Lazarus of Bethany

Lazarus of Bethany is a figure of the New Testament, known principally from the Gospel of John as the brother of Mary and Martha and as the man whom Jesus raised from the dead. The Gospel identifies him as a resident of Bethany, a village near Jerusalem, and as one whom Jesus loved. According to John 11, Lazarus fell ill; his sisters sent word to Jesus, who delayed two days before going to Bethany. By the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days. After speaking with Martha and Mary and weeping at the tomb, Jesus called Lazarus forth, and the dead man came out still bound in burial cloths. The evangelist presents the sign as a revelation of Jesus as the resurrection and the life and as a catalyst for the Sanhedrin's decision to seek Jesus' death. John 12 further records that Lazarus was present at a supper in Bethany six days before Passover, at which Martha served and Mary anointed Jesus, and that the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well because many were believing in Jesus on account of him.

The name Lazarus is a Latinized form of the Hebrew Eleazar, meaning God has helped. The Synoptic Gospels do not mention Lazarus of Bethany by name. Luke 10 describes a visit of Jesus to the home of Martha and Mary without referring to a brother, and Luke 16 contains the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, a beggar; most interpreters treat the parable's Lazarus as a distinct literary figure, though later Christian tradition sometimes conflated the two. Extra-biblical sources from the first century do not independently attest Lazarus. His historical existence and the details of the raising narrative are therefore known only through the Johannine tradition, whose composition is generally placed in the late first century.

Eastern Christian tradition, especially as developed in Cyprus and in Byzantine hagiography, holds that Lazarus left Judea because of hostility toward him, settled on Cyprus, and was consecrated by the apostles Paul and Barnabas as the first bishop of Kition, later Larnaca. According to this tradition he lived some thirty years after his raising and died a second time on the island. A related legend claims that after seeing the unredeemed dead during his four days in the tomb he never smiled again, except once when he saw someone stealing a pot. In 890, according to Byzantine accounts, a tomb at Larnaca was identified as his, bearing an inscription referring to Lazarus the friend of Christ; Emperor Leo VI had relics translated to Constantinople, and the Church of Saint Lazarus was subsequently built over the Cypriot tomb. The Eastern churches commemorate him on Lazarus Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday, and on 17 March as bishop of Kition.

Western medieval legend, circulating especially in Provence and compiled in works such as the Golden Legend, related that Lazarus, Martha, Mary Magdalene (often identified with Mary of Bethany), and companions were cast adrift from the Holy Land and landed in southern Gaul. In this narrative Lazarus became the first bishop of Marseille and was later martyred. Relics were claimed at Marseille and at Autun. Historians generally regard the Provençal cycle as a medieval construction rather than a record of first-century events, and it is not supported by early evidence. In the Roman Rite, Lazarus has been associated with the memorial of Martha and, in recent decades, Mary of Bethany on 29 July; the Roman Martyrology has also listed him on 17 December.

Lazarus was never the subject of a formal papal canonization of the later medieval or modern type; veneration of him as a saint rests on scriptural witness and ancient liturgical tradition. A tomb shown as his at Bethany, known in Arabic as al-Eizariya, has been a Christian pilgrimage site since at least the fourth century, when it is mentioned by Eusebius of Caesarea and by the Bordeaux Pilgrim. He is not recorded as having held the office of pope or patriarch, nor is there reliable evidence concerning marriage or children. Conflicting claims about his place of death and burial—Bethany, Larnaca, Marseille, and elsewhere—cannot be resolved from contemporary sources. His enduring significance in Christian memory lies in the Johannine sign of his raising, which became a major theme in liturgy, iconography, and preaching on resurrection, particularly in the East on Lazarus Saturday and in Holy Week.