[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—Though not quite a convert to' Mr. W. K. Fleming's theory, it certainly seems to explain,' Or, at least, harmonize with, many minute circumstances of the Fourth Gospel. Would this be one ? The raising of Lazarus endangered his just-recovered lffe (S. John xii. 10, 11,18). Caiaphas' politic (and prophetic) counsel to sacrifice one man as ransom for the whole nation—may it not, in its wording, have been an attempt to make the Christ a conductor for the wrath of the Council from Lazarus, his friend or kinsman who was become dangerously prominent ? • •
Why is Lazarus (=Eleazar) a diminutive word ? Is there any plausibility in the equation Mary Magdalene =Mary of Bethany=the Sinner of S. Luke vii ? Did S. Mark hear in the Upper Room from Lazarus the strange story of the young man in Gethsemane, whom some identify with the latter ?—
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