Lazarus is believed to have lived during the early first century CE in Bethany, a village approximately two miles east of Jerusalem, situated on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives. Archaeological surveys and historical geography indicate that Bethany functioned as a small agrarian settlement, comprising family dwellings, terraces for cultivation, and tombs carved into the limestone hills. Its proximity to Jerusalem made it a convenient site for pilgrimage and religious engagement during major Jewish festivals. The village’s social structure likely consisted of extended families engaged in small-scale agriculture, trade, and household management, with participation in the synagogue and observance of ritual practices forming the core of daily life. The Bethany of Lazarus’ time would have been under Roman administration as part of the province of Judea, with its inhabitants navigating both local governance and the overarching political pressures of Roman rule.

The Gospel of John portrays Lazarus’ household as a center of hospitality and social interaction. This depiction aligns with Jewish cultural norms of the period, wherein familial households served as loci for communal gathering and support. Lazarus’ narrative, while most prominently centered on his resurrection, also offers indirect insight into the rhythm of village life, familial structures, and religious observances in first-century Judea.

circa 100 CE

Lazarus was the son of a Jewish family in Bethany, with siblings Mary and Martha, whose interactions are recorded in the Gospel of John. While specific details regarding his occupation are not preserved, contextual evidence suggests that he likely engaged in household management or small-scale agrarian labor consistent with his social milieu. The family’s home, positioned near Jerusalem, facilitated participation in religious pilgrimage and festival observances, indicating both devotion and practical engagement with the broader Jewish religious community.

The defining event in Lazarus’ life, according to the canonical narrative, is his death and subsequent resurrection at the hands of Jesus. This episode, narrated in John 11, situates Lazarus within a historical and geographical reality while also functioning as a theological sign demonstrating Jesus’ authority over life and death. The account describes Lazarus as ill for several days before his death, his subsequent entombment in a rock-hewn tomb, and the arrival of Jesus in Bethany to restore him to life, an event that reportedly drew widespread attention among the Jewish populace and early Christian followers.

Beyond the biblical record, later Christian traditions suggest that Lazarus eventually traveled to Cyprus, where he is venerated as the first bishop of the island in certain Eastern Christian sources. These accounts, though not independently verified by contemporary historical evidence, indicate the enduring impact of his life story and resurrection in early Christian communities. His legacy is reflected in the veneration of sites associated with him, including tombs in Bethany and Larnaca, and in liturgical and devotional practices that commemorate his resurrection.

Lazarus’ life, as reconstructed from textual, historical, and archaeological sources, presents him as an ordinary Judean living within the rhythms of family, village, and religious life, whose personal experience became inseparably linked with the foundational narratives of early Christianity. He represents both the particularity of first-century Jewish domestic existence and the broader theological and communal significance assigned to his resurrection by subsequent Christian tradition.

circa 100 CE

While the most famous aspect of Lazarus’ life is his being raised from the dead, the episode must be situated in its social and geographical context: he was a real person living in a tangible village, surrounded by family, neighbors, and the political realities of Roman Judea. This event, as recorded in the Christian tradition, made him a figure of significance in early Christian memory and may have influenced later narratives about his role in the community, though the canonical texts provide no details about his subsequent life.

Post-biblical traditions vary. In Christianity, some apocryphal sources and later Eastern Christian writings suggest Lazarus eventually became a bishop in Cyprus, lived to old age, and was venerated as a saint. In Islamic tradition, while Lazarus is not named explicitly in the Quran, classical commentators and historians acknowledge that Jesus performed miracles, including raising the dead, and they associate him with figures such as Lazarus in retellings of these events. These traditions, while not historically verified, reflect the enduring memory of his resurrection as a transformative event across multiple faith communities.

circa 100 CE

Lazarus of Bethany is reported in the Gospel of John to have fallen seriously ill and died while still a relatively young man. The text provides no details on the precise cause of his death, though it can be inferred that his illness was consistent with common first-century diseases in Judea. Following his death, he was interred in a rock-hewn tomb typical of the period. Archaeological surveys of Bethany and nearby villages indicate that such tombs were often carved into local limestone, with a chamber to house the body and possibly a rolling stone or block to seal the entrance. The burial would have included washing, anointing, and wrapping in linen, reflecting Jewish funerary practices of the era.

The tomb associated with Lazarus in later tradition is located near Bethany, east of Jerusalem, on the slope of the Mount of Olives. Excavations and surveys of the site reveal a series of rock-cut chambers and niches that align with first-century Jewish burial customs. While there is no contemporary evidence to confirm the events described in the Gospel, the tomb itself became a focal point for veneration in subsequent Christian tradition. Pilgrims from the Byzantine period onward recognized it as the place of Lazarus’ burial, establishing chapels and markers around the site.

Lazarus’ death, therefore, reflects the experience of a typical Judean villager in the first century: mortality from illness, burial in a family tomb, and the maintenance of ancestral and communal memory. Over time, his name and associated tomb became sites of historical and religious commemoration, linking the personal biography of an ordinary individual to broader narratives of early Christian communities and their memory practices.