Lazarus

Identity

Lazarus of Bethany is the friend of Christ who was raised from the dead after four days in the tomb (John 11). He is the brother of Martha and Mary. He is not to be confused with the Lazarus of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16), a separate figure.

Name and titles

'Lazarus' — a Greek form of Hebrew Eleazar — means 'God has helped.' The name is providentially fitting for the man Christ raised.

Historical period

• c. AD 29 — Sick at Bethany; sends word to Christ.
• c. AD 29 — Dies before Christ arrives; in the tomb four days.
• Same visit — Raised by Christ: 'Lazarus, come forth' (John 11:43).
• Six days before Passover — At table with Christ during the Bethany anointing (John 12:1-2).
• Same week — 'Much people of the Jews… came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also' (John 12:9).
• Tradition — Later Christian tradition (Cyprus and southern Gaul) preserves varying accounts of his second life. Some traditions make him bishop of Kition in Cyprus; others of Marseille.

Scripture appearances

• John 11 (KJV) The full account of the raising.
• John 12:1-11 (KJV) The supper at Bethany after the raising.

Connected Places

• Bethany — his home village.
• Jerusalem — the city two miles west.
• Mount of Olives — the ridge his village lay on.
• Cyprus (traditional) — where he is said by some traditions to have lived and died as bishop of Kition.

Connected People

• Christ Jesus — the raiser; his friend.
• Martha of Bethany — his elder sister.
• Mary of Bethany — his younger sister; the anointer of Christ.

Salvation history role

• The friend of Christ; the one over whom Christ wept.
• The most public sign that preceded the Passion — the resurrection that guaranteed the Resurrection.
• The lived answer to the question, 'Is there anyone I know who has been raised from the dead?'

Christian tradition

• Feast: 17 December in the Latin tradition; the Saturday before Palm Sunday (Lazarus Saturday) in the Byzantine East.
• Depicted in Christian art bound in graveclothes emerging from the tomb.
• Cypriot tradition preserves the church of St Lazarus at Larnaca as his second tomb.

Household reflection

Lazarus teaches the household that Christ has personal friends, and that He weeps over them when they die. Christ's tears (John 11:35) are the tears of a real friend, not the pity of a distant deity.

Every child in the house should be told the story of Lazarus — the man who was raised, and lived again with his sisters and his Lord.

Room connections

Where this entry meets the household in the wider house of CrossAIHub.

• Read (Library) — Read John 11 aloud in a household season of grief.
• Pray (Chapel) — Pray Christ's word 'Lazarus, come forth' for the household's dead loved ones — an act of hope in the resurrection.
• Family (Kitchen Table) — On Lazarus Saturday, keep a family meal that remembers a departed loved one.
• Sing (Choir Room) — Sing 'The Strife Is O'er, the Battle Done' (Latin, seventeenth century).
• Learn (Workshop) — Distinguish carefully the Lazarus of Bethany from the Lazarus of the parable (Luke 16).

Further reading

John 11-12 in the KJV.

Ambrose, De excessu fratris (fourth century) — a Christian sermon on death and resurrection.

Elsewhere in the Atlas

• Bethany
• John 11
• Christ Jesus
• Mount of Olives
• Jerusalem
• Return to the atrium — the Atlas's main room.