Section 12:9–11

The Jewish leaders plotted to kill Lazarus

Many people came to see Jesus. But they also came to see Lazarus because Jesus raised him from the dead. As a result, the chief priests decided that they needed to kill Lazarus in addition to Jesus.

Here are some other possible titles for this section:

The chief priests decided to kill Lazarus too
-or-
The plot to kill Lazarus

12:9a

Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews learned that Jesus was there: This clause introduces a new part of the story, telling what happened next. Introduce this new event in a way that is natural in your language. For example:

Now a large crowd of Judeans learned that Jesus was there (NET Bible Bible)
-or-
A large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was in Bethany. (God’s Word)

a large crowd of Jews:
The phrase a large crowd of Jews here refers to the local people, inhabitants of Judea, the province that included Jerusalem. For example:

a large crowd of Judeans (NET Bible Bible)
-or-
a large number of people (Good News Translation)

learned that Jesus was there: The people heard the news that Jesus had gone to Bethany. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

heard of Jesus’ arrival (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
found out that Jesus was in Bethany (God’s Word)
-or-
heard that Jesus was in Bethany (Good News Translation)

12:9b

And they came: This clause indicates that the Jews who learned that Jesus was in Bethany went there. In some languages it may not be natural to use a word like came here. For example:

they went there (God’s Word)

not only because of Him, but also to see Lazarus: These people came/went to Bethany hoping to see both Jesus and Lazarus. Seeing Jesus was not their only reason for coming, but it was one reason. Translate this expression in a way that is natural and clear in your language. For example:

not only because they wanted to see Jesus, but also because they wanted to see Lazarus
-or-
not only to see Jesus but also to see Lazarus (God’s Word)
-or-
to see him and also to see Lazarus (New Living Translation (2004))

General Comment on 12:9a–b

In some languages it may be natural to combine the information in 12:9a–b. Then you would make “the great crowd of the Jews” (rather than “they”) the subject of the verb “came.” For example:

A lot of people came when they heard that Jesus was there. They also wanted to see Lazarus…. (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
Hearing that Jesus had arrived, a crowd of Jewish people came ⌊to Bethany⌋ . They hoped/wanted to see Jesus and Lazarus as well

12:9c

whom He had raised from the dead: The word whom introduces some information about Lazarus. It refers to the narrative in John 11, telling how Jesus made Lazarus alive after he died. This information explains why the people wanted to see him. For example:

because Jesus had raised him from death (Contemporary English Version)

General Comment on 12:9

In some languages it is more natural to break this information into more than one sentence. For example:

A large crowd of Jews heard that Jesus was in Bethany. So they went there to see not only Jesus but Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead. (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.