Bible Strands
John 11:5
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus is the subject, described in third person at the narrative pause between His declaration that Lazarus’s illness will glorify God and His decision to remain two days in His current location.
The words — ἠγάπα (ēgapa) carries the imperfect tense, indicating continuous or ongoing love, and δέ (de) acts as a connective particle that shifts the narrative focus.
The thread — This declaration of love runs parallel to Jesus’s command to remain in His love (John 15:9), the bystanders’ direct observation of His affection (John 11:36), and the Father’s love for the Son passed to believers (John 17:26).
Why it lands — The text establishes Jesus’s personal commitment to the Bethany family as the factual basis for His subsequent delay and miracle, requiring the reader to accept that divine action proceeds from documented relational history rather than abstract necessity.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
Cross-references
- John 15:9 As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Remain in My love.
- John 11:36 Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”
- John 17:26 And I have made Your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love You have for Me may be in them, and I in them.”
- John 16:27 For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.
- John 11:8 “Rabbi,” they replied, “the Jews just tried to stone You, and You are going back there?”