The Gospel of John contains the verse “Jesus wept,” traditionally recognized as the shortest verse in the English New Testament. It appears in John 11:35, during the account of Lazarus’s death.
Jesus arrives at Bethany after Lazarus has died and encounters mourners, including Lazarus’s sisters Mary and Martha. John describes Jesus being deeply moved before he goes to the tomb and calls Lazarus out. The two-word English sentence captures Jesus’s grief, even though the surrounding narrative also presents him as the one who will raise Lazarus.
The claim that it is the shortest verse depends on language and translation. In the original Greek, another verse can be shorter by letter count, and translations differ in wording and punctuation. Nevertheless, “Jesus wept” is the standard answer in English Bible trivia and is one of the most memorable concise statements in the New Testament.