John 11:37 (LSB)

Passage

But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”

Nearby Context

John 11:35 Jesus wept.

John 11:36 So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!”

John 11:37 But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”

John 11:38 So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.

John 11:39 Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, “Lord, by this time he smells, for he has been dead four days.”

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "some", "said", "opened", "eyes", "blind", "kept", and "dying". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "some" and "said", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 36's "So the Jews were saying See how..." into verse 38's "So Jesus again being deeply moved within...", so "some" and "said" belong inside that flow. In John context, the local focus is the identity of Jesus, new birth, eternal life, and belief and unbelief.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "some" and "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.