![]() ![]() ![]() "it is usual to say of the righteous, that there is no death in them,, "but sleep" '' In answer to his disciples, and made a pause.Īnd after that he saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth meaning, that he was dead in which sense the word is often used in the Old Testament, and in the common dialect of the Jews, and frequently in their writings and especially it is so used of good men: and it is an observation of theirs (b), that Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleThese things said he. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death - But the real meaning of what Jesus said was, that Lazarus was dead, though his words were such that the disciples understood him as speaking of natural sleep. Then said his disciples - Not apprehending his meaning Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well - Understanding his words in a literal sense, they replied that they took his sleeping as a symptom of his speedy recovery and by so saying intimated that there was no need of their going into Judea on Lazarus’s account. page 297,) mentions the manner of speaking used here by our Lord, as an instance of his great modesty, as he does not immediately say, “He is dead, and I go by my almighty power to burst the bonds of the sepulchre, and to command him back to life again ” but, avoiding all parade and ostentation, he chooses the most simple and humble expression that can be thought of. But I go that I may awake him out of sleep - Referring to that raising him from the dead, which he intended quickly to effect. And the slowness of our understanding in divine things causes the Scripture often to descend to our barbarous manner of speaking. But the disciples did not yet understand this language. Sleepeth - Thus our Lord speaks, partly out of tenderness to his apostles, as being least shocking when he spoke of so dear a friend and partly because the death of good men is only sleep, in the language of heaven. These things said he - To silence their objections, and prepare their minds for what he yet concealed and after that, as he perfectly knew what had passed at Bethany, though so many miles distant from it, he saith, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth - This, it is probable, he spoke just when he died. It is not unfrequent in other passages of both the Old and New Testaments, and, from the time of Homer downwards, poets have spoken of sleep and death as twin-sisters.īenson Commentary John 11:11-13. Notes on John 8:51, Matthew 9:24, and 1Thessalonians 4:14. He who needed not that any should testify of man, because of His own self-knowledge of what was in man ( John 2:25), needed not that any should testify of what had passed in the chamber of His friend.įor the idea of sleep as the image of death, comp. ![]() Prom his point of view it could need none. The fact of our Lord’s knowledge of the death of Lazarus is stated by St. His words “our friend” gently remind them that Lazarus was their friend as well as His, for they as well as He had probably been welcome guests in the well-known house. He now supplies that reason, and for the first time speaks of going to the family at Bethany. They have seen, therefore, no reason for facing the danger of Judæa ( John 11:7-8). They had probably understood the words of John 11:4 to express that the illness was not mortal, and that Lazarus would recover. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(11) Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.-Better, Our friend Lazarus is fallen asleep.
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