Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - John 11:3 - 11:4
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Joh_11:3-4. Merely the message that the beloved one is sick. The request lay in the message itself, and the addition ὃν φιλεῖς supplied the motive for its fulfilment.
εἶπεν ] spoken generally, and not addressed to any definite person, but in the hearing of those present, the messenger and the disciples. Sufficient for the moment as a preparation both for the sisters and the disciples.
οὐκ ἔστι πρὸς θάνατον ] πρός refers to destination (comp. afterwards ὑπέρ ): it is not to have death for its result, which, however, does not mean, as the antithesis shows: it is not deadly, he will not die of it. The idea of death is used with a pregnancy of meaning, and the words signify: he shall not fall a prey to death, as death usually is, so that no reawakening takes place; θάνατος γὰρ κυρίως ὁ μέχρι τῆς κοινῆς ἀναστάσεως , Euth. Zigabenus. Comp. Mat_9:24. That Jesus certainly knew, by His higher knowledge, that the death of Lazarus was certain and near at hand, though the death must be conceived as not having yet actually taken place (see on Joh_11:17), is confirmed by Joh_11:14;—for the assumption of a second message (Paulus, Neander, Schweizer) is purely arbitrary. With this significant declaration, Jesus designed to supply to the sisters something fitted, when the death of their brother took place, to stimulate the hope to which Martha gives actual expression in Joh_11:22. There is no warrant for dragging in a reference to the spiritual and eternal life of the resurrection (Gumlich).
ὑπὲρ τῆς δόξ . τ . θ .] i.e. for the furtherance of the honour of God. Comp. Joh_9:3. The emphatic and more definite explanation of the expression is given in ἵνα δοξασθῇ , etc.—words which, containing the intention of God, state the kind and manner of the ὑπὲρ τ . δόξ . τ . θ ., so far, namely, as the glorification of the Son of God involves the honour of God Himself, who works through Him (comp. Joh_5:23, Joh_10:30; Joh_10:38). It is in these words, and not in Joh_11:25 (Baur), that the doctrinal design of the narrative is contained. Comp. Joh_11:40; Joh_11:42.