What Does John 11:3 Mean?
Therefore his sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, look, the one you love is weak.
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
Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.THE KEY
Love does not wait for a polished request: the sisters send the bare truth of Lazarus’s illness to the one who loves him.
THE MEANING
Here, need reaches the one who loves: you can name the sickness without first shaping a perfect request. Love is already part of the message, and the illness is stated plainly. The verse leaves the outcome open; it does not pretend the weakness is already resolved.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that need must be made persuasive or paired with a precise demand before it can be brought into a relationship of love.
THE ROOT
ἀσθενεῖ
asthenei
GROWS FROM
ἀ- + σθένος (sthenos)
Without strength; weakness.
The word translated “sick” belongs to a word family that names being without strength. That same family describes human weakness elsewhere, so the verse brings bodily illness into view as a real lack of strength, without explaining it away.
ALSO GROWS
asthenēs: weak, without strength
ἀσθενής
Romans 5:6 uses this word family for being without strength, linking Lazarus’s illness with human weakness more broadly.
astheneia: weakness, infirmity
ἀσθένεια
This related noun makes explicit the weakness contained in the verse’s description of sickness.
φιλεῖς
phileis
GROWS FROM
φιλ-
phil-
Affection; friendship.
“lovest” in this verse is phileis. The sisters identify Lazarus through the affection Jesus has for him. English “love” can conceal the word’s connection to friendship and personal attachment, making the relationship itself part of how they present the need.
ALSO GROWS
philos: friend
φίλος
The related word makes visible the personal bond carried by the sisters’ description of Lazarus.
philia: friendship, affection
φιλία
This noun names the relational quality behind the verb used for Jesus’s love.
ἀπέστειλαν
apesteilan
GROWS FROM
ἀπό + στέλλω (stellō)
Send out, dispatch.
The sisters do more than mention Lazarus: they send a message directly to Jesus. The same sending word family gives English “apostle,” revealing a shared image of someone sent with a message.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: messenger, one sent
ἀπόστολος
It shares the sending word family and shows that the sisters’ action is a deliberate dispatch of news.
apostolē: sending, commission
ἀποστολή
This related noun highlights the act of sending that carries their report to Jesus.
THE PATTERN
Need reaches the one trusted with it through plain naming, before the speaker prescribes a remedy.
Lord, all my longing lies open before you, and my groaning is not hidden from you.And when the wine fell short, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine.And saying, Lord, my servant lies at home, loosened and racked with grievous torment.THE THREAD
For while we were still without strength, in its season the Anointed One died for the ones without awe.“Without strength” translates a Greek word from the same family as “sick” in John 11:3. The shared root connects Lazarus’s bodily weakness with human weakness more broadly, where Christ’s action meets those without strength.
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