{Take ye away the stone} (arate ton lithon). First aorist
active imperative of air(935c). They could do this much without the
exercise of Christ's divine power. It was a startling command to
them. {By this time he stinketh} ((8864)(8820)ozei). Present active
indicative of old verb, here only in N.T. (cf.  Ex 8:14 ). It
means to give out an odour, either good or bad. {For he hath been
dead four days} (	etartaios gar estin). The Greek simply says,
"For he is a fourth-day man." It is an old ordinal numeral from
	etartos (fourth). Herodotus (ii. 89) has 	etartaios
genesthai of one four days dead as here. The word is only here
in the N.T. The same idiom occurs in  Ac 28:13  with deuteraioi
(second-day men). Lightfoot (_Hor. Hebr._) quotes a Jewish
tradition (_Beresh. Rabba_) to the effect that the soul hovers
around the tomb for three days hoping to return to the body, but
on the fourth day leaves it. But there is no suggestion here that
Martha held that notion. Her protest is a natural one in spite of
her strong faith in verses  22-27 .