John 11
Christian Standard Bible Anglicised
Lazarus Dies at Bethany
11 Now a man was ill – Lazarus from Bethany,(A) the village of Mary and her sister Martha.(B) 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair,(C) and it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to him: ‘Lord, the one you love is ill.’
4 When Jesus heard it, he said, ‘This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God,(D) so that the Son of God(E) may be glorified through it.’ 5 Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that he was ill, he stayed two more days in the place where he was. 7 Then after that, he said to the disciples, ‘Let’s go to Judea(F) again.’
8 ‘Rabbi,’(G) the disciples told him, ‘just now the Jews tried to stone you,(H) and you’re going there again? ’
9 ‘Aren’t there twelve hours in a day? ’ Jesus answered. ‘If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.(I) 10 But if anyone walks during the night,(J) he does stumble, because the light is not in him.’
11 He said this, and then he told them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,(K) but I’m on my way to wake him up.’
12 Then the disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.’
13 Jesus, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought he was speaking about natural sleep. 14 So Jesus then told them plainly, ‘Lazarus has died. 15 I’m glad for you that I wasn’t there so that you may believe. But let’s go to him.’
16 Then Thomas(L) (called ‘Twin’[a]) said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let’s go too so that we may die with him.’
The Resurrection and the Life
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb(M) for four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem(N) (less than three kilometres[b] away). 19 Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.
20 As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Then Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22 Yet even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.’
23 ‘Your brother will rise(O) again,’ Jesus told her.
24 Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’(P)
25 Jesus said to her, ‘I am(Q) the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me,(R) even if he dies, will live.(S) 26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.(T) Do you believe this? ’
27 ‘Yes, Lord,’ she told him, ‘I believe you are the Messiah,(U) the Son(V) of God, who comes into the world.’(W)
Jesus Shares the Sorrow of Death
28 Having said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, saying in private, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’
29 As soon as Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.(X) 30 Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw that Mary got up quickly and went out. They followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb(Y) to cry there.
32 As soon as Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet(Z) and told him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died! ’
33 When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was deeply moved[c] in his spirit(AA) and troubled. 34 ‘Where have you put him? ’ he asked.
‘Lord,’ they told him, ‘come and see.’
35 Jesus wept.(AB)
36 So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved(AC) him! ’ 37 But some of them said, ‘Couldn’t he who opened the blind man’s eyes(AD) also have kept this man from dying? ’
The Seventh Sign: Raising Lazarus from the Dead
38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.(AE) 39 ‘Remove the stone,’ Jesus said.
Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, ‘Lord, there is already a stench because he has been dead for four days.’
40 Jesus said to her, ‘Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory(AF) of God? ’(AG)
41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank(AH) you that you heard me.(AI) 42 I know that you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so that they may believe you sent(AJ) me.’ 43 After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out! ’ 44 The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unwrap him and let him go.’
The Plot to Kill Jesus
45 Therefore, many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what he did believed in him.(AK) 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees(AL) and told them what Jesus had done.
47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin(AM) and were saying, ‘What are we going to do since this man is doing many signs? 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans(AN) will come and take away both our place and our nation.’
49 One of them, Caiaphas,(AO) who was high priest(AP) that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all! 50 You’re not considering that it is to your[d] advantage that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.’(AQ) 51 He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die(AR) for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to unite the scattered children(AS) of God. 53 So from that day on they plotted to kill him.(AT)
54 Jesus therefore no longer walked openly(AU) among the Jews but departed from there to the countryside near the wilderness,(AV) to a town called Ephraim, and he stayed there with the disciples.
55 Now the Jewish Passover(AW) was near, and many went up to Jerusalem(AX) from the country to purify themselves before the Passover. 56 They were looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple,(AY) ‘What do you think? He won’t come to the festival,(AZ) will he? ’ 57 The chief priests(BA) and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it so that they could arrest him.
John 11
J.B. Phillips New Testament
Jesus shows his power over death
11 1-3 Now there was a man by the name of Lazarus who became seriously ill. He lived in Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. (Lazarus was the brother of the Mary who poured perfume upon the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus: “Lord, your friend is ill.”
4 When Jesus received the message, he said, “This illness is not meant to end in death; it is going to bring glory to God—for it will show the glory of the Son of God.”
5-7 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard of Lazarus’ illness he stayed where he was two days longer. Only then did he say to the disciples, “Let us go back into Judea.”
8 “Master!” returned the disciples, “only a few days ago, the Jews were trying to stone you to death—are you going there again?”
9-10 “There are twelve hours of daylight every day, are there not?” replied Jesus. “If a man walks in the daytime, he does not stumble, for he has the daylight to see by. But if he walks at night he stumbles, because he cannot see where he is going.”
11 Jesus spoke these words; then after a pause he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going to wake him up.”
12 At this, his disciples said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.”
13-15 Actually Jesus had spoken about his death, but they thought that he was speaking about falling into natural sleep. This made Jesus tell them quite plainly, “Lazarus has died, and I am glad that I was not there—for your sakes, that you may learn to believe. And now, let us go to him.”
16 Thomas (known as the twin) then said to his fellow-disciples, “Come on, then, let us all go and die with him!”
17-20 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the grave four days. Now Bethany is quite near Jerusalem, rather less than two miles away, and a good many of the Jews had come out to see Martha and Mary to offer them sympathy over their brother’s death. When Martha heard that Jesus was on his way, she went out and met him, while Mary stayed in the house.
21-22 “If only you had been here, Lord,” said Martha, “my brother would never have died. And I know that, even now, God will give you whatever you ask from him.”
23 “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus replied to her.
24 “I know,” said Martha, “that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25-26 “I myself am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus told her. “The man who believes in me will live even though he dies, and anyone who is alive and believes in me will never die at all. Can you believe that?”
27-31 “Yes, Lord,” replied Martha. “I do believe that you are Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into the world.” Saying this she went away and called Mary her sister, whispering, “The master’s here and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this she sprang to her feet and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet arrived at the village itself, but was still where Martha had met him. So when the Jews who had been condoling with Mary in the house saw her get up quickly and go out, they followed her, imagining that she was going to the grave to weep there.
32 When Mary met Jesus, she looked at him, and then fell down at his feet. “If only you had been here, Lord,” she said, “my brother would never have died.”
33 When Jesus saw Mary weep and noticed the tears of the Jews who came with her, he was deeply moved and visibly distressed.
34 “Where have you put him?” he asked.
35 “Lord, come and see,” they replied, and at this Jesus himself wept.
36-37 “Look how much he loved him!” remarked the Jews, though some of them asked, “Could he not have kept this man from dying if he could open that blind man’s eyes?”
38 Jesus was again deeply moved at these words, and went on to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay in front of it.
39 “Take away the stone,” said Jesus. “But Lord,” said Martha, the dead man’s sister, “he has been dead four days. By this time he will be decaying ....”
40 “Did I not tell you,” replied Jesus, “that if you believed, you would see the wonder of what God can do?”
41-42 Then they took the stone away and Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of these people standing here so that they may believe that you have sent me.”
43 And when he had said this, he called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with grave-clothes and his face muffled with a handkerchief. “Now unbind him,” Jesus told them, “and let him go home.”
Jesus’ miracle leads to deadly hostility
45-48 After this many of the Jews who had accompanied Mary and observed what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went off to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Consequently, the Pharisees and chief priests summoned the council and said, “What can we do? This man obviously shows many remarkable signs. If we let him go on doing this sort of thing we shall have everybody believing in him. Then we shall have the Romans coming and that will be the end of our holy place and our very existence as a nation.”
49-56 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, addressed the meeting: “You plainly don’t understand what is involved here. You do not realise that it would be a good thing for us if one man should die for the sake of the people—instead of the whole nation being destroyed.” (He did not make this remark on his own initiative but, since he was High Priest that year, he was in fact inspired to say that Jesus was going to die for the nation’s sake—and in fact not for that nation only, but to bring together into one family all the children of God scattered throughout the world.) From that day then, they planned to kill him. As a consequence Jesus made no further public appearance among the Jews but went away to the countryside on the edge of the desert, and stayed with his disciples in a town called Ephraim. The Jewish Passover was approaching and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem before the actual Passover, to go through a ceremonial cleansing. They were looking for Jesus there and kept saying to one another as they stood in the Temple, “What do you think? Surely he won’t come to the festival?”
57 It should be understood that the chief priests and the Pharisees had issued an order that anyone who knew of Jesus’ whereabouts should tell them, so they could arrest him.
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The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by Permission.