Knox Bible

1

There was a man called Lazarus, of Bethany, who had fallen sick. Bethany was the name of the village where Mary lived, with her sister Martha;

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and this Mary, whose brother Lazarus had now fallen sick, was the woman who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair.✻

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The sisters sent a message to him, to say, Lord, he whom thou lovest lies here sick.

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And Jesus said, on hearing it, The end of this sickness is not death; it is meant for God’s honour, to bring honour to the Son of God.

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Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

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At the time, then, after hearing the news, he waited for two days in the place where he was;

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and then, after that interval, he said to his disciples, Let us go back into Judaea.

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Master, his disciples said to him, the Jews were but now threatening to stone thee; art thou for Judaea again?

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Jesus answered, Are there not just twelve hours of daylight? A man can walk in the day-time without stumbling, with this world’s light to see by;✻

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he only stumbles if he walks by night, because then the light cannot reach him.

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So much he said, and then he told them, Our friend Lazarus is at rest now; I am going there to awake him.

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But, Lord, the disciples said to him, if he is rested, his life will be saved.

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Jesus had been telling them of his death; but they supposed he meant the rest which comes with sleep.

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So now Jesus told them openly, Lazarus is dead.

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And for your sakes, I am glad I was not there; it will help you to believe. But come, let us make our way to him.

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Thereupon Thomas, who is also called Didymus, said to his fellow-disciples, Let us go too, and be killed along with him.

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When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been four days in the grave.

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Since Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs away,

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many of the Jews had gone out there to comfort Martha and Mary over the loss of their brother.

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Martha, when she heard that Jesus had come, went out to meet him, while Mary sat on in the house.

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Lord, said Martha to Jesus, if thou hadst been here, my brother would not have died;

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and I know well that even now God will grant whatever thou wilt ask of him.

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Thy brother, Jesus said to her, will rise again.

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Martha said to him, I know well enough that he will rise again at the resurrection, when the last day comes.

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Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and life; he who believes in me, though he is dead, will live on,

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and whoever has life, and has faith in me, to all eternity cannot die. Dost thou believe this?

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Yes, Lord, she told him, I have learned to believe that thou art the Christ; thou art the Son of the living God; it is for thy coming the world has waited.

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And with that she went back and called her sister Mary aside; The Master is here, she said, and bids thee come.

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She rose up at once on hearing it, and went to him.

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(Jesus had not yet reached the village; he was still at the place where Martha had gone out to meet him.)

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And so the Jews who were in the house with Mary, comforting her, when they saw how quickly she rose up and went out, followed her; She has gone to the grave, they said, to weep there.

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So Mary reached the place where Jesus was; and when she saw him, she fell at his feet; Lord, she said, if thou hadst been here, my brother would not have died.

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And Jesus, when he saw her in tears, and the tears of the Jews who accompanied her, sighed deeply, and distressed himself over it;

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Where have you buried him? he asked. Lord, they said to him, come and see.

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Then Jesus wept.

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See, said the Jews, how he loved him;

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and some of them asked, Could not he, who opened the blind man’s eyes, have prevented this man’s death?

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So Jesus, once more sighing to himself, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a stone had been put over the mouth of it.

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Take away the stone, Jesus told them. And Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, Lord, the air is foul by now; he has been four days dead.

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Why, Jesus said to her, have I not told thee that if thou hast faith, thou wilt see God glorified?

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So they took the stone away; and Jesus lifted his eyes to heaven, Father, he said, I thank thee for hearing my prayer.

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For myself, I know that thou hearest me at all times, but I say this for the sake of the multitude which is standing round, that they may learn to believe it is thou who hast sent me.

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And with that he cried in a loud voice, Come out, Lazarus, to my side.

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Whereupon the dead man came out, his feet and hands tied with linen strips, and his face muffled in a veil. Loose him, said Jesus, and let him go free.

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Many of these Jews who had visited Martha and Mary, and seen what Jesus did, learned to believe in him,

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but some went off to the Pharisees, and reported to them all Jesus had done.

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So the chief priests and Pharisees summoned a council; What are we about? they said. This man is performing many miracles,

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and if we leave him to his own devices, he will find credit everywhere. Then the Romans will come, and make an end of our city and our race.

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And one of them, Caiphas, who held the high priesthood in that year,✻ said to them, You have no perception at all;

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you do not reflect that it is best for us if one man is put to death for the sake of the people, to save a whole nation from destruction.

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It was not of his own impulse that he said this; holding the high priesthood as he did in that year, he was able to prophesy that Jesus was to die for the sake of the nation;

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and not only for that nation’s sake, but so as to bring together into one all God’s children, scattered far and wide.

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From that day forward, then, they plotted his death;

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and Jesus no longer went about openly among the Jews, but retired to a city called Ephrem, in the country which borders on the desert, and waited there with his disciples.

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The paschal feast which the Jews keep was now close at hand, and there were many from the country who went up to Jerusalem to purify themselves before paschal time began;

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so they looked out for Jesus, and said to one another as they stood there in the temple, What is your way of it? Will he come up to the feast? And the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where he was should report it to them, so that they could arrest him.