11:12a

His disciples replied: See how you translated disciples in 11:7. In some languages it may be natural to make it clear whose disciples they were.

Lord: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Lord means “master.” It was a polite way for disciples to address their teacher. See how you translated this in 11:3b.

if he is sleeping: This clause states a condition that is assumed to be true. The disciples had just heard Jesus say that Lazarus had fallen asleep. They understood him literally. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

If he is asleep (Good News Translation)
-or-
if he is sleeping (New Living Translation (2004))

11:12b

he will get better: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as he will get better is more literally “he will be saved.” Here it refers to recovery from illness. The disciples understood that Lazarus had gone to sleep. They thought that if he was sleeping, this would help him to recover from his illness. Here are other ways to translate this verb:

he will get well (Good News Translation)
-or-
he will be all right (New Revised Standard 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.