Bible Commentary

John 11:32

The Pulpit Commentary on John 11:32

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Mary therefore, when she came where Jesus was, and when she saw him, fell at his feet, and in other ways showed more intensity of feeling than did the energetic sister, who in many ways is the feminine type of what Peter was as a man.

She is not altogether silent, but sobbed forth the very words which her sister had uttered before. Thus had they often said one to another while Lazarus was yet alive, "Oh that the Lord Jesus were here!"

Lord, said she, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. The position of μου, which in some manuscripts was placed before ἀπέθανεν is here emphatic, as though Mary had in some way especially claimed Lazarus as her brother more than Martha's.

She does not add a word of remonstrance or suggestion. She moans forth the same confident expression of her sense of the love and power of Jesus.

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