Whatever the case, the traditional connecting of Lazarus with Larnaca goes back to the 8th century at least, so that may be the best we can do on that connection.Ī second riddle addressed by this episode involves the identity of the anonymous author of the Fourth Gospel. Whether the testing of ancient bone fragments would have yielded different results, of course, remains an unsolved riddle. While Georges Kazan and Tom Higham of Oxford University tested some wood fragments from the Lazarus sarcophagus, the Carbon-14 test failed to reveal anything older than a couple of centuries. According to tradition, given that Jewish leaders sought to kill Lazarus (as well as Jesus, John 12:9-11), he reportedly fled to a remote place, and a church dedicated to Saint Lazarus remains in Larnaca to this day. As Mark Goodacre points out, given that Bethany was on the way into Jerusalem from the East, this would also have been a setting in which to make a statement regarding who Jesus was as people entered the city for the Passover festival.Īnother site connected with Lazarus in history is Larnaca on the Island of Cyprus. It reflects a historic site of pilgrimages before and after that century, and even Muslim traditions have noted the site as the tomb of Lazarus. Robert Cargill shows a historic site connected with tomb of Lazarus (the Lazarium), identified by ancient sources since the 4th century CE. While the CNN episode cannot solve the question of historicity conclusively, it does seek to account for the history of Lazarus in several ways. On the other hand, John’s account of the Lazarus family is one of the most detailed narratives in any of the Gospels, so it is unlikely that the entire story is simply a fabrication. As Candida Moss puts it, on one hand there’s the question of historical memory versus narrated legend. Therefore, John’s author might have been seeking to include memories of Jesus’s ministry not included in the other Gospels, especially as an augmentation of Mark. And yet, it is implausible that any or all four of the canonical Gospels included all the things Jesus said and did, and John 21:25 claims as much. If it really happened in history, how could it not be known by several sources, not only John? Given that the story serves a climactic function in John’s narrative, skeptical scholars have sometimes assumed that the origin of story is theological rather than historical. Some of them are well addressed in this episode, and others less so.įirst, why is the raising of Lazarus-arguably the greatest of Jesus’s miracles-found only in the Gospel of John? If other Gospel writers would have known of this story, they certainly would have mentioned it. However, this raises several questions, or riddles, about John’s story of Jesus. Indeed, the declaration of the steward regarding the providing of wine by Jesus at the Cana wedding feast has come true (John 2:10). Not only is this the last of the miracles performed by Jesus on his way to Jerusalem, but it is also his greatest sign-the seventh in the Gospel of John. The second episode of CNN’s second season of its Finding Jesus series features what is undoubtedly the climax of Jesus’s ministry in the Fourth Gospel-the raising of Lazarus.
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