What Does John 11:11 Mean in the King James?
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 analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
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 them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.THE THREAD
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring 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.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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