"Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I
am going there to wake him up" (John 10:11).
Two days after hearing of Lazarus' illness, Jesus said to his disciples,
"Let us go back to Judea" (John 11:7). His disciples, however,
expressed fear that Jesus' enemies would stone him if he returned to Jerusalem.
Only Jesus' popularity with the common people had saved his life on a previous
visit. But Jesus told his disciples that he must go to his friend Lazarus
and they all set out for Bethany, a small village on the edge of the Judean
desert on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. John's Gospel locates
it "less than two miles from Jerusalem."
In the footsteps of Jesus...
 From the Lions/St. Stephen's Gate
in the east wall of the Old City, we descend the steep road into the Kidron
Valley. Heading south, we pass along the right-hand side of the enclosure
surrounding the traditional "Garden of Gethsemane," with the Church
of All Nations immediately to the south (right).
We are on the Jericho road leading to Bethany. Skirting along the foot of
the Mount of Olives, it winds around the tomb-covered southern slope about
100 feet below the summit, and crosses a depression between it and the Mount
of Offense, where Solomon "built a high place for Chemosh the detestable
god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites" (1
Kings 11:7) to appease his many foreign wives. The road curves left, passing
the head of a gorge, climbs again along the slope of a southeastern spur
of the Mount of Olives, winds around the spur's eastern side. On our left
is the traditional site of Bethany, now identified with the modern Arab
village of al-Azariyeh, a form of the Greek Lazarion ("place
of Lazarus"). |
Bethany
 Al-Azariyeh, a town of about 2,000, spreads along both sides of Road
417, the feeder road to Route 1, the main highway to Jericho. At the eastern
end is a bus parking area, from where we walked down the narrow street past
the cruciform-shaped Franciscan church to the supposed tomb of Lazarus.
Commemorative buildings at al-Azariyeh, the traditional site
of Bethany (view looking southwest) left: Franciscan Church of St.
Lazarus; center: minaret of 16th century AD al-Ozir mosque;
right:
Greek Orthodox church, with the remains a Crusader tower across the street
that was part of a 12th century AD convent.
Bethany enters the pages of history only at the end of Jesus' public
ministry. In 1923-1924, archaeologist W.F. Albright identified it with "Ananyah,"
one of the localities inhabited by the tribe of Benjamin after the return
from the Babylonian Exile: |
"The descendants of the Benjamites from Geba lived
in Michmash, Aija, Bethel and its settlements, in Anathoth, Nob and Ananiah..."
(Nehemiah 11:31-32).
Albright's identification is now accepted by most experts, and according
to him the name means simply "house of Ananiah," or in Hebrew
Beth Ananyah, which simply evolved into "Bethany." Other
meanings according to commentaries and other sources, but now seen as incorrect:
"house of obedience" (Origen), "house of dates" or "house
of misery."
Location of Bethany
The evangelist Luke (19:28-29) places Bethany "at the hill called
the Mount of Olives," while John (11:18) gives the location as "less
than two miles from Jerusalem." Difficulties start when we try to
pin-point the site.
The real site of Bethany?
Excavations have shown that the site of al-Azariyeh really was a burial
site in ancient times, and thus unclean according to Jewish law. Therefore
the village of Jesus' time could not have been located there. Where, then,
was the village of Gospel times actually situated? It is the diggings directed
by Fr. Sylvester Saller of the Franciscans from 1949 to1953 that answer
this problem.
In an olive grove belonging to the Franciscans, on a hill west of the
traditional tomb of Lazarus, archaeology has brought to light grottoes,
cisterns, caves, rooms, a bakery and silos, containing an important collection
of oil-lamps, jars, pitchers, coins, etc., all of which prove that the
site was occupied from the 6/5th centuries BC to the 14th century AD. The
early period coincides with the return from the Babylonian Exile and it
is this period when the place was settled by the Benjaminites. Objects
dating from the time of the Gospels found there include oil lamps in use
in the1st-centuries BC and AD. Also discovered were pieces of pottery like
those at Qumran, dating back to the 1st-century of the Christian era, before
the First Jewish Revolt (66-70 AD). There were also jars belonging to the
Herodian era, such as those found at Jericho.
The raising of Lazarus
When Jesus and the disciples reached Bethany, mourners had gathered
to comfort, Mary and Martha, the grieving sisters of Lazarus (a name meaning
"whom God helps;" a form of the Hebrew Eleazar"). Martha
came to greet Jesus but Mary was so distraught she had to be encouraged
to come outside the house. Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four
days:
"'Lord, Martha said to Jesus, 'if you had been here,
my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give
you whatever you ask.' Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.'
Martha answered, 'I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the
last day.' Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who
believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes
in me will never die. Do you believe this?' 'Yes, Lord,' she told him,
'I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into
the world.'" (John 11:21-27)
The tomb entrance had been blocked with a large stone and those gathered
outside cried, as did Jesus ("Jesus wept"--John 11:35, the shortest
verse in the Bible). They must have astonished when Jesus ordered, "Take
away the stone," he said. "But, Lord," Martha protested,
"by this time there is a bad odor." According to traditional
practice, the body had been washed in scented oils and wrapped in fine
linen (but not embalmed). But Jesus insisted and, after praying, he shouted,
"Lazarus, come out!" Still wrapped in his grave clothes, the
man stumbled out of his tomb into the light. Because of what Jesus did,
many Jews "put their faith in him."
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Right, entrance to
the traditional tomb of Lazarus. A flight of stone steps leads down to the tomb
entrance hall and the tomb itself.
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Right, Standing in the
entrance hall of Lazarus' tomb; the actual burial chamber is seen in the lower
right. |
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The current entrance to the tomb is through a small doorway between
the mosque and the Franciscan church. In a pre-Easter sermon our pastor, a
tour participant, told
us of his own visit to the tomb a couple years earlier:
"I'll never forget it," he said, "the
guide invited some of you to look into the cave, but I was talking to a
housewife over her front fence, and then I was browsing in the gift shop
and as you were heading back to the tour bus, I went down into Lazarus'
tomb. It was not very large and the entrance to it was maybe 5 and 1/2
feet off the ground. Men were a lot shorter in Jesus' day than now. I looked
around and thought to myself, 'hmm, nice place to visit but I wouldn't
want to live here,' and then I turned and walked quickly out of the tomb,
but I forgot to duck, and I cracked my head on the entrance stone."
I smiled and carefully lowered my six-foot frame. A week earlier I too
had whacked my head on the low entrance of the Church of the Nativity in
Bethlehem and didn't want another sore spot. I took the 24 steps down into
the tomb's entrance hall. From there three more steps lead to an inner
chamber, a little more than 6 feet in size. It contained, we were told,
three burial niches, but they are mostly hidden by a facing of stonework.
One tradition places the tomb of Lazarus to the right of the entrance which
was formerly closed by a horizontal stone. Quarried out of the soft rock,
it was most likely faced with stone or marble-work during the Byzantine
period. In its present state, however, the tomb shows traces of changes
and additions made during the Middle Ages.
How authentic is the tomb of Lazarus?
Its authenticity rests mainly on the fact that it has been identified
as Lazarus' tomb since the 2nd century AD. As for the town itself: the
first great Christian historian, Eusebius of Caesarea (265-340 AD), stated
in his Onomasticon (simply meaning the naming of places topographically)
that in the 2nd century AD the village was no longer called Bethany but
was known as the "place of Lazarus." Already at this early date
the name had been changed and this wouldn't have happened if something
significant hadn't taken place there.
Following the raising of Lazarus
According to John, after the raising of Lazarus, Jesus and the disciples
went to Ephraim, an isolated hill town about 15 miles northeast of Jerusalem
(see John 11:54).
Ephraim
Ephraim, another name for Ephron, is apparently identical with Ophrah
(Greek form of "Aphairema"), one of the cities alloted to the
tribe of Benjamin (see Joshua 18:23). The name means "double ash-heap:
I shall be doubly fruitful," and the ancient site is thought to be
located at Tell Taiyibeh, four miles north of Old Testament Bethel which,
in turn, is just north of modern Ramallah. If this is a correct identification,
it was a high city, situated about 2,800 feet above sea-level (300 feet
higher than Jerusalem), and could be quite cold, especially in the winter
months.
Meanwhile, John further tells us, the raising of Lazarus set off an explosion
of anger in the Sanhedrin, the 71 member Jewish governing body. Such miracles,
it was feared, could incite the people to follow this latest Messiah claimant
into yet another rebellion, provoking Roman intervention. The high priest,
Joseph Caiaphas, summed it up:
"You do not realize that it is better for you that
one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."
From that day on the chief priests and Pharisees plotted to take his
life. An arrest warrant was issued "that if anyone found out where
Jesus was, he should report it so that they might arrest him" (John
11:57).
We may, in fact, have some idea of the actual wording of the arrest warrant.
A rabbic tradition recorded in the Talmud specifies the indictment against
one Yeshu Hannosri ("Jesus of Nazareth" in Hebrew). The warrant can be reconstructed:
Wanted: Yeshu Hannosri
He will be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed to apostasy.
Anyone who can say anything in his favor, let him come forward and plead
on his behalf. Anyone who knows where his is, let him declare it to the
great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.
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Legal custom dictated that the warrant be announced publicly or posted
in the larger towns of Judea some forty days prior to any trial. With Passover
approaching there was some debate among the Sanhedrin members:
"What do you think? Isn't he coming to the Feast
at all?" (John 11:56b).
The final countdown to Holy Week