Believest thou this? 27 She saith unto him, ch. iv. 42: vi. 14, 69. 8 never die. Yea, Lord I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of Matt. xvi. 16. God, which should come into the world. 28 And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth [for] thee. 29 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him. 30 Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him. 31 p The Jews then which were with her in the house, and p ver. 19. comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. 32 m Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, [she] fell down at his feet, saying unto him, a Lord, if thou hadst been here, a ver. 21. gor, not die for evermore. h render, is to come. krender, were comforting. 1 i omit. Many of our ancient authorities read, thinking. m render, Mary therefore, when she came. died, shall live" in the second, that he living and believing, shall never die." Olshausen's remark, that living and dying, in the second clause, must both be physical, if one is, is wrong; the antithesis consisting, in both clauses, in the reciprocation of the two senses, physical and spiritual; and serving in the latter clause, as a key hereafter to the condition of Lazarus, when raised from the dead. There can hardly be any reference in ver. 26 to the state of the living faithful at the Lord's coming (1 Cor. xv. 51),-for although the Apostle there, speaking of believers primarily and especially, uses the first person,-the saying would be equally true of unbelievers, on whose bodies the change from the corruptible to the incorruptible will equally pass, and of whom the "shall never die" here would be equally true, whereas the saying is one setting forth an exclusive privilege of the man that liveth and believeth on me. Besides, such an interpretation would set aside all reference to Lazarus, or to present cir27.] Her confession, though embracing the great central point of the truth in the last verse, does not enter fully into it. Nor does she (ver. 40) seem to have adequately apprehended its meaning. "That He spoke great things about Himself, she knew: but in what sense He spoke them, she did not know: and therefore when asked one thing, she cumstances. replies another." Euthymius. I-em phatic: I for my part: and the word there- 32.] The words of Mary are fewer, and her my brother had not died. 33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, 34 and said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord,· r Luke xix. 41. Come and see. 35 Jesus wept. 36 p Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! 37 And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? 38 Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the • render, was greatly moved in spirit, and troubled himself. Prender, The Jews therefore said. rrender, the blind man. sch. ix. 6. trender, greatly moved within himself. arrival of the Jews: cf. ver. 33. 33.] In explaining this difficult verse, two I render, But. 8 render, also that. hypocritical tears with the true ones of the troubled himself is understood by Meyer, and perhaps rightly, as describing an outward motion of the body,-He shuddered: and so Euthymius, "He trembled, as is usual with those who are thus affected." Cyril's comment is to the same effect: that it was His divinity, rebuking, and in conflict with, His human feelings, which caused His frame to shudder. 35-38.] It is probable that the second set of Jews (ver. 37) spoke with a scoffing and hostile purport for St. John seldom uses but as a mere copula, but generally as expressing a contrast: see vv. 46, 49, 51. It is (as Trench remarks) a point of accuracy in the narrative, that these dwellers in Jerusalem should refer to a miracle so well known among themselves, rather than to the former raisings of the dead in Galilee, of which they probably may have heard, but naturally would not thoroughly believe on rumour only. Again, of raising Lazarus none of them seem to have thought, only of preventing his death. This second being greatly moved of our Lord I would refer to the same reason as the first. "He wept, as allowing nature to manifest herself: .... there again he re u 39 Jesus grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh for he hath been [ dead] four days. 40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? 41 z Then they took away the stone [a from the place where the dead was laid]. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. 42 b And I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of the people tch. xii. 30. ■ render, against. I not expressed in the original. a omit. I render, saith. C render, for the sake of the multitude. bukes the affections." Euthymius. Only he assigns a didactic purpose, to teach us moderation in our tears; I should rather believe the self-restraint to have been exercised as a preparation for what followed. The caves were generally horizontal, natural or artificial, with recesses in the sides, where the bodies were laid. There is no necessity here for supposing the entrance to have been otherwise than horizontal, as the word cave would lead us to believe. Graves were of both kinds: we have the vertically sunk mentioned Luke xi. 44. Compare Isa. xxii. 16; 2 Chron. xvi. 14; 2 Kings xxiii. 16. Probably, from this circumstance, as from 'the Jews' coming to condole,—and the costly ointment (ch. xii. 3),-the family was wealthy. 39.] The corpse had not been embalmed, but merely wrapped in linen clothes with spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury,'- -see ch. xix. 40, and ver. 44 below. The expression, the sister of him that was dead, as Meyer remarks, notes the natural horror of the sister's heart at what was about to be done. ་ There is no reason to avoid the assumption of the plain fact (see below) stated in by this time he stinketh. I cannot see that any monstrous character (as asserted by Olshausen and Trench) is given to the miracle by it; any more than such a character can be predicated of restoring the withered hand. In fact, the very act of death is the beginning of decomposition. I have no hesitation, with almost all the ancient, and many of the best modern Commentators, in assuming her words as expressing a fact, and indeed with Stier, believing them to be spoken not as a supposition, but as a (sensible) fact. The VOL. I. entrances to these vaults were not built u ch. xx. 7. x ch. ii. 23: x. 42: xii. 11, 18. : d X which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. 43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that 44 f was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go. 45 g Then many of the Jews, which came to Mary, and had seen the things which i Jesus did, believed on him. 46 But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, 47 y k Then and told them what things Jesus had done. iv. Luke gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. 48 If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away both y Ps ii. 2. Matt. xxvi. 3. xxii. 2. z ch. xii. 19. Acts iv. 16. d render, might. appear. Probably in Peræa, before the chin. home. 45-57.] THE DEATH OF JESUS THE LIFE OF THE WORLD. Consequences of e better, cried out. render, Many therefore. read, he. are we doing, seeing that. ... the miracle. Meeting of the Sanhedrim; 48.] They evidently regarded the result of all believing on Him,' as likely to be, that He would be set up as king: which would soon bring about the ruin here mentioned. Augustine understands our place and nation. 49 And one of them, [m named] a a Luke iii. 2. ch. xviii. 14. Acts iv. 6. Caiaphas, being [the] high priest that [same] year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, 50 b nor con- b ch. xviii. 14. sider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. 51 And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for P that nation; 52 and not for P that nation only, e but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. 53 8 Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to m not expressed in the original. rrender, are. it differently: that, all men being per- P render, the. с Isa. xlix. 6. deh. x. 10. 1 John ii. 2. Eph. ii. 14, 15, 16, 17. 8 render, Therefore. tion to that (remarkable) year,' without Observe people here, the usual term for the chosen people, and then nation, when it is regarded as a nation among the nations: compare also ver. 52. not of himself] i.e. not merely of himself, but under the influence of the Spirit, who caused him to utter words, of the full meaning of which he had no conception. being high priest . . . he prophesied] There certainly was a belief, probably arising originally from the use of the Urim and Thummim, that the High Priest, and indeed every priest, had some knowledge of dreams and utterance of prophecy. Philo the Jew says, "A true priest is ipso facto a prophet." That this belief existed, may account for the expression here; which however does not confirm it in all cases, but asserts the fact that the Spirit in this case made use of him as High Priest, for this purpose. This confirms the above view of the words that year, here again repeated. See on ver. 49. that Jesus was about to die...] the |