John 11
John 11 is the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the raising of Lazarus from the dead, a miracle of Jesus Christ, and the subsequent development of the chief priests' and Pharisees' plot against Jesus. The author of the book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that John composed this Gospel.
Text
The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 57 verses. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:- Papyrus 75
- Papyrus 66
- Codex Vaticanus
- Papyrus 6
- Codex Sinaiticus
- Codex Bezae
- Codex Alexandrinus
- Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
- Papyrus 59
Places
- The eastern side of the Jordan River, "the place where John the Baptist was baptizing at first".
- Bethany, about 15 stadia away from Jerusalem
- Jerusalem, where it can be assumed that the council of the Chief Priests and Pharisees met, and where people began to gather for the impending Passover.
- Ephraim in the wilderness, where Jesus and His disciples stayed to avoid the plotting of the Pharisees and Chief Priests
Lazarus
Introduction of Lazarus (verse 1)
Chapter 10 ended with Jesus leaving Jerusalem as the Jews threatened to stone him, and travelling to the east of the river Jordan. The evangelist's introduction of Lazarus of Bethany at this point leads to the discussion of whether Jesus should return to Judea in the face of the growing plot against Him. Mary and her sister Martha appear to have been better known than their brother Lazarus, as he is introduced by reference to them. Theologian Joseph Benson therefore suggests that "It is probable Lazarus was younger than his sisters".Connecting the feet-anointing, Mary, and Lazarus (verse 2)
Verse 2, which many translations put within parentheses, is at the centre of much scholarly controversy. New Testament scholars try to establish how John's narrative of the raising of Lazarus and the subsequent feet-anointing of Jesus by Mary of Bethany was composed by seeking to explain its apparent relationships with the older textual traditions of the Synoptic Gospels. The author of John seems to have combined elements from several – apparently originally unrelated – stories into a single narrative. These include the unnamed woman's head-anointing of Jesus in Bethany, the sinful woman's feet-anointing of Jesus in Galilee, Jesus' visit to Martha and Mary in the unnamed Galilean village, Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and possibly others involving Jesus' miraculous raising of the dead. Meanwhile, other elements were removed or replaced; for example, Simon the Leper/Simon the Pharisee was replaced by Lazarus as the host of the feast in Jesus' honour, and Bethany in Judea was chosen as the setting, while most elements of John's narrative correspond to traditions that the Synoptics set in Galilee. Scholars pay particular attention to verse , which may represent an effort by the author or a later redactor to stress a connection between these stories that is, however, not found in the older canonical gospels. They further note that the actual anointing will not be narrated until verse, and that neither Mary, nor Martha, nor the village of these sisters, nor any anointing is mentioned in the Gospel of John before this point, suggesting that the author assumes the readers already have knowledge of these characters, this location and this event, and wants to tell them that these were connected long before giving the readers more details. Elser and Piper posited that verse is evidence that the author of the Gospel of John deliberately mixed up several traditions in an 'audacious attempt to rework the collective memory of the Christ-movement'. The author did not strive to give a historically accurate account of what had happened, but instead, for theological purposes, combined various existing narratives in order to construct Lazarus, Mary and Martha of Bethany as a prototypical Christian family, whose example is to be followed by Christians.Verse 3
The sisters send messengers to Jesus, so his location cannot have been entirely secret, "firmly expect that he, who had cured so many strangers, would willingly come and give health to one whom he so tenderly loved". The words of their message made reference only to Lazarus' sickness, leaving unexpressed, but "to be inferred, the consequent, therefore come to our help". Johann Bengel notes that John often expects the reader to make such inferences, such as in : "When they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, 'They have no wine' ". Commentators generally understand that the sisters expected Jesus would come to Bethany despite the personal danger to Himself, with which His disciples were more concerned, although Exclusive Brethren theologian John Nelson Darby notes that "He might have said the word, as in the case of the centurion, and of the sick child at the beginning of this Gospel ". Jesus' love for Lazarus is noticed by the Jews in verse 36.Twelve hours in the day (verses 8–10)
In reply to the disciples' concerns about Jesus returning to Judea, where very recently, 'just now' or 'lately' the Jews had wanted to stone Him, He answered:The νῦν shows that they had not been long in Perea, on the east of the Jordan. "The Jews divided the day from sunrise to sunset into twelve equal parts". Heinrich Meyer suggests that "the sense of the allegorical answer is this: 'The time appointed to me by God for working is not yet elapsed; as long as it lasts, no one can do anything to me; but when it shall have come to an end, I shall fall into the hands of my enemies, like him who walketh in the night, and who stumbleth, because he is without light'. In this way Jesus sets aside the anxiety of His disciples, on the one hand, by directing their attention to the fact that, as His time is not yet expired, He is safe from the apprehended dangers; and, on the other, by reminding them that He must make use of the time apportioned to Him, before it come to an end".
Location of Bethany (verse 18)
The evangelist tells his readers where Bethany is in relation to Jerusalem: 15 furlongs or is about. Some translations say "not quite two miles". This Bethany is clearly distinguished from the Bethany beyond the Jordan where John the Baptist baptised, mentioned in.Dialogue between Jesus and Martha (verses 20–27)
In verse 27, "Martha expresses a complete faith in Jesus":This is "the faith which the evangelist himself wants to promote", and which is his sole purpose in composing his gospel:
These miracles have been written so that you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and so that you will have life by believing in him.