When Jesus Snorted Like a Horse
Because accurate translations matter
Everyone knows the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and everyone also knows that the Christian Bible’s shortest verse—“Jesus wept”—is from that story. But I wonder if we fully appreciate why Jesus weeps. I’d like to offer a brief interpretation that I believe sheds light on both the passage and God’s nature.
By the time Jesus and his crew arrive in Bethany, the home of the dead man’s sisters Mary and Martha, Lazarus has been in his tomb a full four days. In words perhaps meant as a reproach or perhaps simply as a declaration of sad fact, Mary says to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (Jn 11:32b) Then she and a crowd of mourners begin keening.
“When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Sir, come and see.’ And Jesus wept.” (Jn 11:33-35)
“Perturbed and deeply troubled” is the NAB’s translation. Other English renderings offer “deeply moved in spirit and troubled” (NIV), “intensely moved in spirit and greatly distressed” (NET), “groaned in the spirit and was troubled” (NKJV), “greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved” (NRSV), and “groaned in the spirit, and troubled himself” (D-R).
All these translations, and they’re pretty standard, give the impression that Jesus is “perturbed and troubled” by Mary’s grief and so weeps out of compassion for her.
This way of interpreting the passage speaks well for Jesus. It tells us that he’s an empathic guy. But by this point in John’s gospel we scarcely need reminding of that. So I think that the author is actually conveying something quite different than what conventional translations suggest.
In its original Greek, here’s the passage:
“… ἐνεβριμήσατο τῷ πνεύματι καὶ ἐτάραξεν ἑαυτόν.”
“… enebrimēsato tō pneumati kai etaraxen heauton.”
And here’s a literal translation:
“…he snorted like an angry horse (ἐνεβριμήσατο) in his spirit (τῷ πνεύματι) and agitatedly rocked himself back and forth” (ἐτάραξεν ἑαυτόν).
In other words, Jesus isn’t primarily grieving with Mary and the other mourners, although I’m sure that’s part of what’s going on. More fundamentally, he’s angered to the very depths of his soul (“in his spirit”), so much so that he snorts and rears like an enraged stallion, and in his fury weeps. Standard interpretations soften and conceal the text’s literal meaning.1
This likening of Jesus to an angry horse reminds me of the Septuagint’s rendering of Jeremiah 8:16, also a passage about equine fury: “From Dan the snorting of horses [φωνὴν ὀξύτητος ἵππων / phōnḕn oxýtētos hippōn] is heard.” It also points to a truly hair-raising passage from Job, in which a warhorse’s
“thunderous snorting spreads terror.
He paws the valley, he rejoices in his strength,
and charges into battle.
Frenzied and trembling he devours the ground;
he does not hold back at the sound of the trumpet;
at the trumpet’s call he cries, ‘Aha!’” (39:20b-21, 24-25a)2
Biblical scholars are well aware that John’s Greek text attributes warhorse-like anger to Jesus, and there’s no end of effort to ameliorate its harshness. Among those who bite the bullet and acknowledge Jesus’ fury, the usual interpretation is that he’s miffed at what he perceives to be Mary’s and the mourners’ lack of faith in him. Why are they weeping and moaning even after he’s already told them Lazarus will rise? (Jn 11:23) Jeez! What does it take to convince these doubters?!3 On this reading, Jesus weeps in angry frustration at humanity’s spiritual thickness.
Perhaps. But given the sorrowful circumstances, this kind of response comes across as unworthily petty: what kind of a jerk gets pissed because they’re not the center of attention at a funeral?! No, I think that Jesus’ anger and tears are directed at another target entirely.
He’s mad at Death. That’s because God hates death. Both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures attest to this: e.g. Ez 18:23, 31-32; 2 Peter 3:9; 1 Tim 2:4. In John’s own gospel, we have that famous line assuring us that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (3:16) Death is an abomination to God, and consequently to Jesus.
So in one simple line that’s too frequently mistranslated, Jesus expresses both his fury at the way spiritual and physical Death stalks humanity and his determination to defeat it. He’ll wage battle initially on a case-by-case basis—the raising of the widow of Nain’s son (Lk 7:11-17), Jairus’ daughter (Mk 5:21-23, 35-43), and now Lazarus (Jn 11:43-44)—but these battles are mere preludes to the final Resurrection victory, foretold by the prophet Isaiah, over the ancient enemy:
On this mountain he [the Messiah] will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
he will swallow up death forever. (Is 25:7-8a)
By snorting like an angry horse, Jesus assures us that life is God’s default position for humanity, that death is unnatural, and that death does not have the last word.
Accurate translations matter.
###
As best I can tell, the only English translation that comes close to a faithful rendering of this passage is, somewhat ironically, from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrased The Message: “When Jesus saw her [Mary] sobbing and the Jews with her sobbing, a deep anger welled up within him.”
Admirers of Peter Shaffer’s breathtaking 1973 play Equus will know that he makes much of this passage from Job.
See, for example, Barnabas Lindars, “Rebuking the Spirit: A New Analysis of the Lazarus Story of John 11.” New Testament Studies 38 (1992): 89-104; Francis J. Moloney, The Gospel of John. Sacra Pagina 4. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998), p. 330.
Beautiful! Thank you, Kerry!