![]() ![]() While Jesus was visiting them one day, Martha was hard at work cleaning the home and preparing food for the guests. They were devoted disciples of Jesus, and Jesus had a special affection for them. It is not just that raising Lazarus from the dead would show Christ’s dignity and worth, but that it would also reveal that he and God have the power to raise the dead after an extended period of time, which the disciples needed to be completely convinced of, because they had to believe that Jesus could come back from the dead after he had been in the grave three days and nights (see commentary on John 11:6, “stayed two more days”).Their home was in Bethany, a little hamlet in Judaea not far from Jerusalem, where Mary, Martha, and their brother, Lazarus, shared a common life. In the Greek and Roman culture, the idea of “glory” also often contained the idea of power or might, and that is the case here. It is related to the noun “glory,” which is doxa (#1391 δόξα ). “glorified.” The Greek word is the verb doxazō (#1392 δοξάζω pronounced dox-'ad-zo), and it refers to glory: i.e., holding in honor, show and acknowledge the dignity, power, and worth of someone. As to the preposition huper, it can mean “to do or suffer anything.” d God does not make people sick just to make them well. That does not mean God made Lazarus sick no verse says that. “but to the glory of God.” The sickness would result in God’s being glorified. It seems more likely, both from when the messengers would have arrived where Jesus was, and what Jesus said, that Lazarus was already dead when the messengers arrived. Some commentators think that Lazarus did not die until after the messengers left Jesus and headed back to Bethany, and Jesus knew by revelation that Lazarus had just died and stayed where he was for two more days. For Jesus to say the sickness would not end in death when Lazarus was already dead was a way of saying he would raise Lazarus from the dead. If we translate the phrase, “This sickness will not end in death” (HCSB NIV) or “This sickness will not lead to death” (ESV NET), we can see what it is saying when we realize that Jesus knew Lazarus was already dead. If the messengers returned to Mary and Martha and told them exactly what Jesus had said, they could have rested in hope that no matter what happened to Lazarus, he would live. He did not say Lazarus would not die, what he said was that the final result of the sickness would not be death. Nevertheless, he did not tell people that, but worded his statement in a way that was true without revealing what he knew. Jesus knew Lazarus was dead when the messengers arrived to say he was sick, something we learn by putting the record together, understanding the context, scope of Scripture, and geography. Thus some translations read, “will not” end in death, while the REV attempts to keep the present tense verb and also communicate that the phrase is speaking of an ultimate result: thus, “is not ending in death.” Meyer translates the phrase: “it is not to have death for its result.” c Also, the verb is in the present tense, although that makes it hard to translate into English without it being awkward English. Newman and Nida write: “The Greek expression ‘this sickness is not to death’ means that ‘death will not be the final result of this sickness.’” a While Newman and Nida say “final result,” Robertson and Vincent both say death would not be the “final issue.” b H. ![]() Jesus already knew he would raise Lazarus from the dead, something he plainly stated in John 11:11. The phrase means that the final result of the sickness would not be death. ![]() The Greek phrase πρὸς θάνατον would literally mean something such as “with a view to death,” as if you could translate it, “This sickness is not with a view to death.” The point was not that Lazarus would not die, because in fact, he was already dead (see commentary on John 11:6). “is not ending in death.” The Greek has an unusual construction here. ![]()
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