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Joh_11:17. Ἐλθών ] into the neighbourhood of Bethany, see Joh_11:30. That Jesus went by the direct road, may be taken for granted in view of the end He had before Him; to insert here events from the Synoptic Gospels for harmonistic purposes, only causes confusion.
εὗρεν ] namely, after inquiry.
τέσσαρας ] As we must assume that Lazarus did not die before the day on which the words of Joh_11:7 ff. were spoken, whilst Jesus was made at once and directly aware of the departure of His friend, then, if the Lord, as is probable, commenced the journey on the same day, and if Lazarus, agreeably to the Jewish custom, was buried on the day of his death, two full days and parts of two other days (the first and fourth) must have been spent in travelling to Bethany. No material objection can be urged against this supposition, seeing that we do not know how far northwards in Peraea Jesus was sojourning when He received the message announcing the illness. The usual opinion—still entertained even by Luthardt, Ebrard, Gumlich, Hengstenberg, Godet—is, that Lazarus died and was buried on the very day on which Jesus received the message. Were this the case, Jesus must have remained that day and the two following in Peraea, and have first begun the journey on the fourth day (a journey which some suppose to have occupied merely ten or eleven hours, or even a shorter time),[80] and completed it on the same (Ebrard) or on the following day. On this supposition, however, Jesus would either not have known of the death of His friend before the third day, which would be quite opposed to the character and wording (Joh_11:4; Joh_11:6) of the narrative; or else He would know of it as soon as it happened, and therefore at the time of the arrival of the messenger, which would alone accord with the tone of the entire history; in this latter case, the two days’ postponement of His departure, which, notwithstanding He had resolved on, would be unnatural and aimless, and the words of Joh_11:4, which treat the sickness of Lazarus as still continuing, would have been inappropriate. Correctly, therefore, have Bengel (on Joh_11:11 with the comparison of Joh_4:52) and Ewald fixed the death of Lazarus as contemporaneous with Joh_11:7-8, so that the occurrence of the death and the knowledge thereof possessed by Jesus determined His leaving at once. They would then have arrived at Bethany on the fourth day (comp. on Joh_1:28).
[80] But see van der Velde, Reise durch Syr. u. Pal. II. p. 245 ff. The actual road was undoubtedly considerably longer than the distance in a straight line.