A.T. Robertson Commentary John 11:39

"Jesus saith, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time the body decayeth; for he hath been [dead] four days." — John 11:39 (ASV)

Take ye away the stone (αρατε τον λιθον). First aorist active imperative of αιρω. 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 (ηδη οζε). Present active indicative of old verb, here only in N.T. (cf. Exodus 8:14). It means to give out an odour, either good or bad.

For he hath been dead four days (τεταρταιος γαρ εστιν). The Greek simply says, "For he is a fourth-day man." It is an old ordinal numeral from τεταρτος (fourth). Herodotus (ii. 89) has τεταρταιος γενεσθα 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 δευτεραιο (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.