Lazarus

by PSacramento 22 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  PSacramento

  What happend to Lazarus, the one that Jesus ressurected?

  It is "hinted" that there was a plot to kill him to disprove of his ressurection.

  Anyone know?
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  isaacaustin

  I don't beleive any other info is given
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  AllTimeJeff

  I don't know. I just talked to him last week, he seemed fine!

  j/k there....

  What do you mean a plot to disprove his ressurection. Biblically as a simple exercise in exegesis.......? Historically?
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  Narkissos

  So the rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?"

  Since the "disciple whom Jesus loved" (13:23 etc.) may well be a later literary development of the Lazarus character (11:3ff), you might have the answer there... ;)
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  snowbird

  Google Annie Jaubert.

  Sylvia
• 

  Witness 007

  Now he's a bum living on the streets begging people to...."kill me now! Please!!"
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  Narkissos

  ATJ: I think PSacramento is alluding to John 12:9ff: "When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus."
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  AllTimeJeff

  Thanks Narkissos. I momentarily misplaced my memory on that scripture....
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  PSacramento

  Yes, that is the verse narkissos, thank you.

  Lazarus being the disciple Jesus loved eh?

  Interesting...
• 

  Leolaia

  With respect to the identification of the beloved disciple with Lazarus, the internal evidence is quite persuasive. Until we get to ch. 11, the author had not yet referred to Jesus having personal affection to a specific (male or female) disciple. Then all of a sudden, within this chapter, Lazarus is introduced and we have three specific references to Jesus loving him:

  11:3: "The sisters sent this message to Jesus: 'Lord, the one you love (hon philei) is ill".

  11:5: "Jesus loved (égapa) Martha and her sister and Lazarus".

  11:35-36: "Jesus wept, and the Jews said, 'See how much he loved him (pós ephilei auton)!' "

  Lazarus is last mentioned in ch. 12 and it is at this juncture when the references to "the disciple whom Jesus loved" commence (John 13:23, 18:15-16, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 20). The only explicit antecedents for these references are the statements in ch. 11 about Lazarus, and none of the references to the beloved disciple precede ch. 11. The first reference to the beloved disciple in 13:23 describes him as eating at the table with Jesus while "reclining on Jesus' chest" (anakeimenos en tó kolpó tou Iésou), and the only prior reference to a disciple reclining at the table with Jesus was Lazarus in 12:2: "There they made him a supper and Martha served but Lazarus was one of them who reclined with him (anakeimenón sun autó)". Lazarus is not the only one who reclines (anakeimai) at the table with Jesus but he is the only one specifically named and who also is the only one who is specifically described as personally loved by Jesus. Lazarus and the beloved disciple are also uniquely mentioned as known to the chief priests (12:10, 18:15-16). And the reference to the rumor about the beloved disciple not dying in ch. 21 takes on added significance if the beloved disciple is the one Jesus had raised from the dead — would he have to die a second time before the parousia? Within the context of the gospel, the rumor makes intuitive sense (Jesus is the "resurrection and the life", so why would Lazarus have to die again?), even if it is presented by the author of the appendix as a misunderstanding of Jesus' words in 21:22. But why is the author so cryptic and indirect in referring to Lazarus as the "disciple whom Jesus loved" in ch. 13-20? The answer might depend on how 19:35 is interpreted. If, and this is a big if, the author is here making an indirect authorial claim of being the beloved disciple who was there at the cross, then the indirectness is a distancing literary device for the sake of modesty (cf. Paul's obsessive concern about boasting throughout 2 Corinthians and the very indirect way he related his visionary experience in ch. 12). I am sure other interpretations are feasible as well.