Translation commentary on John 11:1

The story of the death of Lazarus (verses 1-16) is a self-contained unit, and so the first two verses serve primarily to introduce Lazarus. Verse 1 gives his name and the town where he lived, while verse 2 relates him to Mary, whom the Gospel writer intimates his readers will know. Verse 1 is considerably reordered in Good News Translation and in most modern translations (see Phillips, New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible). This reordering is intended to achieve a more natural construction in English. Compare, for example, the rather literal rendering of Revised Standard Version with Good News Translation and New English Bible. Revised Standard Version reads “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.” Good News Translation renders this verse A man named Lazarus, who lived in Bethany, became sick. Bethany was the town where Mary and her sister Martha lived. New English Bible reads “There was a man named Lazarus who had fallen ill. His home was at Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.”

Lazarus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Eleazar, which means “God helps.” It appears elsewhere in the New Testament only in Luke 16.19-31, the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. It may be that the meaning of the name Lazarus was in John’s mind, though he makes no attempt to explain it to his readers.

A man named Lazarus is a typical way in which a character is introduced in a narrative in English. Languages differ considerably in the ways in which names may be introduced, for example, “a man the people called Lazarus,” “a man whose name was Lazarus,” “a man who had the name Lazarus,” or “a man Lazarus.”

The Bethany referred to here is not the Bethany of 1.28. The Bethany of this verse is identified with the modern town of El ʿAzariyeh, just east of Jerusalem. The modern name of the town is itself derived from the name Lazarus.

Except in the Gospel of John the two sisters, Martha and Mary, are mentioned only in Luke 10.38-42. Luke does not identify where they lived, John seems to mention the names of the two sisters with the expectation that their names will be known to the reader, even if that of Lazarus is not. It may appear quite anomalous, or even contradictory, in some languages to introduce Mary and her sister Martha in verse 1 and then indicate in verse 2 that Lazarus is the brother of Mary. He would obviously be the brother of Martha as well, and not to have said so in verse 1 may leave readers in some receptor languages dubious as to what the relations really were. It may be necessary in some languages to introduce into verse 1 the statement “These were Lazarus’ sisters” or “Bethany was the town where his sisters Mary and Martha lived.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on John 11:1

Section 11:1–16

Jesus’ friend Lazarus died

In this section, a friend of Jesus, a man named Lazarus, became sick and died. Jesus waited until after he died before he went to Lazarus’ town. Jesus told his disciples that they should go because Lazarus was asleep and he wanted to wake him. They did not understand, so Jesus had to tell them that Lazarus was dead.

Here are other possible section headings:

Lazarus got sick and died
-or-
Jesus waited until after Lazarus died before going to him

Paragraph 11:1–3

This paragraph introduces some new people, Jesus’ friends. There were two sisters, Mary and Martha, and one brother, Lazarus. Lazarus became seriously ill, so the sisters sent a message to Jesus.

11:1a

At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as At this time here introduces a new event in the story. Introduce this new event in a way that is natural in your own language. For example:

There was a man named Lazarus who had fallen ill. (Revised English Bible)

a man named Lazarus: The phrase a man introduces a new person into the story. He is an important person in this story. Introduce Lazarus in a way that is natural in your language. For example:

A man by the name of Lazarus (Contemporary English Version)

was sick: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as sick here indicates that Lazarus had a very serious illness, one that could be fatal. This was Lazarus’ condition at the start of the story. It appears that Lazarus became ill at this time. Because he had not always been ill, it may be natural to say:

became ill (Good News Translation)

He lived in Bethany: Bethany was a village or small town less than two miles east of Jerusalem. This was where Lazarus lived. In some languages it is natural to make that explicit. For example:

Lazarus, who lived in Bethany (Good News Translation)
-or-
His home was at Bethany (Revised English Bible)

General Comment on 11:1a

Verse 11:1a tells us two things about Lazarus: he was sick, and he lived in Bethany. In some languages it may be natural to translate this information using two independent clauses or sentences. For example:

A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in the town of Bethany… (New Century Version)
-or-
There was a man named Lazarus who became very ill. His home was in Bethany…

11:1b

the village of Mary and her sister Martha: This phrase describes Bethany. It indicates that Mary and her sister Martha also lived in the village of Bethany. Mary and Martha were Lazarus’ sisters. They are also mentioned in Luke 10:38–42. See the General Comment on 11:1–2.

In some languages it may be natural to translate this as a separate sentence. For example:

Bethany was the town where Mary and her sister Martha lived. (Good News Translation)

© 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.