John 11

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The death of Lazarus

¹ Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Miriam and her sister Martha. ² It was that Miriam who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. ³ Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, "Lord, see, he whom You love is sick." ⁴ When Yeshua heard that, He said, "This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of Elohim, that the Son of Elohim may be glorified through it." ⁵ Now Yeshua loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days in the place where He was. ⁷ Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." ⁸ The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?" ⁹ Yeshua answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." ¹¹ These things He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go that I may wake him up." ¹² Then His disciples said, "Lord, if he sleeps he will get well." ¹³ However, Yeshua spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. ¹⁴ Then Yeshua said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵ And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him." ¹⁶ Then Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him."

I am the resurrection and the life

¹⁷ So when Yeshua came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away. ¹⁹ And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Miriam, to comfort them concerning their brother. ²⁰ Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Yeshua was coming, went and met Him, but Miriam was sitting in the house. ²¹ Then Martha said to Yeshua, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that whatever You ask of Elohim, Elohim will give You." ²³ Yeshua said to her, "Your brother will rise again." ²⁴ Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." ²⁵ Yeshua said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. ²⁶ And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" ²⁷ She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Messiah, the Son of Elohim, who is to come into the world." ²⁸ And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Miriam her sister, saying, "The Teacher has come and is calling for you." ²⁹ As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. ³⁰ Now Yeshua had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha met Him. ³¹ Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Miriam rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there." ³² Then, when Miriam came where Yeshua was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." ³³ Therefore, when Yeshua saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled. ³⁴ And He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." ³⁵ Yeshua wept. ³⁶ Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!" ³⁷ And some of them said, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this one from dying?"

Lazarus raised from the dead

³⁸ Then Yeshua, again deeply moved within Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. ³⁹ Yeshua said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days." ⁴⁰ Yeshua said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of Elohim?" ⁴¹ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Yeshua lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. ⁴² And I knew that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me." ⁴³ Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" ⁴⁴ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with strips of cloth, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Yeshua said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."

The council plots to kill Him

⁴⁵ Then many of the Jews who had come to Miriam, and had seen the things Yeshua did, believed in Him. ⁴⁶ But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Yeshua did. ⁴⁷ Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, "What shall we do? For this man performs many signs. ⁴⁸ If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation." ⁴⁹ And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, ⁵⁰ nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish." ⁵¹ Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Yeshua would die for the nation, ⁵² and not for the nation only, but also that He would gather together into one the children of Elohim who were scattered abroad. ⁵³ Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death. ⁵⁴ Therefore Yeshua no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there remained with His disciples.

⁵⁵ And the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves. ⁵⁶ Then they sought Yeshua, and spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple, "What do you think, that He will not come to the feast?" ⁵⁷ Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command, that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it, that they might seize Him.

Notes

• 11:11 Scripture often speaks of death as sleep: "David lay down with his fathers" (1 Kings 2:10), and "many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake" (Daniel 12:2). Yeshua uses that Hebrew way of speaking, and verses 13-14 make plain that He means Lazarus has died; His "wake him up" looks to the raising He is about to do.
• 11:24 Martha speaks the hope of many Jews of her day, held by the Pharisees and grounded in the Prophets: the dead will rise on the last day (Daniel 12:2; compare Isaiah 26:19). Yeshua does not set that hope aside; He says that it rests in Himself: "I am the resurrection and the life."
• 11:39 Four days in the tomb meant that no one could doubt the death; the body had begun to decay. Later rabbinic writings record a belief that the soul stayed near the body for three days and then departed, and if that belief was already known, the fourth day would mark all hope as gone. The tomb, a cave closed with a stone, fits the rock-cut family tombs found around Jerusalem from that time.
• 11:48 "Our place" most likely means the temple, as often in Jewish speech of the time (compare Acts 6:13-14), together with the leaders' standing under Rome. Caiaphas was high priest from about AD 18 to 36; "high priest that year" points to that fateful year. John sees in his cold political advice an unknowing prophecy, since the high priest's office was once linked with inquiring of Elohim (Numbers 27:21).
• 11:55 Those who had become unclean, for example through contact with the dead, could not keep the Passover (Numbers 9:6), so pilgrims came early to be purified, which for corpse uncleanness took seven days (Numbers 19:11-12).

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