An Atheistic Bible Study The Gospels Raising Lazarus From The Dead

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There are two men called Lazarus in the Gospels. The one in Luke is a character in a parable I’ll address elsewhere. The more famous Lazarus (of Bethany) appears only in the Gospel of John. Given the number of witnesses John claims to have seen this event, it seems surprising that Matthew, Mark and Luke were not aware of it. In Chapter 11 of John, Lazarus, is the brother to Mary (not the virgin or Mary Magdalene, but one of the five other New Testament Marys.) and their sister, Martha. Lazarus takes ill, very ill. Concerned that death is imminent, the sisters send for Jesus, who has already gained a reputation for healing the incurably sick back to health. Jesus declines to go to see and help Lazarus, claiming that he is not ill enough to die, and that God will take care of him (Verse 4). Jesus then quite wilfully waits two more whole days before setting off to see his distressed sisters and help Lazarus. His disciples are worried as Jesus was stoned by the Jews of Judea (where Bethany is located), on a previous visit. Jesus assures the Apostle John that anyone who sees him in the daytime during this visit to Bethany will be converted to belief in Christ. Only those who see Jesus in darkness (being blind to faith rather than literally at night) will fail to believe in him after the events to be unfolded. Jesus boasts of going to wake Lazarus up, which the Apostles take to mean from sleep rather than from death. Jesus seems to be amused by this and corrects their assumptions. He tells them Lazarus, a loyal follower of the faith, is dead. Apostle Thomas suggests that they should all go and die alongside Lazarus (Verse 16 - presumably a suggestion of a need to grieve and not a call to needless mass suicide). By the time Jesus and his followers reach Bethany, Lazarus has been buried in a large tomb for four days, though in Verse 17 we are told he was in his ‘grave’, which is misleading. A tomb is not covered in grave soil. Martha is upset with Jesus for not coming in time to save Lazarus, but Jesus assures her that he will bring her brother back to life. Adding that any who truly believe in Jesus as Christ will be immune to death. (History may well be a large body of evidence against this. – The metaphorical nature of the remark is obvious, physical and spiritual death being two different things, but in the context of a passage where someone is to be physically re-animated, the metaphor breaks down in value considerably. The conversation is repeated almost verbatim to Mary when she learns of Jesus’ arrival, and a group of Jewish friends who were giving her comfort in her grief join her to witness the impending miracle. Jesus sees the tomb and cries, giving the Bible its shortest verse, at two words; “Jesus wept.” Given that he knows he is going to bring Lazarus back to life, why the crying? The Jews ask why a man who claimed to make the blind see couldn’t have saved Lazarus from dying at all. A very good question never answered in John at all. As the stone is moved from the entrance to the tomb of Lazarus by Martha (Men leaving the unfortunate woman to shift a heavy tomb-entrance rock unassisted seems bizarre). Jesus prays to God, his father, (in effect talking to himself, after all isn’t he his own father anyway?). The tomb is described as a cave with a rock blocking its entrance. In other words, with only Jesus entering a dark cave, no one but Jesus and the rising Lazarus know exactly what goes on in there. It has all the hallmarks of a conjuring trick. Verse 42 strikes me as one of the most dubious in the entire Bible. Jesus prays to God with “And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.” Think about that line, and read it closely. Jesus is praying to God to be heard by others. He needs them to believe that Jesus is serving God and an agent of God’s will. Is he duping them? A phoney might make such a theatrical statement, but given that Lazarus is believed to be dead, this has an air of publicity stunt to it. Could Lazarus be faking his death / resurrection in order to help Jesus gain new followers? Jesus loudly tells Lazarus to ‘come forth’ (Verse 44) and he does, still wrapped in his shroud and dead-man’s face napkin. Faked or an act of necromancy? Is Jesus effectively practicing black magic? If Lazarus was dead, then Jesus has created a zombie, possibly the first one in all literature. The Jews who witness the act mostly convert to the Christian faith on the spot, and such a publicity stunt is what Jesus seems to have had in mind with the long delay before going to Bethany. He has allowed the publicity to get round. If they are not in on the stunt, then the grief of Mary & Martha seems a cruel exploitation by Jesus. A few Jews are less than happy about the miracle (or parlour trick), and report the incident to the Pharisees. L azarus is described briefly in Chapter 12 of John as being a guest at a meal with Jesus, served by Martha, and later in the same chapter as becoming something of a tourist attraction, as people flock in to meet the living corpse, provoking the Pharisees into a jealous desire to kill him (we are not told if the murder takes place). The raising of Lazarus can be seen as a test run for Christ’s own resurrection, we have a dead man, a tomb with a stone that is moved aside, etc. Why though would God need a rehearsal? The Other Jesus Zombies Jesus did raise two other people from the dead, making four zombies in all if we include himself later on after his return from the tomb). In Mark’s Gospel, Chapter 35, a synagogue leader comes to Jesus to report in some distress that his daughter has died. Jesus goes, with three apostles only (the others under instructions not to attend). He sees the 12-year-old corpse, called Talitha Cumi, and raises her in virtually the same words we see used to raise Lazarus. While Lazarus’s resurrection becomes highly public, Talitha’s is kept secret on Jesus’ instructions, so quite why Mark breaks silence and writes about it is unclear. Not be outdone, Luke tells of Jesus meeting a widow in Nairn, just as her dead son is being taken to his grave in a coffin. Jesus interrupts the procession, and talks to the young un-named man, politely requesting that he gets up, to which he obliges. The young man attracts some publicity and attention but no mention is made of any jealous Pharisees this time. Matthew offers no such zombie legends. Given the high publicity generated by two of the three necromancies he would have heard something. Maybe even he found these events a little far fetched. Arthur Chappell