What Does John 11:11 Mean?
He said these things, and after this he said to them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go, so that I may wake him from sleep.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The word for death is “sleep,” but the sentence’s active center is “I go”, the one speaking moves toward the one who sleeps.
THE MEANING
The verse names Lazarus as friend before it names his condition, keeping relationship at the center of death’s language. Death is spoken of as sleep, and the speaker moves toward him to wake him. The image holds death as real, yet not as the final word.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that death is beyond anyone’s reach: the speaker moves toward the one who has died and speaks of awakening.
THE ROOT
κεκοίμηται
kekoimētai
GROWS FROM
κοιμ-
koim-
To sleep or lie down; by extension, to be laid to rest.
“has fallen asleep” in this verse is kekoimētai. The Greek word translated “sleepeth” comes from κοιμάω (koimaō), a verb that can describe ordinary sleep and death. The image keeps the sleeper within reach of awakening: Jesus says, “I go,” and names waking as his purpose.
ALSO GROWS
koimēsis: Sleep; a falling asleep
κοίμησις
This noun carries the same sleep-language into a name for the state itself, echoing how the verse describes Lazarus.
koimētērion: A sleeping place; a burial ground
κοιμητήριον
The word behind “cemetery” preserves the same image: a place associated with those who sleep.
THE PATTERN
When scripture calls death sleep, it places death beside an awakening that remains possible through God’s action.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground shall awake, some to the life of the ages, and some to exposure and contempt for the ages.And when he had entered, he said to them, "Why make this uproar and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeps."For if we trust that Jesus died and rose, so also God will lead those who have slept through Jesus along with him.THE THREAD
For if we trust that Jesus died and rose, so also God will lead those who have slept through Jesus along with him.The word translated “sleep” here comes from the same Greek verb, κοιμάω (koimaō), as κεκοίμηται in John. In both verses, those who sleep remain within the reach of divine action.
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