A Tour Through John, Lesson 21

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/tour-john-lesson-21/" target="_blank"><strong>website.</strong></a></p><p>11:1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.</p><ul><li>A man is mortally ill. In fact, by the time the messenger arrives, he is already dead.</li><li>The village of Bethany has been renamed, in honor of Lazarus. Today it is called <i>El-Azariyeh</i>.</li><li>It is obvious from chapters 11 and 12 that Jesus and Lazarus have a very special relationship.</li><li>The verb in v.3 is <i>phileîs,</i> not <i>agapâs.</i> In NT Greek, these are virtually synonyms. V.36 contains the same verb: </li><li>Jesus stayed two more days (v.6) before heading to Bethany. This was <i>not</i> to give Lazarus time to die. The chronology of the passage shows that he was in fact already dead at this time. (Add the extra two-day stay to the two travel days, one for the messenger and one for Jesus.)</li><li>Jesus rightly foretells that this sickness will not <i>end</i> in death (v.4), but will glorify God. (See 9:3.)</li><li><i>Further:</i> Some scholars, such as Ben Witherington III, believe that the disciple whom Jesus loved is none other than Lazarus -- an intriguing <a href="http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2007/01/was-lazarus-beloved-disciple.html" target="_blank">possibility.</a></li></ul><p>7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews wer