Here we are directly referred to an identical situation in the Old World. And what is the special boon granted the three? That they “shall never taste of death, . . . even until all things shall be fulfilled . . . and . . . shall never endure the pains of death; but . . . shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye” (3 Nephi 28:7 [3 Ne. 13:3]—8).
A like request is granted in our Coptic account: “We desire, O Lord, that we may see how things are with the dead who lie in their tombs, whom thou hast raised up to be a sign of thy resurrection to take place for us. . . . We desire to see the bones which have fallen apart in the tomb, how they are reunited one to another, that the dead may speak.” What follows shows that this is plainly a post-resurrectional tradition, for in answer to their request Thomas and two friends are shown the raising of Lazarus, at whose coming forth the whole cemetery revolves on its axis, and “the dead arose and came forth because of the voice of Jesus.”
The Raising of Lazarus
He waits two days after hearing his friend is dying, arrives to find the grave four days old, weeps at it anyway, and calls the man out by name; and the council that meets that week decides the sign is exactly why he has to die.
Note. Only John records this. The Joseph Smith Translation revises the chapter more than any other in the later Judean ministry: twice making the Bethany house Martha’s, and adding a sentence that re-reads the disciples’ courage as fear.
? How to read this edition
The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
1Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) whose name was Lazarus, of the town of Bethany. 2And Mary his sister, who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, lived with her sister Martha, in whose house her brother Lazarus was sick. 3Therefore, his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. 4And when Jesus heard he was sick, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
5Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. 6When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. And Jesus tarried two days after he heard that Lazarus was sick; 7after that, he says unto his disciples, Let us go into Judea again. 8But his disciples said unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone you, and you go there again? 9Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbles not, because he sees the light of this world. 10But if a man walk in the night, he stumbles, because there is no light in him. 11These things said he, and after that, he says unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. 12Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. 13Nevertheless, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. 14Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. 15And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent you may believe; nevertheless, let us go unto him. 16Then said Thomas, who is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him. For they feared lest the Jews should take Jesus and put him to death, for as yet they did not understand the power of God.
17Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already. And when Jesus came to Bethany, to Martha’s house, Lazarus had already been in the grave four days. 18Now Bethany was near unto Jerusalem — about fifteen furlongs off — 19and many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. 20Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him; but Mary still sat in the house. 21Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But I know that even now, whatever you will ask of God, God will give it to you. 23Jesus says unto her, Your brother shall rise again. 24Martha said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. 25Jesus said unto her, I am the Resurrection, and the Life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. 26And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? 27She said unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who should come into the world.
28And when she had so said, she went her way and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master has come and calls for you. 29As soon as she heard that, Mary heard that Jesus had come, she arose quickly and came unto him.
30Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met him. 31The Jews then, who were with her in the house and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goes unto the grave to weep there. 32Then, when Mary had come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 33When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled, 34and said, Where have you laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. 35Jesus wept. 36Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him. 37And some of them said, Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?
38Jesus, therefore, again groaning in himself, comes to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. 39Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, says unto him, Lord, by this time he stinks, for he has been dead four days. 40Jesus says unto her, Did I not say unto you that if you would believe, you should see the glory of God? 41Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42And I knew that you hear me always, but because of the people who stand by, I said it that they may believe that you have sent me. 43And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! 44And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus says unto them, Untie him and let him go.
45Then many of the Jews who came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did believed on him. 46But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done. 47Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What shall we do? For this man does many miracles. 48If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. 49And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, You know nothing at all, 50nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. 51And this spoke he not of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; 52and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. 53Then, from that day forth, they took counsel together in order to put him to death. 54Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews, but went from there unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples.
55And the Jews’ Passover was near at hand, and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. 56Then sought they for Jesus, and spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple, What do you think of Jesus? Will he not come to the feast? 57Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment that if any man knew where he was, he should show it them, that they might take him.
At Whose Coming Forth the Whole Cemetery Turns
An early Coptic account, which Nibley set beside the Book of Mormon’s three Nephites, has the apostles asking to see how things stand with the dead, and being shown this grave. In that telling the sign is not local: when the voice reaches Lazarus it reaches Adam too.
Such a mass resurrection could, of course, only take place after the Lord himself had been resurrected. The descriptions of the descensus (the visit of the Lord to the spirits in prison) and the kerygma (his preaching to them and liberating of them) that follow also clearly belong in a post-crucifixion setting. At the moment Jesus calls Lazarus forth, Adam also hears his voice and cries: “This voice which I hear is the voice of my Creator and my Redeemer. This is the voice of Him who was my glory when he addressed me in Paradise. . . . O my son, Lazarus, take greetings to My Creator. O when will the time come when I too may hear the voice of life calling me?”
Before he grants the wish of the apostles, Jesus says to the people, “More blessed are they who have not seen but believed than they who have seen and not believed,” which is akin to the Book of Mormon “blessed are ye if ye shall believe . . . after that ye have seen me. . . . And again, more blessed are they who shall believe in your words” (i.e., without having seen) (3 Nephi 12:1 [3 Ne. 5:10]—2). Then the Coptic text adds, “You see how many miracles and signs I did among the Jews, and yet they did not believe me.” This again compares with 3 Nephi 19:35 [3 Ne. 9:5]: “So great faith have I never seen among all the Jews; wherefore I could not show unto them so great miracles, because of their unbelief.”
Nibley is presenting an apocryphal Coptic text as a witness to early Christian expectation, not as scripture.