Lazarus = Hebrew name “Elazar,” meaning “God has helped.”
Hebrew name Elʿāzār (אֶלְעָזָר).
Meaning: “God has helped” or “God is my help.”
Bethany = Hebrew/Aramaic Bet-ʿanyā (בֵּית עַנְיָה / בּית עניא)
"House of affliction / misery / poverty."
This is the standard scholarly view.
The word ʿanyā means afflicted, poor, or humble.
The Narrative
John 11:1–44
Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. When Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it" (John 11:4). Yet He stayed two more days in the place where He was.
When He arrived, Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Martha said to Jesus:
"Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."
— John 11:21–27 (NKJV)
Then Mary came to Him, fell at His feet, and said the same words: "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
Jesus wept.
— John 11:35 (NKJV)
The shortest verse in all of Scripture — and among the most profound.
Then they came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha said, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her:
"Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"
— John 11:40 (NKJV)
They took away the stone. Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me." Then He cried with a loud voice:
"Lazarus, come forth!"
— John 11:43 (NKJV)
And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."
The Consequence
Many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council:
"What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation." And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish."
— John 11:47–50 (NKJV)
John adds: he did not say this on his own authority, but being high priest that year he prophesied — unknowingly — that Jesus would die for the nation. "Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death" (John 11:53).
The raising of Lazarus is the direct trigger for the arrest plot. The final miracle precipitates the final crisis.