John

Chapter 11 (Continued)
30~~(Now Jesus
'had not come and there was no intention for Him to come' {erchomai}
into the town/village,
but kept on being in the place
where Martha had come out to meet Him.)

{Note: Erchomai is the simple word for coming. It is used for Jesus because He did the teaching to Martha, He had not been learning from her. It is in the pluperfect tense though that means 'He had not come and there was no intention for Him to come' to the village. He said in verse 11 Let us go to HIM to awaken him. Now we find that He never planned on going into the village first. }

31~~Then the Jews
  {religious legalists and probably unbelieving - but still friends}
from Jerusalem who were with Mary in the house
'ineffectually comforting her with words' {paramutheomai again}
saw her {Mary} rise up {anistemi} quickly and go out.
They followed her,
concluding that she was going to the tomb
for the purpose that she might weep there.

32~~ Now when Mary came {erchomai} to the place
where Jesus kept on being
and having seen Him,
she fell down at His feet
and kept on saying to Him,
"Lord, if You had kept on being here
- but you were not {second class condition} -
my brother would absolutely not {ouk} have died."

{Note: In Luke 10:39 Mary learns at the feet of Jesus. Here she fails at the feet of Jesus. In the next Chapter, Mary succeeds at the feet of Jesus. Here she uses the same words as her sister Martha did in verse 21. This gives us the idea that the two sisters were talking the issue over and each concluded that Jesus was at fault. Mary had doctrine. If she had relied on it instead of listening to other humans, she probably would not have failed here. Principal - other believers can lead you astray. Rely on doctrine in a crisis - period. You can NOT operate on the doctrine - or lack thereof - in the souls of others!}

{Verses 33-46:7th Sign of Messiahship}
33~~ When Jesus saw her 'hopelessly weeping' {klaio},
and the Jewish people
who had come with her 'hopelessly weeping {klaio},
He expressed 'inner righteous indignation {embrimaomai}
in His {human} spirit
and He 'privately entered into their sorrow' {tarasso heautou}
  {idiom - literally says 'He agitated/troubled Himself'.

{Note: The word used for Mary's weeping is klaio. She should not be grieving 'as those who have no absolute confidence in phase III'. Same word was used with the unbelieving Jewish friends. But in Verse 35, the word dakruo was used for weeping instead. This means Christian grieve for the loss, but not a terrible grief as if you will never see them again.}

{Note: Embrimaomai is a compound verb. Brimaomai means 'to snort with anger/indignation'. Em means He did this on the inside. Embrimaomai means that Jesus had righteous indignation in His Human Spirit.

34~~He {Jesus} asked,
"Where have you laid him {Lazarus}?"
  {question is designed to divert their attention from their grief}
They replied, "Lord, keep on coming
  {erchomai - present active imperative}
and see {horao - aorist active imperative} . . . but it is hopeless."

{Note: 'But it is hopeless' is a translation of the Greek syntactical change in verbs erchomai and then horao. The syntax change in verbs indicates the hopelessness of the situation.}

{Jesus Wept}
35~~The Jesus 'softly, genuinely shed tears' {dakruo}.

{Note: Above we see Mary and the Jews 'hopelessly weeping' (klaio). But for Jesus weeping the word used is dakruo. This word is for the soft, tender, genuine shedding of tears. It is often used in the Greek for the soft crying of a woman when she is happy.}

{Correct Human Viewpoint}
36~~Thus the Jews kept on saying,
"Look how much He {Jesus}
loved {phileo - rapport love} him!"

{Human Viewpoint Accusing Jesus}
37~~And some of them said,
"Could not this Man
Who caused the opening of the eyes of the blind,
keep on being able to have caused that this man {Lazarus}
should not have died?"

{Lazarus Raised from the Dead}
38~~Jesus, having again inner indignation {embrimaomai}
came to the tomb.
(Now it was a cave, and a stone was placed across it.)

{Jesus/God Lets Man Do What He is Able To Do - then More Human Viewpoint}
39~~ Jesus said, "Take away the stone."
Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him,
"Lord, by this time the body will stink/'have a bad smell
  {ozo - bad odor}',
because he has been buried four days."

{Note: Just as in Acts, the angel sent to Peter told him to 'get dressed' after the angel removed his chains, here Jesus orders the Jews to do what men can do - remove the stone. The He as God will do what only God can do.}

40~~Jesus said unto her {Martha},
"Didn't I say unto you
that if you believe
  {faith rest here, not salvation - she is already saved}
- maybe you will rest in the ability of the Lord, maybe you will not -
you would see {optanomai} the glory {doxa} of God?"

{Man Does What Man Do - Leave the Rest Up to the Lord!}
41~~So they lifted up {airo} the stone from
{the entrance to} him who was dead.
Jesus lifted up {airo} His eyes and said {lego},
"Father, I keep on thanking You
that You have heard Me in the past with results
that continue forever {aorist tense}."

{Note: Part of the sense of humor of God the Holy Spirit. The people used their muscles to lift away - airo - the stone from the cave/tomb of Lazarus. Jesus Christ only had to lift up His eyes - airo again - to raise Lazarus from the dead. Also, the verb lego is used when speaking without communicating doctrine. Laleo is used when doctrine is being communicated.}

42~~" I have 'confidence from knowing in the past with the result that I keep on knowing
  {oida in the pluperfect - confidence from the inherent knowledge}
that You hear Me at this moment of time . . . always,
but because of the people who stand by {ochlos}
I said this,
for the purpose that they may believe
- at this point in time divorced from time
and perpetuated forever {aorist tense} -
 that You sent Me on a mission {apostello}."

{Note: Oida in the perfect tense means you have inherent knowledge - you know it. Oida in the pluperfect means you not only know it perfectly, but you can apply it to the situation - thereby giving you confidence in the situation.}

{Note: Ochlos is a group of people with no leader and no purpose - a mob. They are here for a 'good' purpose - to 'try and comfort' the family of Lazarus, but without doctrine they really do not know how. Now they are just confused with what is going on.}

43~~Having spoken this,
He shouted with a loud voice,
"LAZARUS . . . HERE . . . OUTSIDE!"

{Note: The soul of Lazarus was thousands of miles away. But he would have heard if Jesus only whispered. Jesus shouted so the multitude gathered would witness the 7th sign of Messiahship that Jesus is now offering. And, Jesus used Lazarus' name so all the dead would not arise!}

44~~The one having died {Lazarus} came forth,
his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth,
and a hanky/cloth wrapped around his face.
Jesus said to them, "Loose him
and permit him to keep on departing
  {Lazarus would need privacy at this moment}."

{The Response of the Jewish Leaders}
45~~ Then many of the Jews
who had come face to face with Mary
and 'having seen with their minds' {theaomai}
the things Jesus did,
believed in Him with results {salivation}
at that point in time divorced from time
and perpetuated forever {pisteuo - aorist tense}.

{Note: We have seen blepo, which is a glance, and horao, which is a panoramic view. Now we have theaomai, which is ' to see with your mind'. Meaning mentally it all came together for them and they now recognized the signs of Messiahship and accepted Christ as their savior.}

46~~But, in contrast,
some from among them {the unbelievers}
went face to face with the Pharisees
and told them what Jesus had done.

{Verses 47-57: Opposition/Reaction from Religion and Rationalism}
47~~Then the 'chief priests'/Sadducees and the Pharisees
gathered the 'Sanhedrin Council' {sunedrion} together
and kept on saying {summary of their discussion follows},
"What are we doing about this?
For this man {Jesus} keeps on doing
many miraculous signs."

{Note: The two main parties in the ruling council that Rome permitted as local rule of Jerusalem were the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the religious crowd. They believed in the Old Testament, but distorted it into a religion. They were self-righteous and full of Tabooism. The Sadducees were rationalists. They were also politicians. They used the Old Testament as a method of keeping the Jews in line but did not believe the 'stories' to be true. The Greek word used here is 'sunedrion' from which we get the Sanhedrin Council. Most of these people are negative to the Lord and are worried about His effect on the people they rule.}

{What to do! Possibility One - Ignore Him}
48~~If we ignore Him {literally - allow Him to go on in this way}
- maybe we will, maybe we will not -
all will believe in Him,
and the Romans will come
and take away our 'status quo'/authority/city
and our nation."

{Note: They fail to recognize the freedom of choice of individuals. Not all would believe in Jesus Christ. And they are afraid that Rome will believe they are not in control and remove them from the authority that they now are permitted.}

49~~And then one of them, Caiaphas,
who kept on being the high priest that year {29-30 AD} said,
"How stupid can you be?
  {idiom - literally is 'You do not know nothing at all!'}"

50~~"'Think like a politician' {oida dialogizomai}
it is more expedient/profitable/advantageous
to have one man die
on behalf of the people
that the whole nation should perish {apollumi}
not {'me' - a Greek negative}."

{Note: Oida means to have inherent knowledge. The meaning of dialogizomai depends on how it is used - to reason in some manner. Here Caiaphas is a smart politician and is telling them to 'use their brains' and think of their own advantage as all 'politicians' do (a statesman actually does think of the people; a politician only thinks of his own interests). He couches it with 'this if FOR the people' as all two-faced politicians do - when it is really their own rulership that they are worried about.}

{Note: Apollumi is the Greek word for total destruction.}

{Human Author John's Parenthetical Observation}
51-52~~(And this he {Caiaphas} did not realize what he was saying
  {idiom - literally 'and this spoke he not entirely from himself'},
but because he was high priest that year
he prophesied that Jesus was going to die
on behalf of that {Jewish} nation, 52~~
and not on behalf of that {Jewish} nation only,
but to gather together into one
{Church Age believers - both Jews and Gentiles - one Body of Christ} the children of God who are scattered.)

{Note: Per RBT, John added his observation to what Caiaphas did. John is noting from 20/20 hindsight that Caiaphas did not intend to prophesize, but he did predict the future.}

53~~ So from that day
they planned together to destroy {apokteino} Him.

{Note: Apokteino is now used instead of apollumi. This means 'to annihilate Him' - both Him and His message.}

{Jesus Changes His Policy}
54~~ Jesus, therefore {in view of the threat in verse 53},
no longer walked about 'freely'/openly/publicly
  {parrhesia - freely - religion ALWAYS restricts
  the freedoms of the people}
among the Jews,
but, in contrast,
went away from there to the region near the wilderness,
 to a town called Ephraim,
and stayed there with His disciples.

55~~And then the Jews Passover was near,
and many people went up to Jerusalem from the rural areas
before the Passover to 'ritually cleanse' {hagnizo} themselves.

56~~And, then they began to search for Jesus,
and kept on talking to themselves
as they stood in the temple courts,
"What do you think/speculate?
That He absolutely will 'not never' {me ouk - strong negative}
come to the feast?"

{Note: The Jews speculate that Jesus is afraid to come. He knows He will be killed if He comes! He has taken Himself out of public view.}

57~~Now both the chief priests/Sadducees and the Pharisees
had given an order/'public law'
that if anyone who knew where He {Jesus} kept on being
-maybe they did know, maybe they did not know -
they should show/report {it},
for the purpose that they could take/arrest Him.

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