John 11 Study Notes

11:1-57 The raising of Lazarus is Jesus’s seventh and climactic messianic sign in John’s Gospel (see note at 2:11). This miracle (recorded only by John) anticipated Jesus’s own resurrection and revealed him as “the resurrection and the life” (11:25). Resurrections are rare in the OT (1Kg 17:17-24; 2Kg 4:32-37; 13:21) and in the Gospels (Jesus’s raising of Jairus’s daughter, Mk 5:22-24,38-42; Jesus’s raising of the widow’s son at Nain, Lk 7:11-15). The raising of Lazarus served as the final event that triggered the Jewish leaders’ resolve to arrest Jesus and try him for blasphemy (Jn 11:45-57).

11:1 The introduction of Lazarus is similar to 5:5. Lazarus (which means “whom God helps”) was a common name. Bethany, called a village (Gk kome) as is Bethlehem (7:42), was not the Bethany mentioned in 1:28 and alluded to in 10:40-42. Bethany, where Lazarus lived, was located east of the Mount of Olives less than two miles from Jerusalem (11:18; cp. Mt 21:17; 26:6). The village of Mary and her sister Martha and the reference to Mary’s anointing of Jesus anticipates chap. 12 and seems to presuppose that readers knew these women, perhaps from Luke’s Gospel (Lk 10:38-42).

11:2-5 The narrator makes sure the reader knows how much Lazarus meant to Jesus.

11:6 Jesus stayed two more days . . . where he was. Puzzling as this delay seems, it served to reveal God’s glory (v. 4) since it enabled Jesus to perform an even “harder” miracle (v. 17).

11:7-8 Jesus’s disciples assumed that Jesus would desire to stay alive.

11:9-10 Most people worked as long as there was daylight; once it was dark, work was over.

11:11 Fallen asleep means “died,” as the following interchange makes clear (vv. 12-14). The OT equivalent is “slept with his fathers.” Occasionally, death is depicted as a deep sleep from which we will be awakened (Dn 12:2).

11:12-15 In view of Jesus’s relationship with Lazarus and his family, the statement that I’m glad . . . that I wasn’t there shows how important the faith of the disciples was.

11:16 On Thomas’s designation as Twin, see note at 1:38.

11:17 By comforting Martha and Mary after Lazarus’s death, Jesus fulfilled one of the most essential obligations in the Jewish culture of his day—mourning with those who mourn. Burial usually followed shortly after death, so Lazarus had been dead four days.

11:18 On Bethany, see note at v. 1.

11:19 If the many Jews who had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them were from Jerusalem, this would indicate that their family had considerable social standing.

11:20 Seated in the house was the customary posture for those mourning a deceased loved one (Jb 2:8,13; Ezk 8:14).

11:21-22 Martha’s statement, whatever you ask from God, could be taken to mean she was suggesting Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead. But her other statements indicate this was not the case.

11:23-24 Martha’s belief in end-time resurrection agreed with Pharisaic beliefs (Ac 23:8), popular Jewish opinion, and Jesus’s teaching (Jn 5:21,25-29; 6:39-44,54).

11:25 On I am the resurrection and the life, see notes at 5:26; 6:35,48.

11:26 Eternal life begins the moment that a person puts faith in Jesus (see note at 3:36).

11:27 Martha’s reference to the one who comes into the world took up the messianic expression derived from Ps 118:26 (cp. Jn 12:13).

11:28 The Teacher was a natural way for a disciple to refer to Jesus before his resurrection (v. 8; 1:38,49; 3:2; 4:31; 6:25; 9:2; 20:16).

11:29-32 Although Mary says less than Martha had, her faith in Jesus was no less strong.

11:33 Jesus was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled in the face of human suffering and death (12:27; 13:21).

11:34-35 Jesus wept, or perhaps even better, “burst into tears,” as the term is regularly translated in extrabiblical sources.

11:36-37 In this sacred scene were still skeptics who would soon have their world shocked.

11:38-39 While the Jews used spices at burials, this did not prevent decomposition of the body, as Martha pointed out.

11:40-42 Jesus’s prayer finds an OT antecedent in Elijah’s prayer (1Kg 18:37). Compare Jn 6:11.

11:43 Jesus raised Lazarus not by magic, incantations, or spells, but by the power of his word.

11:44 John did not record Lazarus’s reaction or any of the aftermath of his raising. Instead, he immediately moved (v. 45) to focus on the plot against Jesus.

11:45-46 Surprisingly, not all who were there at the raising of Lazarus put their faith in Jesus (see Lk 16:30-31).

11:47 On the Sanhedrin, see notes at 3:1; 7:45-52.

11:48 Our place almost certainly refers to the temple. Similar concerns resurface in Ac 6:13-14 and 21:28, where the temple is referred to as “this holy place” or “this place.” Take away . . . our nation may refer to the feared removal of the Jews’ semi-autonomous status by the Romans. Ironically, what the Sanhedrin sought to prevent by killing Jesus still came to pass when the Romans razed the temple and sacked Jerusalem in AD 70 (see note at 2:13-22).

11:49 That year need not imply that the high priestly office rotated annually. It simply indicates that Caiaphas happened to serve in this role the year Jesus was tried and crucified. In fact, Caiaphas was high priest for eighteen years (AD 18-36), longer than any other first-century high priest.

11:50-51 Die for the people invokes memory of the Maccabean martyrs (2Macc 7:37-38). In the typical double meaning used in John’s Gospel, Caiaphas’s pronouncement anticipated the substitutionary atonement Jesus was to render. As the Jewish high priest, Caiaphas prophesied, speaking better than he knew.

11:52 The scattered children of God refers to the Gentiles (see note at 3:3-8).

11:53-54 From now on, “Jesus is not to be arrested in order to be tried; he is to be tried because he has already been found guilty (as Mk. 14:1-2 presupposes)” (D. A. Carson).

11:55 This is the third and final Passover mentioned by John. See note at 2:13. People went up to Jerusalem early to purify themselves from any ceremonial uncleanness that would prevent them from celebrating Passover (Nm 9:4-14; 19:11-12).

11:56-57 On the timing of Jesus’s arrest, see note at 2:4.