What does Lazarus mean?

Answer 1

In Luke's Gospel, Lazarus was the name of a figurative person in a parable about his death and hypothetical resurrection. He is not portrayed as a real person.

John's Gospel, chapter 11, says that Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha, and tells of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. This became the trigger for the arrest and trial of Jesus, when the chief priests and Pharisees said (John 11:47-48), "What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation." Then in John 12:10, the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death.

New Testament scholars notice that the two sisters, Mary and Martha, and Lazarus occur only in Luke's Gospel and John's Gospel. In Luke, Mary and Martha are not even the sisters of Lazarus, although the two accounts contain some important parallels.

Answer 2

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Luke and John are the only gospels that mention Lazarus, and the only gospels that mention sisters called Mary and Martha. Luke contains a brief story of Jesus visiting the sisters, while Lazarus is in a parable that mentions his resurrection hypothetically (Luke 16:20-31). John wrote an important episode, in which Jesus visited the sisters, Mary and Martha, and resurrected their dead brother, Lazarus (John 11:43-44).

In Luke's Gospel, Lazarus was no more than a character in a parable that Jesus told. In John's Gospel, Lazarus was the brother of Jesus' close friends, Mary and Martha.

The involvement in both Gospels, of sisters called Mary and Martha, is an improbable coincidence. The additional coincidences of name, death and hypothetical or actual resurrection of Lazarus must tell us that the two stories are not really independent of each other. If we wish to know about the historical Jesus we ought to establish whether Jesus told a parable about a fictitious Lazarus or whether there really was a Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead. It is most unlikely that both stories are true.

Scholars tell us that John's Gospel was written anonymously and only attributed to the apostle John later in the second century. They say that the Gospel was not written by an eyewitness to the events it portrays. Scholars also say that John's Gospel was inspired by Luke's Gospel. This means that there is strong evidence that the concept of the resurrection of Lazarus was taken by John from Luke's Gospel. We can say that the historical Jesus never knew someone called Lazarus.

Answer 3

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The name 'Lazarus' is from Greek Lazaros, which corresponds to the Aramaic Lazar, which in turn was a form of the Hebrew name Eleazar.

The two biblical mentions of Lazarus are both concerned with the resurrection of the dead, and for this reason some believe the name may have been inspired by "El-Azar-us", the Egyptian mummy raised from the dead by Horus.

Answer 4

Lazarus was the brother of Martha and Mary, who sent for Jesus to heal Lazarus when he was ill. when Lazarus died Jesus raised Lazarus back from the dead.