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Jesus wept is a phrase famous for being the shortest verse in the Christian New Testament according to the division of chapters and verses of the Bible. It is found in the Gospel of John, Chapter 11:35. The phrase has also gained cultural significance as an expletive, much like zounds (a shortened form of God's wounds or Christ's wounds).
Cultural significance
In some places in the western English-speaking world, the phrase "Jesus wept" is a common expletive, curse or minced oath spoken when something goes wrong or to express mild incredulity.
Jesus's tears have figured among the relics attributed to Jesus.
Context
The phrase occurs in John's narrative of the death of Lazarus, a friend of Jesus. Lazarus' sisters Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus of their brother's illness. Jesus arrived four days after Lazarus' death. Jesus, after talking to the greiving sisters and seeing Lazarus' friends weeping, was deeply troubled. After being shown where Lazarus was laid, Jesus wept in front of Lazarus' tomb. He then ordered the people to remove the stone covering his tomb, prayed aloud to God (for the benefit of the people), and ordered Lazarus to come out.
The revivification of Lazarus and subsequent growth in the number of Jewish followers of Jesus' teachings came to the attention of the Jewish priests. According to the Gospel of John, this, along with fear of retribution from the Romans, led to the Jewish leadership's decision to turn Jesus over to Pontius Pilate for execution (John 11:45-53, 18:31).
Text
| Translation | Text |
|---|---|
| American Standard Version | "Jesus wept." |
| Bible in Basic English | "And Jesus himself was weeping." |
| Darby Bible | "Jesus wept." |
| God's Word | "Jesus cried." |
| Holman Christian Standard Bible | "Jesus wept." |
| King James Version | "Jesus wept" |
| The Message | "Now Jesus wept." |
| New American Bible | "And Jesus wept." |
| New King James Version | "Jesus wept." |
| New Revised Standard Version | "Jesus began to weep." |
| New World Translation | "Jesus gave way to tears." |
| World English Bible | "Jesus wept." |
| Young's Literal Translation | "Jesus wept." |
| Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible | "Jesus wept." |
Interpretation
Significance has been attributed to this phrase for a number of reasons, including the following:
- Weeping demonstrates that the Christ was indeed true man, with real bodily functions (such as tears, sweat, blood, eating and drinking - note, for comparison, the emphasis laid on Jesus eating during the post-resurrection appearances). His emotions and reactions were real; the Christ was not an illusion or spirit (see Docetism). Pope Leo I referred to this passage when he discussed the two natures of Jesus: "In his humanity Jesus wept for Lazarus; in his divinity he raised him from the dead."
- The sorrow felt by Jesus presages the suffering of his own crucifixion.
- The sorrow, sympathy, and compassion Jesus felt for all mankind.
- Jesus's weeping demonstrates that Lazarus had genuinely died. The raising of Lazarus was therefore not a fraud or a case of misdiagnosis.
- Most people interpret his weeping to mean that Jesus was sorrowful for the fact that Lazarus had died (which was the interpretation of the bystanders in verse 36). However, an alternate explanation considers this to be unreasonable, given his full knowledge that he was about to resurrect Lazarus. This view instead argues that every single person whom Jesus talked to in John chapter 11 (his disciples, Martha, Mary, and the Jews) was blinded by their misconceptions of Jesus and by their failure to recognize that, as he declared in verse 26, he himself was "the resurrection and the life". Thus, "he groaned in the spirit and was troubled" (New King James, verse 33). This view holds that he wept because even those who were closest to him were still blinded by their concepts to the fact that he really was "the resurrection and the life"—beyond mere doctrine (verses 25-27)—in spite of all his plain words to them. A striking point in this view is that the only person in the chapter who had no misconceptions was the dead man Lazarus, who promptly obeyed and received life when commanded to come forth. Finally, this view holds that the bystanders in verses 36-37, just like most readers today, were blinded by their own misconceptions and so did not understand that Jesus was actually weeping for them, not for Lazarus.
Usage in media
The phrase was used in the 1987 Clive Barker's cult horror film Hellraiser, being the last words pronounced by Frank Cotton before he was entirely skin-ripped by the Cenobites.
Sundry
- Martin Luther translated the Latin phrase "Lacrimatus est Iesus" as "Und Jesus gingen die Augen über", this is poetically spoken and means "And Jesus' eyes overflowed".
See also
External links
"Jesus wept"