banished and fugitive Jesus from Peræa and those haughty scorners of Him, the Jews from Jerusalem, meet again at the grave of Lazarus.—The different kinds of condolence on the death of a member of a family: 1. The condolence of the world in general; 2. the ceremonious condolence of Pharisees; 3. the hearty condolence of relatives and friends; 4. the heavenly condolence of Christ.—Christ waiting before the village, or the divine power of Christ in His human weakness,—the type of the Christian life.—The greatest precaution combined with the most joyful anticipation of victory.—Martha and Mary at the grave of Lazarus. Comparison of the two, 1. At their first meeting with Jesus (Luke 10:38), 2. at the second here, 3. at the third in the history of the anointing.—The saying of both: Lord, if Thou hadst been here, etc.—The if of mourners in view of the dead. If this and that had happened: 1. In what degree sinful? As an expression of grief that will not be reconciled to the dispensation of God. 2. In what degree warranted? As an expression of pain investigating the causes of the suffering. 3. In what degree salutary? As an expression of humiliation before God on account of actual neglect.—The trial of faith imposed upon Martha.—The deliverance of Martha from petty household cares by means of the deep distress and mighty aid.—Christ the Resurrection and the Life: 1. What this means: a. the Life unto resurrection; b. the Resurrection unto life: 2. What this signifies to believers: a. to the dead; b. to the living.—Believest thou this?—The confession of Martha in reply to the question of Christ touching her faith.—How Martha here already subordinates herself to Mary, whom she before desired to tutor (she takes a still more subordinate position in the history of the anointing,—serving silently).—“The Master is here:” 1. The Master is here 2. and calleth thee.—The presageful visit to the grave, prelusive to the most presageful visit to the grave of Jesus.—The weeping of Mary and the weeping of the Jews: 1. In itself; the external similarity, the internal diversity; 2. in its signification: thus voices mingle in the songs of the sanctuary, tears in our houses, different spirits in the company of Jesus.—The twice-repeated convulsion of Jesus inspirit: 1. The occasion, 2. the mood, 3. the fruit.—The sensational life of Jesus.—The heart of Jesus in its full revelation: 1. In the full revelation of its love, 2. of its holiness, 3. of its divine power.—How the Lord Himself must guard His temper before His great work.—The moving and yet so salutary sight of the grave.—Our graves.—In their relation to the grave of Christ.—The temptation of Martha.—The prayer of thanksgiving and its signification: 1. In relation to the Lord: reliance on God; 2. with reference to the Jews: a miracle in fellowship with their God, as a testimony against them and to them; 3. in relation to the mourners: the divine consecration of their human joy.—The call of Christ three ghostly words, instinct with vital power: 1. The name, 2. to Christ, 3. forth.—The voice of Christ.—The infinitely significative and comprehensive nature of the human voice.—The unique heaven-tone (the peal of love and lightning-flash of life) in the voice of Christ.—The decidedness of Christ in all His vital traits,—even in His voice.—The appearance of the living man in the garments of the grave, a type of the new life of the Christian in the old vestments of death.—What is expressed by the words: “Loose him and let him go”: 1. How the adoring amazement of the chronicler is lost in silence; 2. how Christ gives Lazarus credit for full vital strength; 3. how He diverts attention from Himself to him who has been raised up.—The three evangelical stories of Bethany.

STARKE: CANSTEIN: Jesus comes soon enough because He always brings salvation with Him, though to us He often seems to come too late.—HEDINGER: Everything is possible to the power of God: it quickens physically and spiritually those who have lain in the grave for an hour or for a thousand years,—who have sinned for a long or for a short time.—To comfort the mourning is a part of godliness.—QUESNEL: We comfort one who has lost his brother by death, and have little or no compassion for him who has lost his God.—OSIANDER: See how faith wrestles and battles with unbelief!—God is rich above all who call on Him and can do infinitely more than we ask.—BIBL. WIRT.: The greatest consolation of Christians in all kinds of misery and so in peril of death, is the resurrection of the dead, 1 Cor. 15:54; Heb. 2:14.—He who believes not on Christ is dead ere he dies.

John 11:28. Ah, how fitting it is for one friend to call the other to Christ!—It is often better to preach Christ in secret than to proclaim Him publicly.

John 11:29. HEDINGER: Love tarrieth not.

John 11:31. ZEISIUS: Those whose hearts are very heavy—and particularly those that are sorely tempted—should not be left alone.

John 11:32. CANSTEIN: A believing knowledge of Jesus worketh holy reverence toward Him and deep humility.—The misery of men moves Jesus’ pity. We too, after His example, should pity the wretched.—ZEISIUS: We may weep and lament for them that are asleep in Jesus,—but with moderation; and we may comfort ourselves, on the other hand, with the future, joyful resurrection, 1 Thes. 4:13, 18.

John 11:35. Thus He wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41) and in the garden of Gethsemane, Heb. 5:7. He first gives a sign of His true humanity and then of His divinity.

John 11:41. Ibid.: Learn here from Jesus, when thou art about anything of importance, not to enter upon it without prayer.

John 11:43. OSIANDER: A testimony to the divine majesty of Christ.

John 11:45. QUESNEL: It is good for us to visit pious people; sometimes our salvation depends thereon.—GERLACH: Jesus begins here, as He often does, with words purposely mysterious and sifting; they sound like a general consolation uttered in view of the future resurrection.—It was the grand aim of Jesus in many of His discourses to exhibit the unity of the spiritual and bodily resurrection; He therefore raised up the bodies of the dead.—The resurrection of the wicked is not a true resurrection, but the second death.—He calls the dead as He would a living man, as God calls that which is not as though it were, Rom. 4:17.

LISCO, John 11:33: The affections of believers have not the mastery over them; they are not passions.—BRAUNE: Mourning has a good name in the Old Testament; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob mourned. And Paul writes (Rom. 12:15): “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” Comp. Phil. 2:27.—From the God of all comfort cometh the gift of consolation.

John 11:27. In this belief is contained her all. Lest her defective conception should deprive her of the enjoyment of salvation.—Mary, John 11:32. Not another word,—only tears; they speak louder.—He was convulsed, etc. What a glorious glimpse of the great heart of Jesus John gives us here!—Scripture mentions eight persons who were raised from the dead: the son of the widow of Sarepta, by means of Elijah (1 Kings 17:22), the son of the Shunamitess by Elisha (2 Kings 4:35), a dead man who was cast into the grave of Elisha (2 Kings 13:21), the young man of Nain (Luke 7:15), the daughter of Jairus (Matt. 9:25), Lazarus, Tabitha by Peter (Acts 9:40), Eutychus by Paul (Acts 20:9).—GOSSNER, John 11:17. Yet He never fails to come.—No Christian dies.—It is true a child of God may outwardly suffer all manner of things,—but that is to be sick; that is not death.—Mary. She arose, not to go to the dead, but to Him who was her life.—Mary spoke in the same tone that her sister used. For it is customary for one thing to infect another. One man may discourage and dishearten another.—Another time He said on a similar occasion: Weep not! Namely, for the consolation of the widow of Nain. But here He weeps Himself. By His tears 1. He heals (hallows) ours, 2. He wipes them away.—The mighty voice of the Saviour a type of His almighty grace.

HEUBNER: The longer faith is obliged to wait, the stronger faith grows by waiting and trial,—the more glorious is the help afforded (Wichelhaus).

John 11:24. A general belief in a certain truth is indeed of no avail. This does not touch a man. It must become a faith personally applied to and personally concerning us.—“Believest thou this?” A proof-question for every one.—“The inner relationship of the heart to Jesus must remain a secret to the world, although we should freely confess Jesus” (Wichelhaus).—The Master calleth thee. It is a question of personal relationship.

John 11:29. Who may delay when Jesus calls him?—What divine strength human tears possess!

John 11:43. The voice that we now hear is the authoritative word of the Awakener of the Dead, who hath the keys of hell and of death.—Like a spirit Lazarus comes forth, that at the sight of him all may be seized with trembling and awe, as they think of the invisible world thus brought near to them.—The dead man vouchsafes no narrative to our ears. “He had nought to say in words of this earth” (Herder).—SCHLEIERMACHER: The Jews. Such sympathy in the common incidents of life as is manifested even by men who do not share our feelings in regard to the things which are most important and which we have most at heart, should not be condemned by us as devoid of sincerity.—The grief that locks itself up within itself is selfish, inasmuch as it separates a man from connection with his brethren.—That which can rise so high (to God), that which is capable of such communion with the universal fountain of life, is also removed beyond the power of death. If thou believe, thou shalt see the glory of God.

MALLET: Jesus’ wrath and tears.—Tears are not only the signs of love, interest, grief; they are also infallible signs of human impotence and weakness. Thus tears here reveal His holy love, but they conceal His might and glory.—She called the grave the place of corruption,—the Lord calls it the place of glory.—The Jews. There is a power in the rays of the sun. They wake the vital germ within the grain of corn and call a new, beautiful and manifold life into being. But the same sun-beam draws poisonous vapors out of bogs and morasses. It summons life from the one,—death from the other.

[CRAVEN: From ORIGEN: John 11:41. Then they took away the stone; Some delay had arisen; it is best to let nothing come between the commands of Jesus and doing them.—Jesus lifted up His eyes: We should pray after Christ’s pattern—lift up the eyes of our heart above present things in memory, in thought, in intention.——From HILARY: John 11:41, 42. Christ’s prayer did not benefit Himself, but our faith; He did not want help, but we want instruction.——From AUGUSTINE: John 11:22. Martha does not say, Bring my brother to life again, but I know whatsoever Thou wilt ask, God will give it Thee—i.e., what Thou wilt do is for Thy judgment and not for my presumption to determine.

John 11:25. He that believeth in Me: Faith is the life of the soul.

John 11:34. Where have ye laid him? He knew, but He asked to try the faith of His people.

John 11:35. Jesus wept: Wherefore did He weep, but to teach men to weep?

John 11:39. Take ye away the stone: Mystically, Take away the burden of the law, proclaim grace. [?]——From CHRYSOSTOM: John 11:20, 28. Martha does not take her sister with her because she would speak with Christ alone; when her hopes had been raised by Him she called Mary.

John 11:29. In her devotions to (trust in?) her Master, she had no time to think of her afflictions.

John 11:35–38. That He wept and groaned are mentioned to show the reality of His human nature.——From BEDE: John 11:32, 33. Mary did not say so much as Martha, she could not speak for weeping, (but her tears were as effective as the words of her sister.—E. R. C.)——From ALCUIN: John 11:17. Our Lord delayed for four days that the resurrection of Lazarus might be the more glorious.

John 11:25. I am the Resurrection, because I am the Life.

John 11:26. Jesus knew that she believed, but sought a confession unto salvation.

John 11:35. Jesus wept because He was the fountain of pity.

John 11:43, 44. Christ awakes, because His power it is which quickens inwardly; the disciples loose, because by the ministry they who are quickened are absolved, [?] (through the ministry they are delivered from the bondage of sin.—E. R. C.)——From THEOPHYLACT: John 11:28. The Master is come and calleth for thee: the presence of Christ in itself a call.

John 11:33–35. He groaned—wept: Jesus sometimes gave His human nature free vent, sometimes He restrained it: He acted thus—1. to prove that He is very man; 2. to teach us the due measure of joy and grief—the absence of sympathy and sorrow is brutal, the excess is womanly [better: heathenish.—P. S.]

John 11:43. He cried with a loud voice—the symbol of that trumpet which will sound at the general resurrection.—From BURKITT: John 11:21, 22–38. Faith and infirmity mixed together: faith, in Martha’s firm persuasion of Christ’s power; infirmity, in her limiting Him as to place and time.

John 11:23. Christ’s meek answer to Martha’s passionate discourse.

John 11:30. The earnestness of Christ to finish His work—He went to the grave before entering the house.

John 11:35. Jesus wept partly from compassion, partly for example—1. from compassion, (1) to humanity debased by sin to death, (2) to Lazarus whom He was about to bring back to a sinful and suffering world, ((3) to the sorrowing sisters.—E. R. C.); 2. for example, to bring tears from us—(1) at the sight of others’ woes, (2) at the graves of our friends.

John 11:39. Take ye away the stone: Our hands must do their utmost before Christ will help.

John 11:43. Our Lord did not say Lazarus, revive, as to one dead; but Come forth, teaching us that they are alive to Him who are dead to us.——From M. HENRY: John 11:17. When Jesus came: Promised salvations though they often come slowly, always come surely.

John 11:19. The home of Martha and Mary a house of mourning.—Grace will keep sorrow from the heart (John 14:1) not from the house.—Where there are mourners, there ought to be comforters.—They comforted them concerning their brother, speaking (probably), 1. of the good name he had left behind; 2. of the happy state to which he had gone.

John 11:20. The different temperaments of Martha and Mary, as manifested by their different conduct.

John 11:21. If Thou hadst been here: We are apt to add to our troubles by fancying what might have been.

John 11:22. When we know not what in particular to ask, let us in general refer ourselves to God. When we know not what to pray for, the Great Intercessor knows and is never refused.

John 11:23. The comforting answer of Jesus. Thy brother shall rise again, directing Martha’s thoughts forward to what shall be.

John 11:25, 26. Note 1. The sovereign power of Christ, I am the Resurrection and the Life; 2. the promise of the new Covenant, (1) what it is, life (a) for the body, a blessed resurrection, (b) for the soul, a blessed immortality, (2) to whom made, believers in Him.

John 11:27. Martha’s Creed; observe 1. The guide of her faith, the word of Christ; 2. The ground of her faith, the authority of Christ; 3. The matter of her faith, that Christ was (1) THE CHRIST—the anointed One, (2) The Son of God, (3) The One who should come, ὁ ἐρχόμενος.

John 11:29–31. The (gracious) haste of Mary; she did not consult 1. the decorum of her mourning, 2. her neighbours.

John 11:29–32. Mary’s abounding love for Christ; though He had seemed unkind in His delay she takes it not amiss.

John 11:31–33. The Jews who followed Mary led to Christ by the beholding of the miracle; it is good to cleave to Christ’s friends in their sorrows, for thereby we may come to know Him better.

John 11:33. The tears of Mary; the tears of devout affection have a loud, prevailing voice with Christ.—He was troubled, i.e., He troubled Himself; He was voluntary both in His passion and His compassion.

John 11:35. Jesus wept, showing that He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

John 11:39, 40. Martha’s (momentary) distrust, and Christ’s gentle reproof and re-assurance.

John 11:41, The prayer of Christ teaches us in praying—1. to call God, Father; 2. in our prayers to praise Him.

John 11:42. The objects of His public thanksgiving—1. to obviate the (possible) objections of His enemies that He wrought miracles by charms or the power of Satan; 2. to corroborate the faith of His friends.

John 11:43. Loud voice—1. significant of the power put forth; 2. typical of other works of resurrection—(1) of the gospel call, (2) of the Archangel’s trumpet at the last day.

John 11:44. The miracle was wrought—1. speedily, 2. perfectly, 3. with the additional miracle, that Lazarus came forth though bound hand and foot.—From SCOTT: John 11:41. We cannot raise the spiritually dead, but we should remove the stones and the grave clothes.—From STIER: John 11:21. Lord, if Thou hadst been here; thus does man look back with if in all his heavy trials.

John 11:22. Martha at this point a heroine in faith, but only for a moment.

John 11:24. The implied dissatisfaction of the bereaved one with the mere promise of a resurrection at the last day—(“Half-faith always does what Martha here does.” DRAESEKE).

John 11:25. I am the Resurrection—1. because I am the Life; 2. as I am the Life—in the same most intrinsically true, and already prevailing, sense.

John 11:25, 26. He that believeth in Me shall receive a life which death cannot invade. When the living bury His living nothing should be heard but resurrection joy.

John 11:33. He groaned in the spirit (ἐνεβριμήσατο τῷ πνεύματι); The sorrow of Jesus on account of sin, and His wrath against death.

John 11:44. Loose him: The relies of the (spiritual) grave are (in the case of the spiritually quickened) to be removed, by the Lord’s appointment, through the ministry of men—From BARNES: John 11:26. Believest thou this? The time of affliction a favorable period to try ourselves whether we have faith.

John 11:28. The Master: A title which Jesus claimed for Himself, Matt. 23:8, 10.

John 11:35. Jesus wept: Learn—1. that the most tender friendship is not inconsistent with the most pure religion; 2. that it is right to sympathize with the afflicted; 3. that sorrow at the death of friends is right; 4. the tenderness of the character of Jesus.

John 11:40 The glory of God: The power and goodness displayed in the resurrection.—From MELVILLE: John 11:25. I am the Resurrection and the Life; Christ the cause and the origin of the unbelieving Jews: Christianity doth not bid us abate anything of our souls.—From HALL: John 11:28. Secretly for fear of the unbelieving Jews: Christianity doth not bid us abate anything of our wariness.—From A PLAIN COMMENTARY (Oxf.): John 11:20. The blessedness of Martha in going forth to meet her Lord.

John 11:30. By His remaining without the town, the whole body of friends brought to Him (and to the beholding of the miracle.—E. R. C.)—From HUTCHESON: John 11:24. Men believe great things that are far off, when their faith proves weak in a less matter of present trial—From WILLIAMS: John 11:33–41. God created man by a word, without effort; but recalls him to life not without many groans and tears and intercessions.—From RYLE: John 11:20–27. To know how much grace believers have, we must see them in trouble.

John 11:21. A strange mixture of emotions—1. reproachful passion; 2. love; 3. faith; 4. unbelief.

John 11:24. General faith is easier than particular.

John 11:31. Those who came to comfort, themselves blessed.

John 11:33–35. He saw weeping and He wept (as the consequence of His real humanity); He still retains His human nature

John 11:36. Behold how He loved him! Of all graces, love most arrests the attention and influences the opinion of the world.—Var. 40. Said I unto thee: The best believers need reminding of Christ’s sayings.—From OWEN: John 11:25, 26. He that believeth in Me, etc.: Our Lord’s commentary on the preceding words, I am the Resurrection and the Life.

John 11:41, 42. The duty of public thanksgiving for gracious answers to prayer64—1. that God may be glorified by the, one benefited before others; 2. that others may be led to glorify Him.]

Footnotes:

[17]John 11:17.—[Tischendorf omits ἤδη (already), on the authrity of A.* D., etc.; but Alford, Westcott and Hort retain it with B. C.—P. S.]

[18]John 11:19.—Lachmann, Tischendorf, [Alford, Westcott and Hort] read: πολλοὶ δέ, instead of καὶ πολλοί, in accordance with important authorities. [א. B. C. D. L. X., etc.]

[19]John 11:19.—Lachmann [Alford, Westc. and H.], in accordance with B. C. L. [also Cod. Sin.] read: πρὸς τὴν M., etc. [The text. rec. and Tischend., ed. 8th, read πρὸζ τὰζ περὶ M., to those who were around Martha and Mary. The allusion seems to be to the custom of a company of comforters collecting themselves around mourners. The expression is foreign to the N. T. See EXEG.—P. S.]

[20]John 11:19.—Tischendorf omits αὐτῶν in accordance with the B. D. L. [So also Cod. Sin., Alford, Westc. & H.—P. S.]

[21]John 11:21.—Different placings of the words. Tischendorf: οὐκ ἄν ὁ ἀδελφός μου ἐτεθνήκει. [So formerly; but in his 8th crit. ed. 1869, Tischendorf gives—οὐκ ἄν ἀπέθανεν ὁ ἀδελφός μου. Ἀπέθ. is in accordance with John 11:32, supported by Cod. Sin. B. C.* D. K. L. X. II., etc., and is also adopted by Westcott & Hort; while Alford prefers ἐτεθνήκει, would have died.—P. S.].

[22]John 11:22.—Ἀλλά is wanting in B. C., etc. [The proper reading is καὶ νῦν, and is now preferred by Tischend. ἀλλα καὶ νῦν.—P. S.].

[23]John 11:27.—[πεπίστευκα is the proper reading adopted by all the critical editors; πιστεύω is poorly supported.—P. S.]

[24]John 11:29.—[Tischendorf, ed. 8th, reads ἐγείρεται and ἐρχεται, but Alford, Westcott and Hort retain the reading of the text. rec. ἠγέρθη and ἤρχετο, which is sustained by Cod. Sin. and B. The historical present is more lively, but may be an emendation.—P. S.]

[25]John 11:31.—[Δόξαντες is abundantly sustained by א. B. C.* D. L. X. Verss., and now generally adopted instead of the λέγοντες of the text. rec.—P. S.]

[26]John 11:33.—[It is perhaps impossible to find a precise equivalent in English for the Greek ἐμβριμάομαι in the sense in which it is used here and in John 11:38. See the EXEG., pp. 352 f.—P. S.]

[27]John 11:39.—Τετελευτηκότος established by A. B. C.* Sin., etc., against the τεθνηκότος of the Recepta.

[28]John 11:39.—[The Saxon stinketh for ὄζει is no doubt a repulsive term for a repulsive thing, but for this reason also more expressive than is offensive (Noyes, Conant and others) or similar modern substitutes.—P. S.]

[29]John 11:41.—In accordance with B. C.* Sin. and others, the sentence: οὗ ἧν ὁ τεθνηκὼς κείμενος must be omitted.

[30][Buttmann, N. T. Gr., p. 133, derives this peculiar position of ἀπό and πρό in indications of space and time from the influence of the Latin. Comp. John 12:1, πρὸ ἔξ ἡμερῶν τοῦ πάσχα 21:8; Apoc. 14:20.—P. S.]

[31][Alford almost verbally copies this note from Meyer. We have good reason to infer from several indications that the family of Bethany was “one of large hospitality and acquaintance.” Comp. John 12:3, 5 and note.—P. S.]

[32][So also Meyer, and Alford who remarks that ἀναστήσεται is pedagogically used to lead on to the requisite faith in her mind, and doubts whether it could be used of a recall into human life. Hengstenberg refers the word mainly to the final resurrection, and subordinately to the translation to Paradise, which he includes in the first resurrection (Apoc. 20:5?); but Lazarus must have been already in Paradise (comp. to-day in Luke 23:43).—P. S.]

[33][The phrase οὐ μή—εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, John 11:26, is in itself ambiguous and may mean either not forever, or never. The first and literal rendering would give a very plain sense: He that liveth (physically) and believelh in Me, will not die (physically) for ever, i.e. will be raised again. But in all other passages in which the same phrase occurs (John 4:14; 8:51, 52; 10:28; 13:8; 1 Cor. 8:13), it is equivalent to never, like the Hebrew לֹא־לְעוֹלָם (Ps. 55:22; Prov. 10:30), with an emphasis on the negation: surely not, in no wise, by no means (see Winer, p. 407, on the force of the double negation in Greek). We must then suppose that Christ in John 11:26 either spoke of spiritual death, or overlooked physical death as a vanishing transition to real and eternal life.—P. S. ]

[34][Comp. Godet in loc. (II. 333), who justly says that it is impossible here to separate the moral and the physical sense in the words resurrection and life. I subjoin the remarks of Trench (Miracles, p. 322) on this glorious declaration: “l am the Resurrection and the Life; the true Life, the true Resurrection; the everlasting triumphs over death, they are in Me—no distant things, as thou spakest of now, to find place at the end of the world; no things separate or separable from Me, as thou spakest of lately, when thou desiredst that I should ask of another that which I possess evermore in Myself. In Me is victory over the grave, in Me is life eternal: by faith in Me that becomes yours which makes death not to be death, but only the transition to a higher life.”—P. S.]

[35][Alford: “Her calling her sister is characteristic of one who (Luke 10:40) had not been much habituated herself to listen to His instructions, but knew this to be the delight of Mary. Besides this, she evidently has hopes raised, though of a very faint and indefinite kind. προσδοκήσασά τι ἀγαθὸν ἀπὸ τῶν λόγως αὐτοῦ (Euthymius.”)—]

[36][So also correctly Alford and Godet.—P. S.]

[37][Lange translates: regte sich tief auf im Geiste, stirred Himelf up in His spirit; Noyes and Alford: was greatly moved in His spirit. The E. V. groaned in spirit, expresses more the feeling of grief and pain than of indignation and wrath (though Trench on Miracles, p. 325, strangely asserts the very reverse); comp. 2 Cor. 5:4: “We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened.” Webster defines groaning: “to give forth a low, moaning sound, to utter a mournful voice, as in pain and sorrow,” and says nothing of anger. The E. V. translates the verb in four different ways: to charge straitly, Matt. 9:30; Mark 1:43; to murmur, Mark 14:5; to groan, John 11:33, 38.—P. S.]

[38][So the Vulgate: infremuit spiritu; Luther: Er ergrimmetc im Geiste, was wroth at, moved with indignation. βριμάομαι and ἐμβριμάομαι (from the root βρέμω, to rush, to roar, φριμάω, fremo, to roar, to bluster; comp. βρίμη, anger, βριμώ, The Angered, a name of Persephone or Hecate), when not used of uttering a sound (snorting, murmuring), always express an emotion of anger or indignation, and are equivalent to ὀργίζεσθαι and ἀπειλεῖν. Passow and Pape know no other meaning. Gumlich has abundantly proved it in the Studien und Kritiken for 1862, pp. 260–269. Sophocles, in his Lexicon of Byzantine Greek (Boston, 1870, p. 453), gives the meaning to be greatly moved, but without any authority except the two passages in John 11, which are under dispute. Meyer confidently asserts (p. 431): “Nie anders als vom heftigen ZORN (violent anger) wird βριμάομαι und ἐμβριμάομαι, wo es nicht das eigentliche Schnauben oder Brummen (Aesch. Sept. 461, Luc. Necym. 20) bezeichnet, bei Griechen, LXX. und im N. T. (Matt. 9:30; Mark 1:43; 14:5) gebraucht. S. Gumlich, p. 265 f.” Hengstenberg agrees: “Es ist längst festgestellt, dass ἐμβριμᾶσθαι keinen anderen Affect bezeichnen kann als den des heftigen Zornes.” Alford: “ἐμβριμάομαι can bear but one meaning, that of indignor (‘infremuit,’ Vulg.),—the expression of indignation and rebuke, not of sorrow.” Trench (p. 325): “It is nothing but the difficulty of finding a satisfactory object for the indignation of the Lord, which has caused so many modern commentators to desert this explanation, and make the word simply and merely an expression of grief and anguish of spirit. Lampe and Kuinoel defend the right explanation; and Lange (Theol. Studien und Kritiken, 1836, p. 714 sq.) has many beautiful remarks in an essay wherein he seeks to unite both meanings.” Godet: “Il est généralement reconnu, à cette heure, que le terme ἐμβοιμᾶσθαι (de βριμάζειν hennir, rugir) ne peut désigner qu’ un frémissement d’ indignation.” But all this does not yet settle the precise meaning in this verse. See below. The verb is generally transitive and constructed with the dative of the person or thing against which the angry feeling or rebuke is directed; but here and in John 11:38 it is used intransitively; πνεύματι being not the dat. obj., but the dat. instrum. or loci.—P. S.]

[39][The Greek interpreters usually take τῷ πνεύματι=τῷ πάθει (as dative of the object), but Cyril refers it (as instrumental dative) to the Holy Ghost or the divine nature of Christ, by which He indignantly rebuked His rising human sympathy. (ἐμβριμᾶται τῷ πνεύματι,τουτέστι τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐπιπλήττει τρὸπον τινὰ τῇ ἰδίᾳ σαρκί.) In a milder form Dean Alford renews the Greek interpretation without its stoic repulsiveness. He thinks that Jesus, with the tears of sympathy already rising and overcoming His speech, checked them so as to be able to speak the words following. He considers this self-restraint as merely physical, requiring indeed an act of the will, and a self-troubling, but implying no deliberate disapproval of the rising emotion which immediately after is suffered to prevail. Webster and Wilkinson likewise explain ἐνεβριμήσατο of a violent repression of emotion. But this is clearly refuted by the explanatory ἐτάραξεν ἑαυτόν, and by the fact that Jesus did shed tears immediately afterwards. His effort at self-restraint then would have failed, which is incredible.—P. S.]

[40][According to Augustine, Cornelius a Lap., Olshausen, Trench and Gumlich, Christ was indignant at death as the wages of sin; according to Nic. Lyra, Melanchthon, Ebrard, Luthardt and Hengstenberg, at the power of death, the terrible foe of the human race, who dared here to confront and threaten his great Conqueror. Nic. Lyra: Fremitus Christi procedebat ex indignatione ejus contra diabolum, per cujus suggestionem mors intravit in mundum, quam erat cito debellaturus. To the same effect is Luthardt’s remark (II. p. 217): “Ueber den Tod und den der des Todes Gewal that, Seinen Gegner von Anfang an, ergrimmte Er, dass er lhm solches angerichtet, so in Seinen nädchsten Kreis gedrungen und so lhm Selbst wie drohend enigegengetreten war. Und das Ergrimmen Jesu ist wie ein Gegendrohen, das sich in der Autferweckung dann versinnbildlichte. Es sind gleichsam die ersten gegenseitigen Ankündigungen des letsten äussersten Kampfes.” Comp. my notes to Lange’s view below.—P. S.]

[41][Meyer urges the preceding words ὡς εἶδεν αὐτήν κλαίουσαυ—καὶ τοὺς Ἰονδαίους κλαίοντας, as indicating this contrast and cause of the indignation; but this is not applicable to the second use of the verb in John 11:38, although John 11:37 clearly shows that the indignation must have had some reference to the unbelief of the Jews.—P. S.]

[42][As now used, however, ergrimmen always signifies in German violent emotion of anger, indignation.—P. S.]

[43][Tholuck and Lücke refer to βριμάσσω, to shake with petulance, βράσσω, to ferment (intransitive), and to shake violently (transitive), also to the Hebrew זָעַף.—P. S.]

[44][Among American commentators, Owen takes this view: A deep feeling of grief, and not a rebuking of such a feeling.—P. S.]

[45][Ewald (Com. I. 323) translates: Er erbrauste im Geiste und erschütterte sich, and explains that Jesus, like a hero of old, like a Jacob, gathering up the deepest powers of his mind, went forth to the conflict and in the conflict burst out in tears. Comp. Ewald’s Life of Christ, p. 486.—P. S.]

[46][Dr. Lange has more fully demonstrated this comprehensive interpretation in a treatise on the words: ἐνεβριμήσατο τῷ πνεύματι , in his Miscellaneous Writings, vol. iv. pp. 194 ff. (originally published in the Theological Studies and Criticisms for 1836); comp. also his Leben Jesu, II. 2, p. 1125. Tholuck (7th edition) substantially adopts Lange’s interpretation: “We shall, then, include a feeling of horror also. etc. Hence we assume κινεῖσθαι to be the established philological signification, as one of the most ancient commentators, the translator of the Peshito has done.”]

[47][Meyer thinks that John might as well have written τῇ ψυχῇ (12:27); Godet (I. 329) distinguishes πνεῦμα. as the seat of religious, ψυχή as the seat of natural emotions. There is certainly a difference. Here and 13:21, when speaking of the treason of Judas, and Mark 8:12, Jesus was moved in the spirit; while when speaking of His approaching passion He says: “My soul is troubled,” John 12:27.—P. S.]

[48][Neander: “The sympathizing physician in the midst of a family drowned in grief—will not his tears flow with theirs, though he knows that he has the power of giving immediate relief?”—P. S.]

[49] [After the appearance of Christianity, the heathen notions about the rightfulness of human affections underwent a silent revolution, and the rigor of Stoicism was broken. Comp the beautiful passage in Juvenal, Sat. 15, quoted by Trench:

. …Molissima corda

Humano generi dare se natura fatetur,

Quæ lacrymas dedit: hæc nostri pars optima

sensüs.—P. S.]

[50][Alford and Godet take the same view. The second emotion of indignation (πάλιν ἐμβριμώμενος ἐν ἑαυτῷ, John 11:38) seems to have been provoked, partly at least, by this exhibition of unbelief, as the οὖν indicates.—P. S.]

[51][Trench, Alford and Godet rightly regard it as a mark of historical accuracy that these dwellers in Jerusalem should refer to a miracle performed there and still fresh in their memory rather than to the former raisings of the dead in distant Galilee, which they probably may have heard of, but naturally would not thoroughly credit on mere rumor. Says Trench: “A maker up of the narrative from later and insecure traditions would inevitably have fallen upon those miracles of a like kind, as arguments of the power of Jesus to have accomplished this.” Comp. the pointed remarks of Godet (II. 342) against Strauss.—P. S.]

[52][Also the art. Gräber in Winer’s R. W. B., art. Tomb in Smith’s B. D. (Hackett and Abbott’s ed., vol. iv. pp. 3277 ff.), Robinson, Researches, I. pp. 349 ff., and Capt. C. W. Wilson, Remains of Tombs in Palestine (in Quarterly Statement of the Palest. Exploration Soc, Lond. 1869). The Jewish sepulchres were out of town, away from the living, and either natural caverns or artificial, excavated by man’s labor from the rock, with recesses in the sides, wherein the bodies were laid, occasionally with chambers one above another, and closed by a door or a great stone to prevent the numerous jackals and beasts of prey from tearing the bodies. Many of these tombs still remain. Robinson, I. p. 352: “The numerous sepulchres which skirt the valleys on the north, east, and south of Jerusalem, exhibit for the most part one general mode of construction. A doorway in the perpendicular face of the rock, usually small and without ornament, leads to one or more small chambers excavated from the rock, and commonly upon the same level with the door. Very rarely are the chambers lower than the doors. The walls in general are plainly hewn; and there are occasionally, though not always, niches or resting-places for the dead bodies. In order to obtain a perpendicular face for the doorway, advantage was sometimes taken of a former quarry; or an angle was cut in the rock with a tomb in each face; or a square niche or area was hewn out in a ledge, and then tombs excavated in all three of its sides. All these expedients are seen particularly in the northern part of the valley of Jehoshaphat, and near the tombs of the Judges. Many of the doorways and fronts of the tombs along this valley are now broken away, leaving the whole of the interior exposed.”—P. S.]

[53][Robinson (vol. I. p. 432, Am. ed.) says: “The monks, as a matter of course, show the house of Mary and Martha, that of Simon the leper, and the sepulchre of Lazarus. The latter is a deep vault like a cellar, excavated in the lime-stone rock in the middle of the village, to which there is a descent by twenty-six steps. It is hardly necessary to remark, that there is not the slightest probability of its ever having been the tomb of Lazarus. The form is not that of the ancient sepulchres; nor does its position accord with the narrative of the New Testament, which implies that the tomb was not in the town.”—P. S.]

[54][Meyer leaves it undecided whether ἐπί here is to be rendered upon or against, before, the cave: “ἐπέκ. ἐπ’ αὐτῷ kann auch heissen: ER LAG DAVOR, (vgl. Homer, Od. vi. 19: θύραι δ’ ἐπέκειντο), so dass ein horizontaler Eingang gedacht sein würde. Zu entscheiden ist nicht.”—P. S.]

[55][Olshausen, Luthardt and Trench agree with Lange that the words ἤδη ὄζει, which were spoken before the opening of the tomb, indicate only the conjecture of Martha, which was erroneous, and assume that He who sees the end from the beginning watched over the body of Lazarus in His providence that it should not hasten to corruption. But the fathers (e.g. Augustine: resuscitavit putenten), Calvin (alios Christus suscitavit sed nunc in putrido cadavere potentiam, suam exserit) Stier, Owen, Alford and Wordsworth take the judgment of Martha as a statement of a sensible fact, on the ground that the very act of death is the beginning of decomposition, and that there is no more monstrosity in the raising of a decaying corpse than in the restoration of the withered hand. Godet also is of this opinion: “II est plus naturel de voir dans ces mots I’ expression d’ un fait positif et dont elle a fait elle-même I’ experience.” As an expression of fact it has been turned to apologetic account against the hypothesis of a mere trance or swoon; but the miracle is sufficiently attested without this by the veracity of Christ and of John.—P. S.]

[56][So also Meyer and Alford. Others suppose that petition and thanksgiving coincided (Merz, Tholuck), still others that Jesus thanked in anticipation of the miracle as if it was already an accomplished fact (Godet, comp. Hengstenberg).—P. S.]

[57][Trench (p. 330): “The power (of working miracles) was most truly His own, not indeed in disconnection from the Father, for what He saw the Father do, that only He did; but in this, His oneness with the Father, there lay the uninterrupted power of doing these mighty works… . The thanks to God were an acknowledgment that the power was from God.”—P. S.]

[58][Baur calls the prayer a Scheingebet, Weisse a Schaugebet, conceived by the evangelist in the apologetic interest for the divinity of Christ (Strauss, Scholten). Such impious nonsense arises from utter ignorance of the singular intimacy between Christ and the Father, which is so often asserted in this Gospel (John 5:19–21, 36, 37; 8:16, 18, 29, 42; 10:25, 30, 38) and illustrated on this occasion. By virtue of this intimacy He, the only Begotten, never addressed God as “our Father,” but as “My Father” or “Father” simply, and stood in constant communication with Him so that His prayers assumed, as it were, the character of reflection and mutual consultation, and were always answered.—P. S.]

[59][So also Godet: “En rendant grâces à Dieu devant tout le peuple avant de faire le miracle, Jésus met positivement Dieu en part dans l’ æuvre qui va se faire; cette æuvre devient par Ià celle de Dieu même. Jehovah, le Dieu d’ Israel, sera désormais le garant de sa mission,—ou le complice de son imposture.”—P. S.]

[60][So also Hilary (nullo intervallo vocis et vitæ), Meyer, Alford, Trench. So in the general resurrection the dead will come forth from their graves when they hear the quickening voice of the Son of Man, John 5:28, 29; comp. the “shout,” 1 Thes. 4:16; and “the last trump,” 1 Cor. 15:52.—P. S.]

[61][Also Augustine: processit ille VINCTUS: non ergo pedibus propriis, sed virtute producentis.]

[62][So also Meyer, Trench, Owen, Alford is uncertain.—P. S.]

[63][Dr. Lange omits the disgraceful explanation of Renan, who here resorts to the theory of a downright imposture. See above, p. 339.—P. S.]

[64][Is not the address recorded in these verses simply a thanksgiving spoken in respect of a previously offered private prayer? Is it not probable that the prayer was being offered during the period of delay beyond Jordan, throughout the travel to Bethany, and in the groanings at the sepulcher?—E. R. C.]