An Unsatisfactory Episode

September 21, 2009, 8:46 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 11

 In this chapter Jesus brings Lazarus back from the dead.  This entire story must be taken completely on faith.  This is complicated by the fact that only the Gospel of John records this story.  Neither the Synoptic Gospels nor historical documents, from the Jewish or the Roman Empire, record this story.   It is extremely odd that the Synoptic Gospels do not record the story.  For John claims that Lazarus’ entire family is very significant to Jesus.  In the gospel of John it is recorded that this incident has a very specific meaning, for the synoptic gospels to omit this story is very strange.   In the Synoptic Gospels Lazarus is not even mention when we hear about Martha and Mary space.   Since this story takes place at the end of Jesus’ ministries, all of the Disciples should have remembered the importance of this story.  So even if this story is taken to be accurate, it adds weight to the fact that the Gospel of John is truly independent of the Synoptic Gospels.

The story itself, since it must be taken on faith, cannot be disputed.  That does not mean that parts of the story should not be question.  The significant questions include: why did the synoptic gospels ignore this incident, certain statements attributed to Jesus, and the concept that Caiaphas had actually prophesied.

I have already mentioned that it is odd that the Synoptic Gospels do not record this incident.  I’ve also mentioned there are two reasons why this is odd: the importance of Lazarus’ family to Jesus and the importance of the story to glorify YHWH.  Since many men were claiming to be the Messiah at this time, both the Romans and the Jewish nation would not have recorded this story.  One of the reasons that they would not have recorded this story would have been that it was hearsay, but another reason is that the source was questionable.  Even if this incident was spread amongst the Jewish leaders of the time, most of them would believe that this story was fictional because it would incite rebellion against a powerful force, the Roman Empire.   The Romans, on the other hand, would have ignored this story because they had heard it before.  Many of the roman mythology include returning from the dead.  But the Synoptic Gospels do not have these rationalizations.  Why did the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke ignore this story?  If this story had occurred, the authors of these Gospels would have been present.  We can be certain that all of Jesus is disciples followed him because of this verse:

John 11:7 Then he said to his disciples,”Let us go back to Judea”.

It is quite clear that no one stayed behind.  This can be qualified by this verse:

John 11: 16 Then Thomas (called capital Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “let us also go, that we may die with him.”

So basically, the Synoptic Gospels ignored this story.  The Gospel of john claims that this incident was very important.  Yet it was obviously not important enough to the authors of the Synoptic Gospels.  Does this not seem strange?  Jesus only raised a dead person one other time, at that time the Synoptic Gospels did record the incident, yet the Gospel of john did not record that incident.  To the non-believer these variations indicate that the Gospels are less than truthful.  To claim that each of these Gospels was an eyewitness account would require some similarity in this incident.  Since all witnessed it, but did not record it, a question of authenticity is introduced.

Two statements by Jesus are questionable.  The first one, is here:

John 11: 4  When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death.  No, it is for God’s glory and so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

By the time Jesus said this Jesus knew that Lazarus’ was dead.  In fact, this one incident only added to the supposed glorification of Jesus.  Oddly the sickness did and in Lazarus’ death, whether or not Lazarus was raised from the dead.  The sickness did end when he died.  So both sentences in this verse are meaningless.  The first one is wrong, the second one is superfluous.  The second statement from Jesus that is questionable is here:

John 11:9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight?  A man who walks but they will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light.”

Jesus was being very silly to claim that there are twelve hours of daylight.  This only occurs twice in a calendar year: the Vernal equinox and Autumnal equinox.  Why bother including how many hours of daylight in this comment?  This is another question that Jesus asks that does not represent either a spiritual or physical fact.  For the Son of the almighty YHWH, this seems very strange.  In fact, this seeming generalization only indicates that the author of this Gospel did not know that the number of lighted hours in the day changes continually.

Finally, the supposed prophecy of Caiaphas is very questionable.  It is obvious from reading this section that Caiaphas was not attempting to prophesy, he was attempting to save his power and possibly his nation.  There was no supernatural agent involved.  The prophecy also was not fulfilled.  Within 40 years of this supposed prophecy the nation of Israel was destroyed.  In actuality what Caiaphas said had no spiritual nature to it.  As with most prophecy hindsight is 20/20.  We can now claim that Caiaphas was prophesied only because we can fit the results to the statement.  This is called self-fulfilling prophecy.  As a result this section does not mean what the Traditions of Men claim it to indicate.  This is just one more incident that strengthens a story of mythology.

As a non-believer, this entire chapter does nothing to prove the glorification of Jesus or the prophecies of YHWH.   In fact, the stories from this chapter only weaken any proof of supernatural incident.  Too many questions are brought up, none are answered.  As I started this post, this entire chapter must be taken on faith.  Since the non-believer has no faith this chapter does not glorify YHWH or Jesus.  The only thing this chapter does is satisfy the believer’s desire to believe.

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