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Chapter 11

The Raising of Lazarus.[a] Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany,(A) the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

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Footnotes

  1. 11:1–44 The raising of Lazarus, the longest continuous narrative in John outside of the passion account, is the climax of the signs. It leads directly to the decision of the Sanhedrin to kill Jesus. The theme of life predominates. Lazarus is a token of the real life that Jesus dead and raised will give to all who believe in him. Johannine irony is found in the fact that Jesus’ gift of life leads to his own death. The story is not found in the synoptics, but cf. Mk 5:21 and parallels; Lk 7:11–17. There are also parallels between this story and Luke’s parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus (Lk 16:19–31). In both a man named Lazarus dies; in Luke, there is a request that he return to convince his contemporaries of the need for faith and repentance, while in John, Lazarus does return and some believe but others do not.

The Death of Lazarus

11 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany,(A) the village of Mary and her sister Martha.(B)

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They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.(A) Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus[a] and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 12:3 The feet of Jesus: so Mk 14:3; but in Mt 26:6, Mary anoints Jesus’ head as a sign of regal, messianic anointing.

Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served,(A) while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint[a] of pure nard, an expensive perfume;(B) she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair.(C) And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

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Footnotes

  1. John 12:3 Or about 0.5 liter