note
1 Now a man named Lazarus, of Bethany, was
lying ill; he belonged to the same village as
Mary and her sister Martha.
2 This Mary, whose
brother Lazarus was ill, was the Mary who
anointed the Master with perfume, and wiped his feet with
her hair.
3 The sisters, therefore, sent this message to Jesus
—‘Master, your friend is ill’;
4 and, when Jesus heard it, he
said:
‘This illness is not to end in death, but is to redound to the
honour of God, in order that the Son of God may be honoured
through it.”
5
6 Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus. Yet,
when he heard of the illness of Lazarus, he still stayed
two days in the place where he was.
7 Then, after that, he said
to his disciples:
“Let us go to Judaea again.”
8 “Rabbi,” they replied, “the Jews were but just now seeking
to stone you; and are you going there again?”
9 “Are not there twelve hours in the day?” answered Jesus.
“If a man walks about in the day-time, he does not stumble,
-- --
because he can see the light of the sun;
10 but, if he walks about
at night, he stumbles, because he has not the light.”
11 And, when he had said this, he added:
“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going that
I may wake him.”
12 “If he has fallen asleep, Master, he will get well,” said the
disciples.
13 But Jesus meant that he was dead; they, however, supposed
that he was speaking of natural sleep.
14 Then he said to them
plainly:
15 “Lazarus is dead; and I am glad for your sakes that I was
not there, so that you may learn to believe in me. But let us
go to him.”
16 At this, Thomas, who was called ‘The Twin,’ said to his
fellow-disciples:
“Let us go too, so that we may die with him.”
17 When Jesus reached the place, he found that Lazarus had
been four days in the tomb already.
18 Bethany being only about
two miles from Jerusalem,
19 a number of the Jews had come
there to condole with Martha and Mary on their brother's
death.
20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went
to meet him; but Mary sat quietly at home.
21 “Master,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my
brother would not have died.
22 Even now, I know that God
will grant you whatever you ask him.”
23 “Your brother shall rise to life,” said Jesus.
24 “I know that he will,” replied Martha, “in the resurrection
at the Last Day.”
25 “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” said Jesus. “He
that believes in me shall live, though he die;
26 and he who
lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe
this?’
27 “Yes, Master,” she answered; “I have learnt to believe
that you are the Christ, the Son of God, ‘who was to come’
into the world.” note
28 After saying this, Martha went and called her sister Mary,
and whispered:
“The Teacher is here, and is asking for you.”
29 As soon as Mary heard that, she got up quickly, and went to
meet him.
30 Jesus had not then come into the village, but was
still at the place where Martha had met him.
31 So the Jews, who
were in the house with Mary, condoling with her, when they
saw her get up quickly and go out, followed her, thinking that
she was going to the tomb to weep there.
32 When Mary came
where Jesus was, and saw him, she threw herself at his feet.
“Master,” she exclaimed, “if you had been here, my
brother would not have died!”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come
-- --
with her weeping also, he groaned deeply, and was greatly
distressed.
34 “Where have you buried him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Master,” they answered.
35 Jesus burst into tears.
36 “How he must have loved him!” the Jews exclaimed;
37 but some of them said:
“Could not this man, who gave sight to the blind man, have
also prevented Lazarus from dying?”
38 Again groaning inwardly, Jesus came to the tomb. It was
a cave, and a stone lay against the mouth of it.
39 “Move the stone away,” said Jesus.
“Master,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this
time the smell must be offensive, for this is the fourth day
since his death.”
40 “Did not I tell you,” replied Jesus, “that, if you would
believe in me, you should see the glory of God?”
41 So they moved the stone away; and Jesus, with uplifted eyes,
said:
“Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard
my prayer;
42 I knew that thou always hearest
me; but I say this for the sake of the people
standing near, so that they may believe that
thou hast sent me as thy Messenger.”
43 Then, after saying this, Jesus called in a loud voice:
“Lazarus! come out!”
44 The dead man came out, wrapped hand and foot in a winding-sheet;
his face, too, had been wrapped in a cloth.
“Set him free,” said Jesus, “and let him go.”
45 In consequence of this, many of the Jews, who had come to
visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did, learnt to believe in
him.
46 Some of them, however, went to the Pharisees, and
told them what he had done.
note
47 Upon this the Chief Priests and the Pharisees
called a meeting of the High Council, and said:
“What are we to do, now that this man is
giving so many signs?
48 If we let him alone as we
are doing, every one will believe in him; and the Romans will
come and will take from us both our City and our Nationality.” note
49 One of them, however, Caiaphas, who was High Priest
that year, said to them:
50 “You are utterly mistaken. You do not consider that it
is better for you that one man should die for the people, rather
than that the whole nation should be destroyed.”
51 Now he did not say this of his own accord; but, as High Priest
-- --
that year, he prophesied that Jesus was to die for the nation—
and not for the nation only,
52 but also that he might unite
in one body the Children of God now scattered far and
wide. ⪆⪆
53 So from that day they plotted to put Jesus to
death.
note
54 In consequence of this, Jesus did not go about
publicly among the Jews any more, but left that
neighbourhood, and went into the country bordering
on the Wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, where
he stayed with his disciples. ⪆⪆
55 But the Jewish Festival
of the Passover was near; and many people had gone up
from the country to Jerusalem, for their ‘purification,’ before
the Festival began.
56 So they looked for Jesus there, and said
to one another, as they stood in the Temple Courts:
“What do you think? Do you think he will come to the
Festival?”
57 The Chief Priests and the Pharisees had already issued orders
that, if any one learnt where Jesus was, he should give information,
so that they might arrest him.
Twentieth Century [1904], THE TWENTIETH CENTURY NEW TESTAMENT A TRANSLATION INTO MODERN ENGLISH Made from the Original Greek (Westcott & Hort's Text) (The Fleming H. Revell Company, NEW YORK & CHICAGO) [word count] [B14200].