John 11:11-13 These things said he: and after that he said to them, Our friend Lazarus sleeps; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.… Estius well remarks, "Sleeping, in the sense of dying, is only applied to men, because of the hope of the resurrection. We read no such thing of brutes." The use of the figure is so common in Scripture, that it is almost needless to give references (see Deuteronomy 31:16; Daniel 12:2; Matthew 27:52; Acts 7:60; Acts 13:36; 1 Corinthians 7:39; 1 Corinthians 11:30; 1 Corinthians 15:6-18; 1 Thessalonians 4:13, 14). But it is a striking fact that the figure is frequently used by great heathen writers, showing clearly that the traditions of a life after death existed even among the heathen. Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, Catullus, supply instances. However, the Christian believer is the only one who can truly regard death as sleep — that is, as a healthy, refreshing thing, which can do him no harm. Many among ourselves, perhaps, are not aware that the figure of speech exists among us in full force in the word "cemetery," applied to burial ground. That word is drawn from the very Greek verb which our Lord uses here. It is literally a "sleeping place." (Bishop Ryle.) Parallel Verses KJV: These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. |
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