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JOHN 11:33 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
John 11:32John 11:34
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled — the Greek word embrimaomai (deeply moved) suggests indignation, anger, or strong emotional disturbance, not merely sympathy. Jesus' emotion is complex and theologically dense: He responds not just with compassion but with what appears to be anger at death and its effects. This is the emotional response to death as an enemy and intruder in God's creation.

Church Fathers on John 11:33

Christ did not answer Mary, as He had her; sister, on account of the people present. In condescension to them He humbled Himself, and let His human nature be seen, in order to gain them as witnesses to the miracle: When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in His spirit, and was troubled.

Chrysostom · 4th century

For who but Himself could trouble Him? Christ was troubled, because it pleased Him to be troubled; He hungered, because it pleased Him to hunger. It was in His own power to be affected in this or that way or not. The Word took up soul and flesh, and whole man, and fitted it to Himself in unity of person. And thus according to the nod and will of that higher nature in Him, in which the sovereign power resides, He becomes weak and troubled.

Augustine · 4th century

To prove His human nature He sometimes gives it free vent, while at other times He commands, and restrains it by, the power of the Holy Ghost. Our Lord allows His nature to be affected in these ways both to prove that He is very Man, not Man in appearance only; and also to teach us by His own example the due measures of joy and grief. For the absence altogether of sympathy and sorrow is brutal, the excess of them is womanly.

Theophylact · 11th century
Read all 26 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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