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| PentecostalTheology.com
John 11:6 has Jesus receiving word of Lazarus’ illness and then staying put for two days. When Jesus reaches Bethany, Lazarus has been dead for four days (11:17). So when the messengers reached Jesus in 11:6, it seems that Jesus must have been at least one full day’s travel from Bethany. That is, if Lazarus had died as soon as the messengers left Bethany, then there are two days of travel time involved: one day for them to reach Jesus, and one day for Jesus to reach Bethany, for a total of four days. If Lazarus had died after the messengers left Bethany, then Jesus would have been even farther away from Bethany when he received word.
Is it safe to make such assumptions about the elapsed time of this story? If so, then Jesus was at least one day (about 20 miles) away from Bethany when he received word. John 10:40 has Jesus at the place where John had been baptizing in the early days, which I thought, because of John 1:28, was at (or near) Bethany. Is it possible to determine (or intelligently guess at) Jesus’ location at the time of John 11:6, when he received word about Lazarus?
