=11-13. Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.= An interval is indicated as having taken place between the previous discourse and the present declaration, by the words, _after that he saith unto them_. _Our friend_, implies that Lazarus was loved by the disciples as well as by their Lord. This language, coupled with that of verse 3, indicates that he possessed a peculiarly lovable character. _Sleep_ is used both in the O. T. and N. T. as a metaphor of death (2 Chron. 14:1; Ps. 13:3; Jer. 51:57; Job 14:12; Dan. 12:2; Matt. 27:52; Acts 7:60; 13:36; 1 Cor. 7:39; 11:30; 15:6, 18, 20, 51; 1 Thess. 4:13, 14, 15). Some of the rationalistic critics think that the disciples were extraordinarily stupid, not to understand Christ’s metaphor; and yet they are guilty of a similar but greater stupidity. Thus, the author of _Supernatural Religion_ says (Vol. II, 460): “The disciples reply with the stupidity with which the fourth Evangelist endows all those who hold colloquy with Jesus: (Lord, if he has fallen asleep he will recover;)” and yet, on the immediately preceding page, he interprets Christ’s similar declaration respecting the daughter of Jairus (Matt. 9:24): “The maid is not dead but sleepeth,” as “an express declaration” that the case is “one of mere suspension of consciousness.” The misapprehension of the apostles here was not extraordinary; certainly not more so than that afforded by some analogous instances in the first three Gospels (see Matt. 16:7; Luke 22:38). They had understood from verse 4, that Lazarus was to be restored; they had interpreted Christ’s words as a promise of healing; they had witnessed cases of miraculous healing in at least two instances, wrought by a word on an absent patient (Luke 7:10; John 4:50-53); so when Jesus said, “Lazarus is sleeping,” they thought the crisis of the disease had passed, and that there was no reason why their Master should brave the dangers of a Judean mob to go to the bedside of a convalescent friend. 14 Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead; 15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him. 16 Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow-disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.