Raising of Lazarus

Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary Magdalene, lay dying at Bethany. Word was sent to Jesus but by the time he came Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jesus was met on the road first by Martha, then by Mary who prostrated herself at his feet. They went to the grave, a cave with its mouth closed by a stone, and Jesus ordered the stone to be removed. Martha feared that by now the corpse would stink but was told that if she had faith she would see a miracle. Jesus 'raised his voice in a great cry: "Lazarus, come forth." The dead man came out, his hands and feet swathed in linen bands, his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said, "Loose him; let him go."' Martha and Mary are sometimes both shown kneeling at Christ's feet, at the grave, as Lazarus emerges, thus telescoping two separate moments in the story. In ancient Jewish funeral rites bodies were entombed upright, as John's text confirms. Byzantine art shows Lazarus in this position and examples of it recur until the Renaissance. In later painting he rises from a coffin. Martha and the others are sometimes portrayed holding their noses against the smell of a decomposing body, thus adding force to the presentation of the miracle. The subject features in religious art from earliest times as a 'type' of the Resurrection. Raising of Petronilla.