John 11:1

1. Now Rather to be translated But; the going to Bethany being the reverse of his remaining in Bethabara.

Town of Mary Commentators notice that John assumes that his readers are acquainted with the names of Mary and Martha. He even seems to suppose that his readers know a fact which he is soon to fully narrate, (John 12:3.) It is equally clear that he assumes that a certain Lazarus (who is indeed named by no other Evangelist) is to his readers unknown. It is a serious question: How happens it that this greatest of miracles is emitted from the other Gospels? The ancient reply is, (and perhaps no better can be given,) that the other Evangelists wrote while Lazarus was still living, and from delicacy, or for safety, avoided exposing him to notoriety and danger from the hostile Jews. But it does not, in fact, seem that the other Evangelists viewed the raising of the dead as so pre-eminent a miracle as it is esteemed by modern thinkers or by the Jewish populace. The raising of the widow’s son of Nain is narrated by Luke alone, and in as brief and ordinary a way as any other miracle. And pictorially as John spreads out this narrative, it fills no wider space than that of the restoration of the blind-born in chap. 9. The Evangelists, doubtless, presuppose that either of these miracles require a whole omnipotence, and neither requires more. To the popular view, and to the eye of modern science, the raising of the dead appears the greatest of miracles; but to a true spiritual view the casting out and controlling demons may be far greater. The former is a mastery of passive or willing human nature; the latter is a mastery of hostile powers. But the reality of the present miracle is unconsciously attested by all the Evangelists; since they all describe a sudden popular excitement in favour of Jesus which can be solved only by some such fact; an excitement which soon reacted and resulted in his crucifixion. See John 12:11; John 12:17-18. From the fact that Bethany is called the town of Mary and Martha, it is not to be inferred, as it is by some, that the sisters were largely property holders, (though this may have been the case,) but that they were permanent residents. So Bethsaida is styled by our Evangelist “the city of Andrew and Peter,” John 1:44.