John 11:18

ἦν δὲ ἡ Β. Ἦν. need not imply that when S. John wrote Bethany had been destroyed, but this is the more probable meaning; especially as no other Evangelist speaks of places in the past tense, and S. John does not always do so. The inference is that he wrote after the destruction of Jerusalem; and that what was destroyed in the siege he speaks of in the past tense; e.g. Bethany (here), the Garden of Gethsemane (John 18:1), Joseph’s garden (John 19:41), what was not destroyed, in the present tense; e.g. Bethesda (John 11:2, where see note).

ὡς�. δεκαπ. A Greek stade is 18 yards less than an English furlong; but the translation is sufficiently accurate, like ‘firkin’ (John 2:6). This distance, therefore, was under two miles, and is mentioned to account for the many Jews who came to condole with the sisters; and also to point out the dangerous proximity into which Jesus now entered. For the ἀπό comp. John 21:8; Revelation 14:20 : in all three cases the preposition seems to have got out of place. We should have expected ὡς σταδίους δ. ἀπὸ Ἱεροσολύμων, as in Luke 24:13. Comp. πρὸ ἔξ ἡμερῶν τοῦ πάσχα (John 12:1); and ante diem tertium Kal. Mart. for tertio die ante Kal. Mart. Or possibly the distance is looked at in the reverse way: Winer, p. 697.