Lazarus (i.e. Elazar), the name of two Israelites (one imaginary)
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G2976 names Lazarus, the man from Bethany whom Jesus loves, allows to die, calls from the tomb, and makes a living witness to His resurrection power. John does not use Lazarus as a generic symbol for every suffering person.
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Full entry for Λάζαρος (G2976) · Open the biblical lexicon
G2976 names Lazarus, the man from Bethany whom Jesus loves, allows to die, calls from the tomb, and makes a living witness to His resurrection power. John does not use Lazarus as a generic symbol for every suffering person.
The BSB source-word alignment has 15 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Lazarus (14), [named] Lazarus (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 16:20. Its strongest book concentrations include John (11), Luke (4).
G2976 names Lazarus, the man from Bethany whom Jesus loves, allows to die, calls from the tomb, and makes a living witness to His resurrection power. John does not use Lazarus as a generic symbol for every suffering person. He is Mary's and Martha's brother, Jesus' friend, the recipient of a sign that reveals Jesus as the resurrection and the life, and the occasion for intensified hostility before the cross.
The name belongs to grief, love, delay, command, testimony, and danger. Lazarus is raised by Jesus, not by faith in a technique. His story points to Christ's authority over death and to the costly witness that follows divine mercy.
G2976 follows Lazarus from sickness and Jesus' love through death, Jesus' tomb command, public testimony, and the leaders' plot to kill the man whose life had become evidence of Jesus' power.
At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
John introduces Lazarus as a sick man in Bethany, tied to Mary and Martha. The sign begins in a real household and village.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
Jesus' love for Martha, her sister, and Lazarus is stated before the delay and death unfold. Love governs the scene even when timing is painful.
After He had said this, He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”
Jesus calls Lazarus our friend and says He is going to wake him. The coming sign is framed by friendship and divine purpose.
After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
Jesus calls Lazarus by name from the tomb. The command displays His authority over death in a public sign.
So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well,
The chief priests plan to kill Lazarus as well. A living witness to Jesus' power becomes a target of opposition.
Meanwhile, many people who had been with Jesus when He called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify.
Those who saw Jesus call Lazarus from the tomb continue to testify. Lazarus' life becomes part of public witness to Jesus.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Lazarus (i.e. Elazar), the name of two Israelites (one imaginary)
:--Lazarus.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
15 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Lazarus, Eliezer
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Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 15 lexical occurrence verses.
Hebrew roots and equivalents that share conceptual or etymological ground with this Greek word.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G2976 matters because Lazarus stands at the intersection of grief, love, sign, and opposition. John first names him as a sick man in Bethany, not as an idea. Jesus loves the family and still allows the scene to move through death. That tension prevents shallow application. At the tomb, Jesus does not offer vague comfort; He commands Lazarus to come out, and the dead man lives.
The sign leads many to believe, but it also sharpens the leaders' hostility until Lazarus himself is targeted. Teachers should therefore keep the whole arc together. Lazarus shows Jesus' authority over death and the public witness of mercy received, but his raising does not promise every grief an immediate reversal before the final resurrection.
John.11.43
G2976 is a personal name. In John, its significance comes from the Lazarus narrative and the Bethany context. Do not merge him with another Lazarus from a different passage.
Scripture presents the Lord as sovereign over life and death, but John concentrates that hope in Jesus' own words: He is the resurrection and the life and calls the dead by His authority.