Section 11:38–44
Jesus raised Lazarus to life
In this section Jesus went to Lazarus’ tomb. He ordered that someone remove the stone from the opening of the cave where Lazarus was buried. Martha worried about the bad smell, but Jesus reminded her that if she believed, she would see God’s glory. Jesus prayed and called Lazarus to come out, which he did.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead
-or-
God’s glory was revealed when Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead
Paragraph 11:38–44
Jesus went to Lazarus’ tomb and called to him to come out. Lazarus obeyed and came out of his tomb alive.
11:38a
Jesus, once again deeply moved, came to the tomb: Again Jesus experienced emotional distress. See how you translated the same phrase deeply moved in 11:33c. For example:
Again feeling very upset (New Century Version)
came to the tomb: This phrase indicates that Jesus approached the cave where Lazarus was buried. See the note on “the tomb” at 11:17.
11:38b
It was a cave: The word It refers to the tomb or place where the body of Lazarus was lying. Lazarus was buried in a cave, a hole in a hill. This was the traditional and usual way for the Jews to bury their dead at that time.
a stone laid across the entrance: This clause indicates that a stone covered the entrance. For example:
with a stone covering the entrance (God’s Word)
-or-
with a stone placed at the entrance (Good News Translation)
a stone: This phrase here refers to a large (1.5–2 meters across) round flat rock in the shape of a coin. Men had rolled this stone in front of the entrance to the cave. The stone leaned against the cave entrance, closing it. Here is another way to translate this phrase:
a large stone (New Century Version)
© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.