Is this a true explanation for the resurrection of Lazarus?

Question

In those days people had no medically reliable means of ascertaining whether an apparently dead person was really dead unless the injuries were really fatal. Lazarus was a cataleptic person, who recovered after three days when Jesus said "Lazarus, come forth."

Answer 1

The story of lazarus is an ancient egyptian myth respun with Jesus as the magic godman instead of Horus.

Even the name lazarus is phonetically the same as the dead guy being raised in that ancient myth.

Answer 2

Well, the problem is that you can't tell. Only an eyewitness would know for sure.

Logically, just because situations occurred where people were buried alive, that doesn't mean that Lazarus had to be one of those people.

Remember, though, he was bound up in his burial garments. One source I found refered to this: "In the account of Lazarus, a soudarion is mentioned "around his face," and his hands and feet are bound with keiriai (twisted rushes)." I think this also accompanied the burial cloth itself, wrapped around the body like a big sheet.

[Based on Jewish burial practice, the image of an Egyptian mummy is far-fetched, but he WAS at least wrapped in a few garments listed here.]

For a guy deathly ill, with stuff wrapped around his head and his jaw tied shut, I'm be hesitant to think he just was "mistaken" for being dead... or was dead by the time Jesus showed up a few days even if he had been buried alive.

Deathly ill? No food? No water? I'm a bit incredulous that he might have naturally survived in that state, in a stale sealed-off stone vault surrounded by other human remains.

For empirically minded people, the idea of Jesus raising someone from the dead seems just as outlandish. Again, we just don't know.

The honesty of the gospel stories in terms of describing people's behavior does not seem "fake" to me, based on the style that myths were written in. This gives some credibility to the text.

It's a great story too. Jesus comes late because he had to be elsewhere... or perhaps because he knew he wasn't supposed to go yet. When he shows up, Martha meets him at the outskirts of town and says, "If you had been here, he wouldn't have died." Mary, the one who normally loves listening to him, doesn't meet him until he comes closer to the house, and says the same thing. At this point, instead of being "profound" or offering verbal comfort, Jesus does what any normal human being stricken with guilt and loss would do, watching his friends suffer: He cries.

The miracle is surrounded in a believable narrative.

Again, this does not mean you need to accept it as true. It simply gives it credibility. In the end, we'll never prove anything, either way.

Answer 3

might be a good theory except you are checking your facts --

Joh 11:17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

They were starting day five of his death, and for someone to go more than three days without water, he'd probably have been dead anyway by then if not by the time he was buried!

However, this was another show of just how powerful Christ was. It was commonly believed that a person's spirit hovered around them for about three days, so any time from the time they died up until three days later they could come back to life, but after that they were gone for good. This showed that even once they were "gone for good" Christ could bring them back. He truly had the power over life and death. It also set the stage for himself coming back to life after being crucified.

Answer 4

That explanation acutally requires more faith that believing Christ raised him from the dead. That would mean Lazarus would have had to survive 4 days without food or water, overcome asphyxia, and become conscious within minutes of Christ's arrival. The Jewish burial rites would have guaranteed someone would have been back the day after he was buried to further anoint the body with spices. The Bible never says he stank, but depicts people asking that question of Jesus before he calls Lazarus forth. Anyway, congratulations on your faith. I am too weak in mine to believe that one. I'm going to have to stick with raising from the dead.

Answer 5

Actually it was four days and he was beginning to stink, as you find if you read the account. They may not have had the technology we have today but they knew when someone was dead. He had been very sick for some time and died from that sickness. If you doubt any of it, go have someone wrap you as they did Lazarus and have them lay you in a cave for just four days with no food or water and have it sealed and see if you come out. When they wrapped someone in death, they covered their face and head, then wrapped them up very tight with lots of cloth to contain the body and you could not even move. That is why when Jesus called him forth from the grave, He told them to loose him. In other words, take the wrappings off so he can come out and walk free.

Answer 6

He was dead so long that he stank!!!
He was resurrected by the Power of Jesus.
If you want to look at how he wasn't totally dead, shouldn't
you have a reason for what kind of Medicine Bag Jesus was
carrying?

Answer 7

I agree with spamandham, this is a repeat of the Egyptian myth about Horus and Lasarus.

Answer 8

In those days people got buried alive all the time. It still happens in some places in Africa.

I feel sorry for those people

Answer 9

Don't look for a "true explanation." Either accept the story as it stands on Faith or do not concern yourself with it.

Answer 10

The fact that he was decomposing would basically mean he was dead. People don't decomp when they're alive.