John 11:11

Ταῦτα εἶπε … αὐτόν. “These things spake He, and after this,” how long after we do not know; but John 11:15, “let us go to him,” indicates that the two days here intervened. There is, however, difficulty introduced by this supposition. He now makes the definite announcement: “Our friend Lazarus is fallen asleep, but I go to awake him”. κεκοίμηται cf. Matthew 9:24; Matthew 27:52; Acts 7:60; 1 Thessalonians 4:13; 1 Corinthians 15:6. “Mortuos dormientes appellat Scripturae veracissima consuetudo, ut cum dormientes audimus, evigilaturos minime desperemus.” Augustine. The heathen idea of the sleep of death is very different, cf. Catullus, “Nox est perpetua una dormienda”. ἐξυπνίσω is later Greek: ἐξυπνισθῆναι οὐ χρὴ λέγειν, ἀλλʼ ἀφυπνισθῆναι, Phrynichus (Rutherford, p. 305). The disciples misunderstood Him, and said: Κύριε … σωθήσεται. “Lord, if he sleep, he will recover,” implying that in this case they need not take the dangerous step of returning to Judaea [cf. Achilles Tatius, iv., ὕπνος γὰρ πάντων νοσημάτων φάρμακον]. How He knows that Lazarus sleeps they do not inquire, accustomed as they are to His exercise of gifts they do not understand. σωθήσεται, cf. Mark 5:28; Mark 5:34; Mark 6:56, etc. Their misunderstanding was favoured by His having said (John 11:4) that the illness was “not to death”; naturally when Jesus spoke of Lazarus sleeping they understood Him to speak (John 11:13) περὶ τῆς κοιμήσεως τοῦ ὕπνου, “of the κοίμησις of sleep”.