Bible Study series: Luke 16:19-31. This is a beloved parable about justice. It should be read in conjunction with the Parable of the Shrewd Manager.
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I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 16:19-31
19 “A rich man clothed himself with purple cloth and fine linen, celebrating each day in ostentatious luxury. 20 And a poor man named Lazarus, who had sores, was laid at his gate. 21 And he yearned to be fed from the things falling from the rich man’s table. Instead, even dogs were coming and licking his sores!
22 “And it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man died and was buried. 23 And while he was in torment in hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham a long way off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out and said, ‘Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus so that he would dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am suffering in these flames!’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you enjoyed your good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise bad things. Now he is comforted here, and you are in misery. 26 Besides all these things, a huge chasm is fixed between us and you, so that those wanting to cross over from here to you are unable; neither could they go over from there to us!’ 27 Then he said, ‘Then I ask you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—that he would warn them, so that they do not come to this place of torment!’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. They should listen to them!’ 30 Then he said, ‘No, father Abraham! But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent!’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead!’” (Luke 16:19-31)
Comments:
Jesus is still addressing his disciples, but the money-loving Pharisees were listening to him. This parable is directed at them (and by extension to us today). This parable and the Parable of the Shrewd Manager should be read together. The rich man here did not use prudence and shrewdness to secure eternal dwellings. He is now in flames. He teaches us what not to do.
So is this a true account about real people or just a parable? I say it is a parable that should not be overanalyzed for the details of hell and paradise, and so do the majority of major commentators See this post for excerpts of their opinions and my own:
Rich Man and Lazarus: True Events or Just a Parable?
Incidentally, this Lazarus has nothing to do with Martha and Mary’s brother (Luke 10:38-42; John 11; 12:9-11).
The parable unfolds in three parts:
What Happened on Earth (19-21)
The Reversal in the Afterlife (22-23)
The Dialogue between Abraham and the Rich Man (24-31)
The reader can subdivide this pericope or section even further, if he or she wants.
One final comment about the Great Reversal: in Luke 1:51-53 Mary sang that the poor and humble would be raised up, while the rich and powerful would be brought low. In Luke 2:34, Simeon prophesied that Jesus was appointed for the rising and falling of many. Here in this story, the rich man started out on the high perch on earth, and Lazarus was on the lowest of the low. When the story ends in the afterlife, their positions will be reversed. The kingdom of God startles and overturns (reverses) (defective) traditional beliefs.
Luke’s Greco-Roman auditors would have been impressed with this reversal, because for them the rich and powerful were blessed by the gods. And in Jewish thought, the poor may have been being punished by God’s judgment (think of Job), though there are many verses about helping the poor.
19-21:
These verses set up the stark contrast between the rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus means “God helps,” and that may be why he is given a name in the story. Jesus’s original and informed Jewish audience would have known this. It was a common name: the third most popular name among Palestinian Jews 330 BC to 200 A.D. (Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospel as Eyewitness Testimony [Eerdman’s 2006], p. 85). So we should not make too much of the fact that this man is the only named character in all of Jesus’s parable.
Some older preachers used to call the rich man Dives (pronounced dye-veez), but this is simply a Latin term for “rich man.”
“purple”: it speaks of aristocratic and especially royal clothes. Lydia, a very early convert to the Jesus Movement, sold purple dye and clothes (Acts 16:11-15). She appeared wealthy by her hosting and leading meetings.
Lazarus yearned or longed to be fed from the rich man’s table. The rich man did not go out of his way to feed him. Lazarus didn’t get the scraps; instead, he got the dogs licking his boiled sores. Job was struck by loathsome boils (Job 2:7). It is the same Greek word here in this parable and in the Septuagint (3rd century B.C. Greek translation from the Hebrew and pronounced sep-TOO-ah-gent) of Job.
The rich man was not denounced for his money per se, but as the story unfolds, he will come across as arrogant, as he tells Abraham to do favors for him or to send Lazarus to be his personal messenger. Or he was simply desperate in the afterlife, as Lazarus was in his earthly life.
“yearned”: it is the same verb here as in Luke 15:16, when the lost son yearned to be fed with the pigs’ food. BDAG says it means, depending on the context: (1) “to have a strong desire to do or secure something, desire”; (2) “to have sexual interest in someone, desire.”
Here Lazarus longed to be fed, in the passive construction. His sores were so bad that he couldn’t get up and take action.
“Lazarus desires food and gets only the embarrassing attention of unclean animals. But all observable criteria, one would conclude that the rich man is blessed and Lazarus is not. Lazarus never speaks in the parable; he suffers alone and in silence” (Bock, p. 1367).
22:
The story takes a startling turn. They both died around the same time—further proof that this is simply a story and not a true account about real people. For Jesus’s story to be effective, they had to die at the same time.
The poor man did not get a burial, but the rich man did. The laconic parable implies that he got a traditional burial suitable for a rich man, complete with his family and friends in attendance. So what happened to Lazarus. Unknown, but he may have been thrown in a mass grave or for sure an unmarked one, unattended and unwept.
Abraham’s side speaks of paradise. Some teachers—even churches—say this was a “holding area” for the righteous believers (OT saints) to be kept until Jesus brought about redemption on the cross and then his burial and resurrection and ascension. Then he went to paradise after he died and before he was raised from the dead; he preached to the inhabitants there and led them out of paradise and into heaven, including Abraham. So this doctrine assumes there were two compartments in the afterlife: hades and Abraham’s bosom. Now what? Apparently, this doctrine teaches that after Jesus entered into heaven, Abraham’s bosom (paradise) must have disappeared or “got absorbed” into heaven, while hades still exists. But it is not clear from Scripture what happened to Abraham’s bosom (paradise). Nonetheless, other Scriptures support the idea that Jesus really went down to one or both of the compartments and preached and led righteous believers up into heaven.
10. Do I Really Know Jesus? Did He Descend into Hades to Preach?
However, the interpretation taken here is that this parable is a story (not a true account about real people), and Jesus was merely using popular belief about the afterlife for the earthbound purpose of doing righteous deeds before one dies and the Great Reversal in the afterlife. Therefore, from this parable we should not base far-reaching doctrine about the details of the afterlife.
Instead, other Scriptures teach that punishment will be handed out to the unrighteous unbelievers only at the final judgment, not immediately after they die. So what happens to them immediately after they die and before the final judgment is not clear from Scripture. They may indeed be placed in a nonpunishment “holding area” until the final judgment, when their punishments will finally be decided. Alternatively, some teach that unbelievers will indeed be thrown into hades and punished in fire until they are finally judged, and their eternal punishment will be decided then and to which degree they will be punished. This latter view may be the better one.
Are There Degrees of Punishment, Rewards after Final Judgment?
Good news!
For the believers in Jesus, however, they immediately go into heaven after they die to await their rewards (or no rewards) at the judgment for Christians. At this judgment, no believer in Jesus will be thrown into hades, but will remain in heaven and be rewarded (or not) according to the deeds they did in their bodies or on earth.
What Will Heaven Be Like for You?
Ten Biblical Truths about Your New Body
23:
“Hades”: The term is not as clear in the details as we have been taught. It is mentioned 10 times in the NT: Matt. 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 16:23; Acts 2:27, 31; Rev. 1:18; 6:8; 20:13, 14. And Matt. 11:23 // Luke 10:15 are parallels, so the number of distinct times is actually nine. And hades is not elaborated on in detail, and not even in Revelation, except for some symbolic usage. Hades will even be thrown in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14).
Bible Basics about the Final Judgment
24:
The rich man is desperate, and he calls Abraham and orders him to order Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in the water. No, let’s not get bogged down into how much water and which kind of water it was. This simply a story element. It shows the rich man’s suffering and arrogance to boss around Abraham. Or maybe the rich man was desperate, and this prompted him to boss around the patriarch.
Incidentally, the verb for dip is baptō (pronounced bahp-toh), and it is related to baptize. To baptize is to dip.
Also, when people die, they do not take their bodies with them, but leave it behind in the grave. They will be reunited with their bodies at the ends of the age, at the second coming. Instead, after everyone dies, they have a kind of noncorporeal spirit that looks like their appearance on earth. The bodily element in this story is designed simply to highlight the suffering. This is one more reason to interpret this parable as a story, not a clear teaching on doctrine.
Outside of this parable, the teaching portions of Scriptures (however few they are) about the afterlife are silent on whether people can communicate with each other between paradise and hades. Whatever happened to paradise after Jesus emptied it of believers (says one theory), it is not likely that people can communicate between hades and heaven. This is why, once again, it is important not to overinterpret the details about hades and Abraham’s side in this story. Jesus is simply using popular belief about the afterlife to paint a vivid picture of the Great Reversal. Maybe God wants us to focus instead on our life on earth, to be sure we are following Jesus, so we don’t experience the Great Reversal in the afterlife or here on earth.
One can believe in the flames of hades and still believe in the other two theories (annihilationism and restorationism). All three theories teach that the flames of hades exist. The question is, once again, the duration of the punishment. More and more evangelicals are coming around to the belief that the duration is not eternal, particularly for your kindhearted grandmother who never got around to accepting Jesus before she died.
25-26:
Once again, the communication between hades and Abraham’s side is just a story element. It is not to be overinterpreted as clear doctrine.
It is interesting that Abraham calls the rich man “child.” It shows at least a little pity.
Abraham points out that the rich man enjoyed “your good things in your life.” The rich man lived without God or at least a very self-centered life.
Lazarus received bad things in his life, and now the Great Reversal is spelled out clearly in v. 25. The rich man took the elevator (lift) down, while Lazarus took the elevator (lift) up.
Now let’s look at the noun life more closely. It is very versatile. Our new life now will continue into the next age, which God fully and finally ushers in when Christ returns. We will never experience mere existence or permanent death, but we will be fully and eternally alive in God.
A great gulf separates paradise (Abraham’s bosom or side) and hades. No human can go back and forth. This is the dimensional element of the story. Many old-school preachers said hades was below the earth or in the earth (they made much of the lava pouring out, once in a while). However, it is not clear where hades and the lake of fire are, in the spirit world, but they take on some sort of dimension, both spatial and location, in the invisible world.
Maybe Scripture is not as clear about the afterlife as we want, because God is telling us that it is none of our business. The only things we have to know are these:
Hades = bad;
Heaven = good;
Jesus = the way to heaven
Living life for yourself = the way to hades.
“If the righteous and unrighteous do not mix in the afterlife, then the possibility of being saved after death is excluded” (Bock, p. 1373).
What Happens at Judgment to People Who Never Heard Gospel?
27-28:
The rich man takes up his own cause again. He asks (not bosses) Abraham to send Lazarus (the Greek just reads “him”) on a trip from paradise to the earth to communicate with the living—his five brothers. Once again hades is described as the place of torment.
29:
Moses and the prophets = the entire Old Testament. The Torah, associated with Moses, was placed first, while the prophets were placed last, in the Septuagint.
The five brothers should listen to or pay attention to or heed them.
30:
Then the rich man contradicts the great patriarch who embodies paradise. Not so! If someone comes back from the dead, then my brothers will repent of their ostentatious, luxurious living that ignores the poor. Herod thought that John the Baptist or one of the prophets had risen from the dead, but he did not repent (9:7-9; 13:31). Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (also named Lazarus, but only by coincidence), and this raising did not cause repentance, but a plot to kill Jesus (John 11:45-53). Jesus resurrection only prompted the Jewish leaders to invent a lie about it (Matt. 28:11-15). It takes more than a dramatic miracle to cause repentance (Garland, comment on 16:30-31).
“repent”: it is the verb metanoeō (pronounced meh-tah-noh-eh-oh), and “to repent” literally means “to change (your) mind.” And it goes deeper than mental assent or agreement. Another word for repent is the Greek stem streph– (including the prefixes ana-, epi-, and hupo-), which means physically “to turn” (see Luke 2:20, 43, 45). That reality-concept is all about new life. One turns around 180 degrees, going from the direction of death to the new direction of life.
31:
Abraham replies that the living brothers wouldn’t believe, if someone rose from the dead and presented himself alive. Apparently many people whose heart is hard and self-centered, as these rich brothers were, would not believe. They might even scoff at the resurrection.
Jesus said the same thing to the Jews in John 5:45-47
45 “Do not think that I will accuse you before my Father; the one who is accusing you is Moses, in whom have hoped. 46 For if you believe Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
In Luke 16:31, Jesus uses this coming back from the dead to hint at his own resurrection. They won’t believe in it, except for the few thousand of Judeans and citizens of Jerusalem who converted (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 21:20), and so did priests (Acts 6:7). But as a nation, the people ignored his resurrection.
In John 12:9-11 the Jewish establishment heard about the miraculous resuscitation of Lazarus, yet they plotted to kill him:
9 A huge crowd of Jews learned that he was there and came not because of Jesus alone but so that they might see Lazarus whom he raised from the dead. 10 The chief priests planned to kill Lazarus also 11 because many of the Jews left because of him and believed in Jesus. (John 12:9-11)
So Abraham was right when he said the rich man’s five brothers would not listen if someone came back from the dead.
One sidebar comment: no one should seek opinions from dead people who seemingly communicates with them; these seekers are getting in contact with evil spirits.
NO: Magic, Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Fortunetelling
GrowApp for Luke 16:19-31
1. No one should overinterpret this parable about the details in the afterlife. However, we should see ourselves in the parable. It is about getting your heart right with God, so he can welcome you into his presence. How would you explain someone how to get his heart right so hades will not be his ending place?
2. This parable is also about doing good on earth to the poor. How have you ministered to them? Do you contribute money to feeding programs? What else could you do?
RELATED
11. Eyewitness Testimony in Luke’s Gospel
3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 