John 11:1-5

The Death of Lazarus

11:1 Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. ¹  11:2 (Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil ²  and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) ³  11:3 So the sisters sent a message ⁴  to Jesus, ⁵  “Lord, look, the one you love is sick.” 11:4 When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not lead to death, ⁶  but to God’s glory, ⁷  so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ⁸  11:5 (Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.) ⁹ 

John 12:1-3

Jesus’ Anointing

12:1 Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom he ¹⁰  had raised from the dead. 12:2 So they prepared a dinner for Jesus ¹¹  there. Martha ¹²  was serving, and Lazarus was among those present at the table ¹³  with him. 12:3 Then Mary took three quarters of a pound ¹⁴  of expensive aromatic oil from pure nard ¹⁵  and anointed the feet of Jesus. She ¹⁶  then wiped his feet dry with her hair. (Now the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfumed oil.) ¹⁷ 

[11:1]  ¹ tn Grk “from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.”

[11:2]  ² tn Or “perfume,” “ointment.”

[11:2]  ³ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. It is a bit surprising that the author here identifies Mary as the one who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and wiped his feet dry with her hair, since this event is not mentioned until later, in 12:3. Many see this “proleptic” reference as an indication that the author expected his readers to be familiar with the story already, and go on to assume that in general the author in writing the Fourth Gospel assumed his readers were familiar with the other three gospels. Whether the author assumed actual familiarity with the synoptic gospels or not, it is probable that he did assume some familiarity with Mary’s anointing activity.

[11:3]  ⁴ tn The phrase “a message” is not in the Greek text but is implied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from context.

[11:3]  ⁵ tn Grk “to him, saying”; the referent (Jesus) is specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:4]  ⁶ tn Grk “This sickness is not to death.”

[11:4]  ⁷ tn Or “to God’s praise.”

[11:4]  ⁸ sn So that the Son of God may be glorified through it. These statements are highly ironic: For Lazarus, the sickness did not end in his death, because he was restored to life. But for Jesus himself, the miraculous sign he performed led to his own death, because it confirmed the authorities in their plan to kill Jesus (11:47-53). In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ death is consistently portrayed as his ‘glorification’ through which he accomplishes his return to the Father.

[11:5]  ⁹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. It was necessary for the author to reaffirm Jesus’ love for Martha and her sister and Lazarus here because Jesus’ actions in the following verse appear to be contradictory.

[12:1]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “whom Jesus,” but a repetition of the proper name (Jesus) here would be redundant in the English clause structure, so the pronoun (“he”) is substituted in the translation.

[12:2]  ¹¹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity and to conform with contemporary English style.

[12:2]  ¹² tn Grk “And Martha.” The connective καί (kai, “and”) has been omitted in the translation because it would produce a run-on sentence in English.

[12:2]  ¹³ tn Grk “reclining at the table.”

[12:3]  ¹⁴ tn Or “half a liter”; Grk “a pound” (that is, a Roman pound, about 325 grams or 12 ounces).

[12:3]  ¹⁵ tn Μύρον (muron) was usually made of myrrh (from which the English word is derived) but here it is used in the sense of ointment or perfumed oil (L&N 6.205). The adjective πιστικῆς (pistikh") is difficult with regard to its exact meaning; some have taken it to derive from πίστις (pistis) and relate to the purity of the oil of nard. More probably it is something like a brand name, “pistic nard,” the exact significance of which has not been discovered.

[12:3]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “And she.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[12:3]  ¹⁷ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. With a note characteristic of someone who was there and remembered, the author adds that the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfumed oil. In the later rabbinic literature, Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7.1.1 states “The fragrance of good oil is diffused from the bedroom to the dining hall, but a good name is diffused from one end of the world to the other.” If such a saying was known in the 1st century, this might be the author’s way of indicating that Mary’s act of devotion would be spoken of throughout the entire world (compare the comment in Mark 14:9).