Lazarus
When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already spent four days in the tomb. John 11:17 · Berean Standard Bible
When Jesus arrives, He finds that Lazarus has already been in the tomb for four days.
Four days was significant: people believed the soul left the body after three days. At four days, there was zero hope of recovery by any natural means.
The narrator establishes the hopelessness of the situation by the time Jesus arrives.
Four days. By every measure, it's too late. The window for hope has closed. But Jesus doesn't operate within human windows.
Upon arrival, Jesus finds Lazarus has been in the tomb 'tessaras ēmeras' (four days), confirming death beyond any Jewish expectation of resuscitation.
The four-day detail is theologically crucial: Jewish tradition held the soul departed after three days (Genesis Rabbah 100:7). Four days eliminated any possibility of mere resuscitation, making the coming miracle unmistakably supernatural.
The narrator reports the critical detail of four days in the tomb upon Jesus' arrival.
The four-day detail removes all ambiguity: Lazarus is not merely unconscious or in a coma. He is thoroughly, irrecoverably dead by every human standard—setting the stage for an unquestionable miracle.
15and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16Then Thomas called Didymus said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”
17When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already spent four days in the tomb.
18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, a little less than two miles away,
19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them in the loss of their brother.
Read all of John 11 — Jesus weeps at a tomb. Then He calls a dead man out of it. The shortest verse in the Bible and the most powerful — separated by minutes.
This page covers one. BibleKey does all 31,102 — tap any verse for its meaning, any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, and keep reading without leaving the chapter.
NIV, NLT, NKJV, KJV and the Berean — plus the Catholic NLT-CE and Douay-Rheims, with the full deuterocanon in the reading order.
Tap any of the 31,102 for what it means, and any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, without leaving the chapter.
Start recording at church and put your phone away. You get the transcript, the key moments, and every verse referenced.
Say what's sitting on your heart and hear it back as a real prayer, in a warm voice. Keep the ones that land.
The whole Bible in a year — five chapters a day, five days a week, weekends off. Built to be finished.
A verse each morning with its meaning, how it lands today, something to sit with, and a prayer to close it.
Not just the famous ones. BibleKey is free on iPhone and iPad.
Download on the App StoreFree on iPhone & iPad