John 11:1-2

John 11:1-2

[1] Now  a certain  sick,  named Lazarus,  of  Bethany,  the town  of Mary  and  her  sister  Martha.  [2] that Mary  which  anointed  the Lord  with ointment,  and  wiped  his  feet  with her  hair,  whose  brother  Lazarus  was sick.) 

What does John 11:1-2 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

"Lazarus" probably is a variant of "Eleazar" meaning "God helps." [1] The Synoptic writers did not mention him, which is probably why John described him as Mary and Martha"s brother. These sisters appear in John"s Gospel for the first time here, but they appear in all the Synoptics that preceded the fourth Gospel (cf. Matthew 26:6-12; Mark 14:3-9; Luke 10:38-42).
The Bethany in view is the one almost two miles east of Jerusalem ( John 11:18), not the one in Perea to which the writer referred earlier ( John 1:28). John"s further description of Mary in John 11:2 alludes to the event he would narrate in John 12:1-8. Perhaps he believed that his original readers would have heard of this incident already (cf. Matthew 26:6-12; Mark 14:3-9), or he may have just been tying his two references to Mary together.