John 11
Common English Bible
Lazarus is ill
11 A certain man, Lazarus, was ill. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (2 This was the Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was ill.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, saying, “Lord, the one whom you love is ill.”
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This illness isn’t fatal. It’s for the glory of God so that God’s Son can be glorified through it.” 5 Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. 6 When he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed where he was. After two days, 7 he said to his disciples, “Let’s return to Judea again.”
8 The disciples replied, “Rabbi, the Jewish opposition wants to stone you, but you want to go back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours in the day? Whoever walks in the day doesn’t stumble because they see the light of the world. 10 But whoever walks in the night does stumble because the light isn’t in them.”
11 He continued, “Our friend Lazarus is sleeping, but I am going in order to wake him up.”
12 The disciples said, “Lord, if he’s sleeping, he will get well.” 13 They thought Jesus meant that Lazarus was in a deep sleep, but Jesus had spoken about Lazarus’ death.
14 Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died. 15 For your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there so that you can believe. Let’s go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (the one called Didymus) said to the other disciples, “Let us go too so that we may die with Jesus.”
Jesus with Martha and Mary
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Bethany was a little less than two miles from Jerusalem. 19 Many Jews had come to comfort Martha and Mary after their brother’s death. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, while Mary remained in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22 Even now I know that whatever you ask God, God will give you.”
23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die. 26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 She replied, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, the one who is coming into the world.”
28 After she said this, she went and spoke privately to her sister Mary, “The teacher is here and he’s calling for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Jesus. 30 He hadn’t entered the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were comforting Mary in the house saw her get up quickly and leave, they followed her. They assumed she was going to mourn at the tomb.
32 When Mary arrived where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her crying and the Jews who had come with her crying also, he was deeply disturbed and troubled. 34 He asked, “Where have you laid him?”
They replied, “Lord, come and see.”
35 Jesus began to cry. 36 The Jews said, “See how much he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “He healed the eyes of the man born blind. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”
Jesus at Lazarus’ tomb
38 Jesus was deeply disturbed again when he came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone covered the entrance. 39 Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”
Martha, the sister of the dead man, said, “Lord, the smell will be awful! He’s been dead four days.”
40 Jesus replied, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you will see God’s glory?” 41 So they removed the stone. Jesus looked up and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. 42 I know you always hear me. I say this for the benefit of the crowd standing here so that they will believe that you sent me.” 43 Having said this, Jesus shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his feet bound and his hands tied, and his face covered with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”
45 Therefore, many of the Jews who came with Mary and saw what Jesus did believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
Caiaphas prophesies
47 Then the chief priests and Pharisees called together the council[a] and said, “What are we going to do? This man is doing many miraculous signs! 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our people.”
49 One of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, told them, “You don’t know anything! 50 You don’t see that it is better for you that one man die for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed.” 51 He didn’t say this on his own. As high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would soon die for the nation— 52 and not only for the nation. Jesus would also die so that God’s children scattered everywhere would be gathered together as one. 53 From that day on they plotted to kill him.
The Passover draws near
54 Therefore, Jesus was no longer active in public ministry among the Jewish leaders. Instead, he left Jerusalem and went to a place near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.
55 It was almost time for the Jewish Passover, and many people went from the countryside up to Jerusalem to purify themselves through ritual washing before the Passover. 56 They were looking for Jesus. As they spoke to each other in the temple, they said, “What do you think? He won’t come to the festival, will he?” 57 The chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where he was should report it, so they could arrest him.
Footnotes
- John 11:47 Or Sanhedrin
John 11
Young's Literal Translation
11 And there was a certain one ailing, Lazarus, from Bethany, of the village of Mary and Martha her sister --
2 and it was Mary who did anoint the Lord with ointment, and did wipe his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ailing --
3 therefore sent the sisters unto him, saying, `Sir, lo, he whom thou dost love is ailing;'
4 and Jesus having heard, said, `This ailment is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.'
5 And Jesus was loving Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus,
6 when, therefore, he heard that he is ailing, then indeed he remained in the place in which he was two days,
7 then after this, he saith to the disciples, `We may go to Judea again;'
8 the disciples say to him, `Rabbi, now were the Jews seeking to stone thee, and again thou dost go thither!'
9 Jesus answered, `Are there not twelve hours in the day? if any one may walk in the day, he doth not stumble, because the light of this world he doth see;
10 and if any one may walk in the night, he stumbleth, because the light is not in him.'
11 These things he said, and after this he saith to them, `Lazarus our friend hath fallen asleep, but I go on that I may awake him;'
12 therefore said his disciples, `Sir, if he hath fallen asleep, he will be saved;'
13 but Jesus had spoken about his death, but they thought that about the repose of sleep he speaketh.
14 Then, therefore, Jesus said to them freely, `Lazarus hath died;
15 and I rejoice, for your sake, (that ye may believe,) that I was not there; but we may go to him;'
16 therefore said Thomas, who is called Didymus, to the fellow-disciples, `We may go -- we also, that we may die with him,'
17 Jesus, therefore, having come, found him having been four days already in the tomb.
18 And Bethany was nigh to Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off,
19 and many of the Jews had come unto Martha and Mary, that they might comfort them concerning their brother;
20 Martha, therefore, when she heard that Jesus doth come, met him, and Mary kept sitting in the house.
21 Martha, therefore, said unto Jesus, `Sir, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died;
22 but even now, I have known that whatever thou mayest ask of God, God will give to thee;'
23 Jesus saith to her, `Thy brother shall rise again.'
24 Martha saith to him, `I have known that he will rise again, in the rising again in the last day;'
25 Jesus said to her, `I am the rising again, and the life; he who is believing in me, even if he may die, shall live;
26 and every one who is living and believing in me shall not die -- to the age;
27 believest thou this?' she saith to him, `Yes, sir, I have believed that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming to the world.'
28 And these things having said, she went away, and called Mary her sister privately, saying, `The Teacher is present, and doth call thee;'
29 she, when she heard, riseth up quickly, and doth come to him;
30 and Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was in the place where Martha met him;
31 the Jews, therefore, who were with her in the house, and were comforting her, having seen Mary that she rose up quickly and went forth, followed her, saying -- `She doth go away to the tomb, that she may weep there.'
32 Mary, therefore, when she came where Jesus was, having seen him, fell at his feet, saying to him, `Sir, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died;'
33 Jesus, therefore, when he saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, did groan in the spirit, and troubled himself, and he said,
34 `Where have ye laid him?' they say to him, `Sir, come and see;'
35 Jesus wept.
36 The Jews, therefore, said, `Lo, how he was loving him!'
37 and certain of them said, `Was not this one, who did open the eyes of the blind man, able to cause that also this one might not have died?'
38 Jesus, therefore, again groaning in himself, cometh to the tomb, and it was a cave, and a stone was lying upon it,
39 Jesus saith, `Take ye away the stone;' the sister of him who hath died -- Martha -- saith to him, `Sir, already he stinketh, for he is four days dead;'
40 Jesus saith to her, `Said I not to thee, that if thou mayest believe, thou shalt see the glory of God?'
41 They took away, therefore, the stone where the dead was laid, and Jesus lifted his eyes upwards, and said, `Father, I thank Thee, that Thou didst hear me;
42 and I knew that Thou always dost hear me, but, because of the multitude that is standing by, I said [it], that they may believe that Thou didst send me.'
43 And these things saying, with a loud voice he cried out, `Lazarus, come forth;'
44 and he who died came forth, being bound feet and hands with grave-clothes, and his visage with a napkin was bound about; Jesus saith to them, `Loose him, and suffer to go.'
45 Many, therefore, of the Jews who came unto Mary, and beheld what Jesus did, believed in him;
46 but certain of them went away unto the Pharisees, and told them what Jesus did;
47 the chief priests, therefore, and the Pharisees, gathered together a sanhedrim, and said, `What may we do? because this man doth many signs?
48 if we may let him alone thus, all will believe in him; and the Romans will come, and will take away both our place and nation.'
49 and a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being chief priest of that year, said to them, `Ye have not known anything,
50 nor reason that it is good for us that one man may die for the people, and not the whole nation perish.'
51 And this he said not of himself, but being chief priest of that year, he did prophesy that Jesus was about to die for the nation,
52 and not for the nation only, but that also the children of God, who have been scattered abroad, he may gather together into one.
53 From that day, therefore, they took counsel together that they may kill him;
54 Jesus, therefore, was no more freely walking among the Jews, but went away thence to the region nigh the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there he tarried with his disciples.
55 And the passover of the Jews was nigh, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the passover, that they might purify themselves;
56 they were seeking, therefore, Jesus, and said one with another, standing in the temple, `What doth appear to you -- that he may not come to the feast?'
57 and both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command, that if any one may know where he is, he may shew [it], so that they may seize him.
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