The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (108 page)

19
 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words.
²⁰
Many of them said, "He has a demon, and he is mad; why listen to him?"
²¹
Others said, "These are not the sayings of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"

Jesus Is Rejected by the Jews

22
 It was the
feast of the Dedication
at Jerusalem;
²³
it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon.
²⁴
So the Jews gathered round him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ,
tell us plainly
."
²⁵
Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness to me;
²⁶
but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.
²⁷
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me;
²⁸
and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them
out of my hand
.
²⁹
My Father, who has given them to me,
^w
is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
³⁰
I and the Father are one
."

31
 The Jews took up stones again to stone him.
³²
Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?"
³³
The Jews answered him, "We stone you for no good work but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God."
³⁴
Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in
your law
, 'I said, you are gods'?
³⁵
If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and
Scripture cannot be nullified
),
³⁶
do you say of him whom the Father
consecrated
and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?
³⁷
If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me;
³⁸
but if I do them, even though you do not believe me,
believe the works
, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."
³⁹
Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

40
 He went away again across the Jordan to the place
where John at first baptized
, and there he remained.
⁴¹
And many came to him; and they said, "John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true."
⁴²
And many believed in him there.

The Death of Lazarus

1
 
Now a certain man
was ill,
Laz'arus
of Beth'any, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
²
It was
Mary who anointed the Lord
with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Laz'arus was ill.
³
So the sisters sent to him, saying, "Lord, he whom you love is ill."
⁴
But when Jesus heard it he said, "This illness is
not unto death
; it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it."

5
 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Laz'arus.
⁶
So when he heard that he was ill, he stayed
two days longer
 
*
in the place where he was.
⁷
Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go into Judea again."
⁸
The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?"
⁹
Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any one
walks in the day
, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
¹⁰
But if any one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."
¹¹
Thus he spoke, and then he said to them, "Our friend Laz'arus has
fallen asleep
, but I go to awake him out of sleep."
¹²
The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover."
¹³
Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep.
¹⁴
Then Jesus told them plainly, "Laz'arus is dead;
¹⁵
and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."
¹⁶
Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may
die with him
."

Jesus the Resurrection and the Life

17
 Now when Jesus came, he found that Laz'arus
^x
had already been
in the tomb four days
.
¹⁸
Beth'any was near Jerusalem, about two miles
^y
off,
¹⁹
and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother.
²⁰
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary sat in the house.
²¹
Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
²²
And
even now
I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."
²³
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
²⁴
Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in
the resurrection
at the last day."
²⁵
Jesus said to her, "
I am the resurrection
and the life;
^z
he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
²⁶
and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
²⁷
She said to him, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world."

Jesus Weeps

28
 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying quietly, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you."
²⁹
And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.
³⁰
Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.
³¹
When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
³²
Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord,
if you had been here
, my brother would not have died."
³³
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and
troubled
;
³⁴
and he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see."
³⁵
Jesus wept
.
³⁶
So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"
³⁷
But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"

Jesus Raises Lazarus to Life

38
 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
³⁹
Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days."
⁴⁰
Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"
⁴¹
So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
⁴²
I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this on account of the people standing by, that they may believe that you sent me."
⁴³
When he had said this, he cried
with a loud voice
, "Laz'arus, come out."
⁴⁴
The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

The Plot to Put Jesus to Death

45
 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him;
⁴⁶
but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
⁴⁷
So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered
the council
, and said, "What are we to do? For this man performs many signs.
⁴⁸
If we let him go on like this, every one will believe in him, and
the Romans will come
and destroy both our holy place
^a
and our nation."
⁴⁹
But one of them,
Cai'aphas
, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all;
⁵⁰
you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish."
 
*
⁵¹
He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year
he prophesied
that Jesus should die for the nation,
⁵²
and not for the nation only, but to gather into one
the children of God
who are scattered abroad.
⁵³
So from that day on they took counsel about how to put him to death.

54
 Jesus therefore no longer went about openly among the Jews, but went from there to the country near the wilderness, to a town called
E'phraim
; and there he stayed with the disciples.

55
 Now
the Passover
of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves.
⁵⁶
They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, "What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?"
⁵⁷
Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if any one knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

Mary of Bethany Anoints Jesus

12
  
*
 
Six days before the Passover
, Jesus came to
Beth'any
, where Laz'arus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
²
There they made him a supper; Martha served, and Laz'arus was one of those at table with him.
³
Mary took a pound of costly ointment of
pure nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.
⁴
But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said,
⁵
"Why was this ointment not sold for
three hundred denarii
^b
and given to the poor?"
⁶
This he said,
not that he cared
for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it.
⁷
Jesus said, "Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial.
⁸
The poor
you always have with you, but you do not always have me."

The Plot to Put Lazarus to Death

9
 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came, not only on account of Jesus but also to see Laz'arus, whom he had raised from the dead.
¹⁰
So the chief priests planned to put Laz'arus also to death,
¹¹
because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

12
 
The next day
a great crowd who had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
¹³
So they took
branches of palm
trees and went out to meet him, crying, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!"
¹⁴
And Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it; as it is written,