John 11:17 — Community Reflections

JOHN 11:17 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.”

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days — the detail that four days have passed is significant: in Jewish thought, death was considered final after three days, when decomposition made resurrection obviously impossible. Lazarus's four-day death removes any possibility that this will be a resuscitation of someone merely unconscious or in a death-like trance; this is genuine death, making the coming resurrection unmistakably miraculous.

Church Fathers on John 11:17

Our Lord delayed His coming for four days, that the resurrection of Lazarus might be the more glorious: Then when Jesus came, He found that He had lain in the grave four days already.
Alcuin · 8th century

Our Lord had stayed two days, and the messenger had come the day before; the very day on which Lazarus died. This brings us to the fourth day.
Chrysostom · 4th century

Of the four days many things may be said. They refer to one thing, but one thing viewed in different ways. There is one day of death which the law of our birth brings upon us. Men transgress the natural law, and this is another day of death. The written law is given to men by the hands of Moses, and that is despised - a third day of death. The Gospel comes, and men transgress it - a fourth day of death. But Christ cloth not disdain to awaken even these.
Augustine · 4th century

Read all 21 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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