Cyril of Alexandria

Then Thomas called Didymus said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”

“The language of Thomas has indeed zeal, but it also has timidity; it was the outcome of devout feeling, but it was mixed with littleness of faith.”

Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, a little less than two miles away,

“He mentions also the length of days that had intervened after the death of Lazarus for this reason, that the miracle may be the more marvelled at, and lest any one should chance to say that He had come after one day, and that Lazarus…”

So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him; but Mary stayed at home.

“Perhaps Martha was the more eager to do such things as might be necessary; wherefore also she first went and met Him: but Mary was the more intelligent.”

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.

“What Martha says, amounts to this. "Not for this reason," she says, "did my brother die, because the nature of man is subject to death; but because Thou wast not present, Who art able by Thy word to conquer death."”

But even now I know that God will give You whatever You ask of Him.”

“And the words: Whatsoever Thou shalt ask of God He will give Thee, are the words of one who is almost afraid to ask plainly what she wishes; nevertheless she stumbles concerning the truth in that she speaks not as to God, but as to…”

“Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.

“His being seen in the flesh causing her to think that whatsoever He should ask as a saint, He would receive from God; not indeed knowing that, being in His Nature God and the Power of the Father, He possesses irresistible might over all things.”

Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

“The woman having heard this and being ashamed now to say: "Raise him to life," yet in some degree instigating Him to do the work at once, seems somewhat to be saddened at the postponement of the time, saying: "I know that he shall rise…”

And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Assuredly a fruit and reward of faith in Christ is eternal life, and in no other way does this come to the soul of man.”

After Martha had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside to tell her, “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.”

“She went away to call her sister, that she also might share the happiness which arose from the expected event, and receive at once in common with herself the dead one raised again beyond all hope.”

When Mary came to Jesus and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

“Certainly Mary says that death had happened to her brother prematurely through the absence of the Lord, and says that He had come to the house, when the time for healing had passed by: and it is possible also from this to conjecture that she…”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

“Or thus we must understand the words: He groaned in the spirit and was troubled, viz:----as equivalent to: "Being moved to compassion by reason of many weeping, He in a manner gave commandment to His own Spirit to overthrow death before the time, and to…”

Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”

“Certainly the Evangelist, seeing the tearless Nature weeping, is astonished, although the suffering was peculiar to the flesh, and not suitable to the Godhead.”

Jesus, once again deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

“Here we understand the groaning as if it were the will struggling with a sort of movement according to its power, both because He rather sternly reproved His grief, and the tears which were about to be shed from His grief.”

Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

“A most excellent thing is faith, when it is produced from an ardent mind; and it has such great power that not only is the believer healed, but in fact others also have been healed besides them that believed; as the paralytic let down [through…”

I knew that You always hear Me, but I say this for the benefit of the people standing here, so they may believe that You sent Me.”

“Of course it is agreeably to His self-humiliation as a Man that the Christ thus speaks in a lowly manner, not according to the excellency of the Godhead: and He offers His thanks to the Father not on account of Lazarus only, but for the…”

Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs.

“Of course the Pharisees also cease to wonder and are turned to grief, and when they see Him stronger than death, they take counsel to kill Him. Not considering His unspeakable authority, but thinking of Him as a mere man, they said: What do we?”

You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

“Behold, the very thing of which we were speaking, the very thing which the Jews were secretly exercising themselves to bring into effect, this their high priest openly counsels them to do, even to kill the Christ; saying that it would be for the nation…”

and not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to gather them together into one.

“Caiaphas then said that the death of Christ would be for the Jews only, but the Evangelist says that it would be for all mankind.”

So from that day on they plotted to kill Him.

“For they had the desire to defile themselves with Christ's Blood, and from the moment at which the assembly took place, it received as it were a fresh start, the common consent of all to it being publicly acknowledged.”

Now the Jewish Passover was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover.

“Passing over everything else, the Evangelist goes on to the time of the passion. And he calls it the passover of the Jews typically; for [he refers to] the true Passover, not of the Jews, but of Christians, who eat the Flesh of Christ the…”

They kept looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple courts, “What do you think? Will He come to the feast at all?”

“The form of expression however leaves it doubtful whether the words: Think ye that He will not come to the feast?, are the utterance of those who hated or of those who loved Him.”

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, the hometown of Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. So they hosted a dinner for Jesus there.

“Disdaining the plot of the Jews, the Lord gives Himself up, willing to suffer when the time for suffering was come, going to Bethany; not actually into Jerusalem, lest, suddenly appearing to the Jews, He might kindle them to anger; but by the rumour of…”

“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “She has kept this perfume in preparation for the day of My burial.

“And the Lord also makes it clear that the woman was free from any blame, whereby He covertly rebukes the traitor; not in His good judgment finding fault with things that were worthy of praise, but saying: Let her alone.”

The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me.”

“And the Lord also brings forward an argument which convinces us that nothing is better than devotion towards Him. For, He says, love for the poor is very praiseworthy, only let it be put after veneration of God.”

Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews learned that Jesus was there. And they came not only because of Him, but also to see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the…

“Through the strangeness of the sign the multitude are astonished; and that which they heard to have been done they wished also to behold with their eyes, that they might believe it more confidently.”