His miraculous power proceeds to a still more exalted act, that its display may more closely approach that miracle of the resurrection which men doubt. One of the Lord's companions and friends is ill (Lazarus is the sick man's name); and the Lord deprecates any visiting of His friend, though far away from the sick man, that in the absence of the Life, death might find room and power to do his own work by the agency of disease. The Lord informs His disciples in Galilee of what has befallen Lazarus, and also of his own setting out to him to raise him up when laid low. They, however, were exceedingly afraid on account of the fury of the Jews, thinking it a difficult and dangerous matter to turn again towards Judaea, in the midst of those who sought to slay Him: and thus, lingering and delaying, they return slowly from Galilee: but they do return, for His command prevailed, and the disciples were led by the Lord to be initiated at Bethany in the preliminary mysteries of the general resurrection. Four days had already passed since the event; all due rites had been performed for the departed; the body was hidden in the tomb: it was probably already swollen and beginning to dissolve into corruption, as the body mouldered in the dank earth and necessarily decayed: the thing was one to turn from, as the dissolved body under the constraint of nature changed to offensiveness . At this point the doubted fact of the general resurrection is brought to proof by a more manifest miracle; for one is not raised from severe sickness, nor brought back to life when at the last breath-nor is a child just dead brought to life, nor a young man about to be conveyed to the tomb released from his bier; but a man past the prime of life, a corpse, decaying, swollen, yea already in a state of dissolution, so that even his own kinsfolk could not suffer that the Lord should draw near the tomb by reason of the offensiveness of the decayed body there enclosed, brought into life by a single call, confirms the proclamation of the resurrection, that is to say, that expectation of it as universal, which we learn by a particular experience to entertain. For as in the regeneration of the universe the Apostle tells us that "the Lord Himself will descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel ," and by a trumpet sound raise up the dead to incorruption-so now too he who is in the tomb, at the voice of command, shakes off death as if it were a sleep, and ridding himself from the corruption that had come upon his condition of a corpse, leaps forth from the tomb whole and sound, not even hindered in his egress by the bonds of the grave-cloths round his feet and hands.

Ἔτι πρὸς τὸ ὑψηλότερον ἡ θαυματοποιία προέρχεται͵ ὡς ἂν μᾶλλον προσεγγίσειε τὰ φαινόμενα τῷ ἀπιστουμένῳ περὶ τὴν ἀνάστασιν θαύματι. Ἠσθένει τις τῶν συνήθων τῷ Κυρίῳ καὶ φίλων, Λάζαρος ὄνομα τῷ ἀσθενοῦντι. Καὶ παραιτεῖται ὁ Κύριος τὴν τοῦ φίλου ἐπίσκεψιν͵ πόῤῥω τοῦ νοσοῦντος γενόμενος͵ ὡς ἂν εὕροι χώραν καὶ δύναμιν ἐν τῇ τῆς ζωῆς ἀπουσίᾳ τὸ ἴδιον ἐργάζεσθαι διὰ τῆς νόσου ὁ θάνατος. Μηνύει τοῖς μαθηταῖς ὁ Κύριος κατὰ τὴν Γαλιλαίαν τὸ περὶ τὸν Λάζαρον πάθος, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁρμήν͵ ἐφ' ᾧ τε διαναστῆσαι τὸν κείμενον. Περιδεεῖς δὲ ἦσαν ἐκεῖνοι διὰ τὴν τῶν Ἰουδαίων ὠμότητα͵ χαλεπὸν καὶ κινδυνῶδες ποιούμενοι τὸ πάλιν ἐπὶ τῆς Ἰουδαίας ἐν μέσῳ τῶν φονώντων γενέσθαι. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μέλλοντες καὶ ἀναβαλλόμενοι͵ χρόνῳ ποιοῦνται τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλιλαίας ἐπάνοδον. Κατεκράθη γὰρ ἡ ἐξουσία καὶ ἤγοντο παρὰ τοῦ Κυρίου οἱ μαθηταί͵ οἱονεὶ τὰ προτέλεια τῆς καθολικῆς ἀναστάσεως ἐν Βηθανίᾳ μυηθησόμενοι. Τέσσαρες ἦσαν ἤδη μετὰ τὸ πάθος αἱ [221] ἡμέραν πάντα ἐπεπλήρωτο τῷ κατοιχομένῳ τὰ νομιζόμενα͵ τάφῳ κατεκρύβη τὸ σῶμα. Ἐξῳδήκει κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς ἤδη καὶ πρὸς διαφθορὰν διελύετο͵ μυδῶντος ἐν τῷ εὐρῶτι τῆς γῆς καὶ διαπίπτοντος ὑπ' ἀνάγκης τοῦ σώματος. Φευκτὸν ἦν τὸ πρᾶγμα͵ βιαζομένης τῆς φύσεως τὸ διαλυθὲν εἰς δυσωδίαν ἀποδιδόναι πάλιν τῷ ζῇν. Τότε τὸ ἀπιστούμενον τῆς καθολικῆς ἀναστάσεως ἔργον δι' ἐναργεστέρου τοῦ θαύματος εἰς ἀπόδειξιν ἄγεται. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐκ νόσου τις ἀνίσταται χαλεπῆς͵ οὐδὲ πρὸς ταῖς τελευταίαις ὢν ἀναπνοαῖς εἰς τὴν ζωὴν ἐπανάγεται͵ οὐδὲ παιδίον ἀρτιθανὲς ζωοποιεῖται͵ οὐδὲ μέλλων τῷ τάφῳ προσάγεσθαι νεανίας πάλιν ἐκ τῆς σοροῦ ἀναλύεται, ἀλλ' ἀνὴρ τῶν ἐξώρων͵ νεκρός͵ ἕωλος͵ ἐξῳδηκὼς ἤδη καὶ λελυμένος͵ ὡς μηδὲ τοῖς ἐπιτηδείοις ἀνεκτὸν εἶναι προσεγγίσαι τῷ τάφῳ τὸν Κύριον διὰ τὴν ἐγκειμένην ἀηδίαν τοῦ διαπεπτωκότος σώματος͵ μιᾷ κλήσει ζωοποιηθεὶς πιστοῦται τὸ κήρυγμα τῆς ἀναστάσεως͵ τοῦτ' ἐστι͵ τὸ ἐπὶ τοῦ κοινοῦ προσδοκώμενον͵ ὃ ἐπὶ μέρους τῇ πείρᾳ ἐμάθομεν. Καθάπερ γὰρ ἐν τῇ τοῦ παντὸς ἀναστοιχειώσει͵ φησὶν ὁ Ἀπόστολος͵ αὐτὸν καταβήσεσθαι τὸν Κύριον ἐν κελεύσματι͵ ἐν φωνῇ ἀρχαγγέλου καὶ διὰ σάλπιγγος εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν τοὺς νεκροὺς διαναστήσειν, οὕτω καὶ νῦν οἷόν τινα ὕπνον τὸν θάνατον͵ τῇ φωνῇ τοῦ προστάγματος ὁ ἐν τῷ τάφῳ ἀποσεισάμενος καὶ ἀποτινάξας ἑαυτοῦ τὴν ἐπιγινομένην διαφθορὰν τῇ νεκρότητι͵ ἄρτιος καὶ σῶος τοῦ τάφου ἐξάλλεται͵ μηδὲ τῷ δεσμῷ τῶν περὶ τοὺς πόδας καὶ τὰς χεῖρας κειριῶν κωλυθεὶς πρὸς τὴν ἔξοδον.