Bible Commentaries

5. The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man ( Luke 16:14-31)

14And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided15[ἐξεμυκτήριζον] him. And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed16[lofty, ὑψηλόν] among men is abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth⁵ into it 17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass [away], than [for] one tittle of the law to fail [fall]. 18Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever [he that⁶] marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.

19There was a certain rich man, which was clothed [and he was wont to array himself] in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 20And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which⁷ was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover [nay, even] thedogs came and licked his sores 22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried23[entombed]; And in hell [hades] he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom 24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame 25 But Abraham said, Song of Solomon, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is [here⁸] comforted, and thou art tormented 26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf [chasm] fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence 27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: 28For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment 29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them 30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went31[should go] unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded [or, won over, V. O.], though one rose from the dead.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luke 16:14.Derided Him, ἐξεμυκτήριζον [lit, turned up the nose at], 2 Samuel 19:21; Psalm 2:4. An unequivocal, and at the same time hateful, token of deep contempt, whose cause is easy to give, especially in this case. The rich Pharisees looked down on the poor Nazarene with contempt, as if they would say: “You have spoken very trippingly about the use or misuse of riches, but we have no mind whatever to trouble ourselves about your counsel.” The answer of the Saviour, Luke 16:15, gives us to see how He views this hypocritical pride as the deepest source of this contempt.

Luke 16:15.Ye are they.—An expression almost like the well-known one of the prophet Nathan, 2 Samuel 12:7 : “Thou art the man!”—Justify yourselves.—Comp. Luke 11:39 seq. and Luke 18:10, where the image of a Pharisee is delineated who will justify himself even in the eyes of God.—But God knoweth your hearts.—Comp. 1 Samuel 16:7; Psalm 7:10.

For what is lofty.—The Saviour, of course, speaks not of that which actually in a moral respect stands high and may stand high, but only that which in men’s eyes is prominent above other things, of which is high κατ’ ὄψιν.—Βδέλυγμα, in general, a thing which in the eyes of the holy God is abhorrent and damnable; in a special sense, also, impurity, which was often connected with idolatry; therefore τό βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως, Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14, and the union of βδέλυγμα and ψεῦδος, Revelation 21:27. Here the word is chosen with the more striking force, because the Pharisees considered themselves as very especial favorites of God.

Luke 16:16. The law and the prophets.—Even from old time the expositors of Luke 16:16-18 have been divided into two classes. Some give up all connection; Song of Solomon, e.g., De Wette: “ Luke 16:16-18 stand isolated; every attempt made to demonstrate a connection has been a failure.” Among the Dutch theologians, Van Der Palm believed that Luke, before beginning on a new page a new parable, in order to make use of the yet vacant space of his almost fully occupied former leaf, noted down some disconnected sayings of the Lord, without any historical connection. Others, on the other hand, have, with more or less success, sought to state the connection, as well of these sayings with the rebuke in Luke 16:15, as also with the parable, Luke 16:19-31. According to Stier, e.g., “All the single sayings fit exactly into most intimate unity.” According to Meyer, the actual centre of gravity falls upon Luke 16:17, while Luke 16:16 is merely introductory, and Luke 16:18 is an example which is intended to explain more particularly the previous declaration of the continuing validity of the law. According to Lange, L. J., iii. p464, the Saviour will give the Pharisees to feel that their time is over, and that without their own notice a new period has dawned. The whole exposition of the latter deserves to be compared in its connection. Even the very great diversity of these attempts proves how difficult the question itself is. We, for our part, are acquainted with no statement of the course of thought of these three verses, whose simplicity and naturalness satisfy us in every respect, and we therefore regard it as easier to explain each of these three verses for itself than to state in a satisfactory manner how they are connected with one another, and why the Saviour on this occasion held up precisely these recollections before the avaricious Pharisees.

Were until John.—Not ἧσαν is to be supplied (Ewald, De Wette), but ἐκηρύσσοντο, or something of the kind. In any case, the Saviour will intimate, not that the Old Testament Dispensation was now abrogated (Olshausen), but that the Old Testament up to John constitutes a whole fully complete within itself, which, as the period of preparation, now gives place to the word of fulfilment—the preaching of the kingdom of God.

And every man presseth into it, or, Every man useth violence against it.—Comp. [I cannot accede to the author’s view of this passage In the first place, his arguments drawn from the connection do not appear to have great weight, for the original connection is evidently that given in the parallel passage, Matthew 11:12. Then his identification of the βιασταί in Matthew 11:12 with the powerful of the earth, who were opposed to Christ, is quite gratuitous. Persecution against the kingdom of God, to any considerable extent, between the first preaching of John and the period here mentioned, there had not been; while there had been from that period on, a widespread and enthusiastic pressing forward to hear the preaching concerning the kingdom of God, and, on the part of many, a pressing into it. The “every man” of Luke, besides that it is hardly so exact as the terms used by Matthew, need no more be taken with absolute literalness than Paul’s mention of the Gospel as being preached “to every creature under heaven.” Besides, the whole complexion of both passages shows that, although our Lord, as Alford remarks, here contrasts the actual existence of the kingdom of heaven, as a present and powerful fact, with the bare prophesying of it by John and the prophets, yet He is aware how much that is ill-considered and external there is in this present enthusiasm. Nor do I see any reason why the Presents ἁρπάζουσιν and βιάζεται, in Matthew and Luke, may not have the tentative sense so frequently found in the Present and Imperfect, and be nearly equivalent to “essay to press into it,” or “with vehement exertion to appropriate it,” with the implication that the future will show how far this eagerness will accomplish its end.—C. C. S.]

Luke 16:17. And it is easier.—Comp. Matthew 5:18-20, and Lange, ad loc. The Saviour, it is true, teaches here no external validity of the law; for, according to his own teaching, heaven and earth will one day pass away, Matthew 24:35, but till the dawn of the new economy the moral obligation of the law remains in inviolable force. “In the world of perfection there is no longer need of a law, since every one purposes the right to himself. As, therefore, for God there is no law, so is there also for the perfected world no law. For, like God, so is also this a law unto itself.”

Luke 16:18. Whosoever putteth away his wife.—According to the most, a special example by which the principle expressed in Luke 16:17 is further established. The singularity of this example misled Olshausen to the curious view that here we have to understand spiritual idolatry of the Pharisees, who honored Mammon more than Jehovah, and has brought Stier to the conjecture that here there is an indirect allusion to the scandal which Herod had given, Mark 6:18. Possibly it is true, but, in our apprehension at least, not probable. Is it not much simpler to assume that Luke, who nowhere else in his gospel has a place to take in the doctrine of the Saviour respecting the inviolableness of marriage (comp. Matthew 19:3-12), here, on the mention of the inviolableness of the law, without observing the original historical connection, adds the statement of a particular from which it may appear how strictly the Saviour regarded its moral precepts? In a more complete form we find this precept respecting marriage and divorce noted down, Matthew 5:31-32. But if our Lord really uttered this the second time on this occasion, we may then confidently suppose that He paused in His discourse a moment or so before He proceeded to deliver the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.

General Remarks on the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.—Manifestly this parable was uttered by reason of that which took place Luke 16:14-15, with a look at the Pharisees. It stands in this place very congruously, for it has the unmistakable purpose of teaching these people to see of how little value it is to show one’s self pious before men when one is reprobate before God; to give them to feel the baseness of an unloving temper, of which they had already made themselves guilty in their judgment of the publicans, Luke 15:2; but especially to draw their attention to the terrible consequences of the misuse of earthly good, to which their hearts clave so closely. The intention of the parable, therefore, is not to give a special instruction about future retribution—although we thankfully accept the rays of light that fall upon this also, yet it is immediately obvious that the whole parable is veiled in the costume of the Jewish eschatology—but to proclaim the great truth, that if one neglects the application of wealth to beneficent purposes, this becomes the source of eternal calamity. So far, this parable is the obverse of the foregoing, and stands in a natural connection with it. Whoever, like the Steward, makes himself friends of the unrighteous Mammon, is received into the eternal tabernacles; whoever, out of pride and selfishness, does not expend his treasure to this end, is appointed to everlasting torment!

In particular, the first part of the parable, Luke 16:19-26, has this definite purpose, while Luke 16:27-31 must be regarded more as an appendix, which in a parabolical form occupies the place of an application of the whole delineation. In this representation, also, some (De Wette, Strauss, the Tübingen school) have been disposed to see a proof that the Saviour found in earthly riches something to be reprobated, and in poverty itself something meritorious, and have appealed for the truth of this to the fact that here there is no more mention of the moral demerit of the rich man than of the piety of the poor man, and that Abraham only refers to the different lot of the two here below ( Luke 16:25), which is now reversed. Yet the onesidedness and superficiality of this inference is obvious of itself. Faults of the rich man in Acts, definite examples of his want of love, it is true, do not appear in the parable; yet from this very fact appears the beauty of the representation, the deep earnestness of the moral: not the good which the rich man does, but the good which he omits, is sufficient to condemn him before God. Could the Saviour make His teaching, Luke 16:9, more impressive than by a representation which shows how a man who omitted this, and gave ear not to love but to selfishness, became everlastingly unhappy? In order to be banished into eternal torment, it was not even necessary that one should have maltreated a poor Lazarus upon earth; even those who allowed him to pine helplessly away and left him to the care of the dogs would have to give a heavy reckoning of it! Just such an apparently blameless gormandizer was the one to be held up as a mirror to the Pharisees who appeared pious before men; in the rich man too there was nothing, so the common opinion was, to blame, and yet—he came to the place of torment. Besides, there are not wanting indirect proofs of the moral condemnableness of the rich man; in Gehenna he still desires bodily refreshment; he repeatedly imagines himself capable of directing Lazarus, as if the latter were in his service; nay, in the entreaty that one might go from the dead to his brothers ( Luke 16:30), there is implied the indirect confession that he himself had not been converted. As respects Lazarus now, he is in this delineation not the chief but a subordinate character, who appears more as suffering than as acting. But hardly would the Saviour have represented him as carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom if he could have shown to his ancestor no other letter of recommendation than his former poverty. And have we here liberty so entirely to overlook the high significance which is implied in his humble silence?

It is, finally, entirely unnecessary, with some expositors, to assume that the Saviour here wished to give a true history of a living or deceased man. Even if it is true, according to tradition, that at that time there had been a well-known beggar at Jerusalem who bore the name of Lazarus, yet it is entirely accidental that the poor man in the parable had the same name with him. The conjecture, indeed, is obvious that the Saviour in naming him so was thinking especially of His but just deceased friend at Bethany, whither His own journey was now directed; but this does not admit of proof. But least of all have we here to find allusion to Annas, with his five sons and his Song of Solomon -in-law, Caiaphas, whose Sadducean frivolity the Saviour in such a way is supposed to have held up to view. Such a thing, certainly, was not according to His spirit, and might also have had the appearance of a personal feud. Had this set at that moment risen before the Saviour’s mind, He would, perhaps, have chosen other Numbers, in order to avoid even the appearance of so unseemly an allusion. But that here something higher than an isolated historical truth, that the highest ideal really lies at the basis of this whole parabolic discourse, we hope we need not now for the first time remind our readers.

Luke 16:19. A certain rich man.—The omission of the name is no sign of reprobacy (Euthym. Zigab. and others), but a means of generalizing the representation. That the Saviour undertook to draw from life one of Sadducean sentiments is entirely without proof. “Nullum adest vestigium vel mentio transitus ullius a Pharisœis ad Sadducœos,” says Bengel with justice; and it can scarcely be doubted that among the Pharisees also there were not a few to whom the description of the rich man’s sumptuous manner of life was fully applicable, comp. Psalm 73:4-9. As entirely without proof is it that our Lord had the history of historical characters of earlier times, Saul, Laban, or others, in mind.—In purple and fine linen.—The first the designation of the Syrian upper garments; the other of the Egyptian upper garments. Fine linen, byssus, an Egyptian linen that was sold for twice its weight in gold, mentioned also in Revelation 18:12, in association with silk, comp. Pliny, H. iv19, 1, and many other passages gathered by Wetstein, ad loc. That the rich man was accordingly clothed above his position (Starke), we do not for this reason alone need to assume. But that under the byssus garment no heart full of love and sympathy beat, appears sufficiently from the sequel of the parable.

Luke 16:20. Named Lazarus.—Perhaps a symbolical name, לֹא עֵזֶר, the Helpless, Forsaken (Olshausen, Baumgarten, Cramer, Lange). According to Lightfoot and Meyer, a contracted name, which denotes Deus auxilium (Eleazar, Godhelp). If we assume that the Saviour was in His thoughts with the dying friend at Bethany (see above), then the giving of the name is sufficiently explained. In no event is there here (De Wette) a traditional confusion with John 11.

Laid at his gate, ἐβέβλητο.—He had been laid there by others, who either wished to rid themselves of him, or to secure to him what fell from the rich man’s table (Stier, Meyer), and he remained lying there helpless, as if for a daily silent reproach to the unloving temper of the rich man.—Full of sores (entirely covered therewith, ἡλκωμένος)—Desiring to be fed.—Comp. Matthew 15:27. Whether this wish was fulfilled or not the Saviour does not directly say; yet quite early the gloss crept into the text, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐδίδου αὐτῷ, See the Vulgate and Luke 15:16. Critically untenable, yet as an explanation correct, so far as this, that the wish of Lazarus, as a rule, was not fulfilled, as appears from what follows.

Luke 16:21.Nay, even the dogs came and licked his sores.—The enigmatical ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ κ. appears to be best understood in such a sense that thereby not a diminution but an augmentation of his misery is stated. That the poor man got no crumbs at all from the rich man’s table, the parable, it is true, does not say; how could he indeed have then remained lying at the gate without famishing? But although he now and then got only the crumbs and scarcely the crumbs, he yet saw even this meagre fare partially disputed him by the dogs. Understand masterless dogs which ran around on the streets of the capital [as everywhere in Western Asia, comp. Psalm 59:6.—C. C. S.], and allured by so rich a fall of crumbs as that from the table of the rich man, now robbed even the poor beggar of a part of that which perhaps had now and then fallen to his share. [The crumbs are, of course, not the trifling fragments which would fall from one of our tables, but the soft part of the thin cakes of bread in use in the East, which the wealthy, it appears, are sometimes accustomed to wipe their fingers with, and throw it under the table, themselves eating only the crust—C. C. S.] These wild and unclean brutes, moreover, licked his sores, and thereby increased the pain of the helpless Lazarus. To describe his suffering as mitigated through the compassion of the brutes, would be directly opposite to the intention of our Lord. The antithesis of ἀλλά and ἐπιθυμῶν gives us occasion here to suppose a climax in the mournful scene, rather than an anti-climax. Neither is the suffering of the rich man in Sheol mitigated by anything; and even though we assume that it was the Saviour’s intention to oppose the compassion of the brutes for the fate of Lazarus to that of the rich man, a sympathy of this kind, if it stopped there, must have heightened his misery the more. Comp. Meyer, ad loc. [It is undoubtedly true that the mention of the dogs licking the sores of Lazarus is meant to heighten our conception of his misery. There are two ways now of heightening this; one is to represent the dogs licking his sores as a new infliction, the other is to represent his misery as so great that the very dogs had pity on him. The latter, which is the common view, appears at once more forcible and more natural, to say nothing of its agreement with the effects of the touch of a dog’s tongue, whose grateful smoothness every one is acquainted with. The view of the author, therefore, though supported by Meyer, is justly rejected by Bleek, De Wette, and Alford.—C. C. S.]

Luke 16:22.And it came to pass.—With this transition the theatre of the history is at once transferred into another world. “En subita mutatio: qui modo non hominum tantum, sed et canum ludibrium fuerat, repente Angelorum ministerio honoratur.” Grotius.—Carried by the angels.—As, of course, is understood, as to his soul. That Lazarus is not buried at all, but carried, soul and body, into Abraham’s bosom, where he now lives again and is happy (Meyer), is an explanation incapable of proof. Respecting other Israelites, concerning whom it is said that they have come into Abraham’s bosom, no one doubts that nevertheless their bodies, as usual, were committed to the earth. Why then should it have been otherwise with Lazarus? No, his burial was (Euthymius) so mean, that in comparison with that of the rich man it deserves no mention, and the contrast lies rather in the honor that was shown to the two, to the rich man here, to the poor man yonder—to the rich man by pall-bearers, to the poor man by angels—to the rich man as to his body, to the poor man as to his soul.—Into Abraham’s bosom.—A metaphorical expression of the blessedness which immediately after death was prepared for pious Israelites in common with their blessed ancestor ( John 8:56). In all probability the expression is synonymous with Paradise, Luke 23:43 (Light foot). In Sheol, the general appellation for the abode of departed spirits, the Jews, as is known, distinguish, on the one hand, a place of punishment, Gehenna; on the other hand, Paradise, for the pious. We have to understand the rich man as being in the former; Lazarus as being in the other. The two are so near one another that the inhabitants can see each other and hold converse. See De Wette, Bibl. Dogm. §§ 178–182.

Luke 16:28. And in Hades, ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ.—General designation of the abode of departed spirits, while from the immediately following ἐν βασάνοις it appears that he found himself in that special place which is named the place of punishment, the γέεννα τ. πυρός. As this was conceived as being in the deepest part of Hades, one would have had to look up (Lange) in order to be able to discover the condition of the blessed. The rich man is now represented as awakening from a condition of momentary unconsciousness to full consciousness, and one of the objects which he first discovers in Abraham’s bosom (κόλποις, the customary plural of the Greeks also) is the familiar Lazarus reposing there.

Luke 16:24.Father Abraham.—He knows Abraham, therefore, and recognizes him as his ancestor; as Abraham also afterwards does not refuse to address him as τέκνον, without, however, this merely outward relationship availing him anything. He desires that Lazarus may be sent to him to cool with a single waterdrop his burning tongue. The gastronome feels him self now so severely punished, precisely in that part of his frame with which he had so long sinned, and desires only a brief refreshment, “perhaps only so slight a one because he had seen the man in the uncleanness of his sores” (Lange). It is noticeable that he still imagines himself able to direct Lazarus, whom he had all his life lightly esteemed. Even so does he afterwards despise Moses also ( Luke 16:30). Only his external condition, what surrounds him, is altered, but not his individuality.

Luke 16:25. Song of Solomon, remember.—It looks very much as if, according to Abraham’s declaration, Lazarus is only comforted for the reason that he has suffered on earth, and the rich man only tormented for the reason that he on earth had received only good. But in order to be fair, this answer must be complemented with all which the parable gives us on good grounds to conjecture of the moral condition of both, while at the same time the antithesis between τὰ ἀγαθά σου and τὰ κακά without a pronoun, is not to be overlooked. What the rich man had enjoyed was really his good, had been in his eyes the highest good; the κακά, on the other hand, which came upon Lazarus, were not actually his, but as providences of God he had borne them with meekness.—Now he is here comforted.—The ὧδε received into the text strengthens the local character of the representation, but the νῦν by no means warrants us in assuming that it is not an irrevocable and final term that is spoken of (Stier). One may surely, in a place of torment, still have room for reflections, without, for that, a better future being disclosed along with this possibility. Or was, forsooth, the παράκλησις of Lazarus also merely something provisional ?

Luke 16:26. And besides all this.—Statement of the ground why it is literally impossible to him to fulfil the rich man’s wish, even if he desired it. Χάσμα, literally a cleft when “two places are so parted from one another by a torrent or fall of earth, that an unfathomable depth or immeasurable breadth is between,” 2 Samuel 18:17; Zechariah 14:4. The here-indicated thought of an irrevocable separation is in itself intelligible enough, but the form in which the Saviour here expresses it is entirely peculiar. The Greeks, it is true, know of a χάσμα in Tartarus; this; however, is not regarded as a space separating two regions; but the Rabbins speak only of a dividing wall between the two parte of Hades, or of an intervening space of an hand-breadth, nay, even only of a hair’s breadth. Then also the hope of, perhaps, even yet getting over this χάσμα is very much weakened by the statement of the particular purpose for which this cleft is established, namely, for the very purpose (ὅπως) of rendering the transition from one to the other side impossible. For the explanation of the imagery, compare the well-known passage of Virgil, Æneid, 6:126.:

“Facilis descensus Averni,

Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis:

Sed revocare gradus, superasque evadere ad auras,

Hoc opus, hic labor est.”

Luke 16:27. I pray thee, therefore.—It appears almost as if the unhappy man sought some mitigation of this torment in continuing the conversation, although he could scarcely have hoped for the granting of his petition. For the second time he addresses himself to Abraham, that he may send Lazarus to his brethren. Perhaps he remembers that he by word and example had encouraged them in their sinful life, and feels himself, therefore, the more constrained to adventure an attempt for their delivery.—Ὅπως διαμαρτύρηται αὐτοῖς, here without definite object (otherwise, Acts 20:21, and elsewhere). Διαμαρτύρομαι. Wahl; per deum hominumque fidem testor vel affirmo; de adhortantibus: graviter moneo. An actual statement that sin is so terribly punished, he does not consider as any longer necessary for his brothers, but so much the more ardently does he long that by irrefragable testimony that may be confirmed to them, which they know indeed, but in their hearts do not believe.

Luke 16:29. They have Moses and the prophets.—This time the compassionate τέκνον is omitted, and the tone becomes sterner, in order in the last answer of Abraham, Luke 16:31, to pass over into a distinct and inexorable refusal. Moses and the prophets here appear as the summary of a Divine revelation of all that which was needful for Israel in order to find the way to life. To hear these means, of course, not simply to listen to them externally, but designates also at the same time an actual obedience and following of their precepts. That the Hagiographa are included in this mere summary of the Old Testament is, of course, understood.

Luke 16:30. Nay, Father Abraham.—The unhappy one now pretends to know his brothers better than Abraham himself, but acknowledges at the same time thereby that he had not repented, and therefore his condemnation was a righteous one.

Luke 16:31. If they hear not Moses and the prophets.—Comp. Isaiah 8:19; Isaiah 34:16; John 5:45. A reference to Elijah’s appearance (Baumgarten-Crusius) is by no means contained here. But the resurrection of Jesus, which was announced to the Jews without moving them to faith, may in a certain measure serve as an indirect confirmation of this declaration of our Lord. The enmity against Lazarus also, who had risen from the dead, John 12:10, although Hebrews, it is true, had brought them no positive intelligence from Hades, affords the proof that no extraordinary signs can constrain the impenitent man to faith when he once refuses to give heed to the word of God and His ambassadors extraordinary. As to the rest, this conclusion of the parable must have shamed the Pharisees the more deeply the less it gave them ground to hope that their unappeasable thirst for miracles ( John 4:48) would afterwards find yet more satisfaction. Quite natural, therefore, that they now again give unmistakable signs of how deeply they are offended with the word of the Saviour, which gave Him then occasion for the immediately succeeding warning in reference to σκάνδαλα.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The distinction which appears to exist between the Saviour and Paul, when the former brings forward with emphasis the perfect inviolableness and eternal validity of the law, the other proclaims the abrogation of the law through the New Testament, by no means warrants the hypothesis that the Master thought differently, respecting this question of controversy, from His highly enlightened Apostle, and that, therefore, Christianity in Paul took a step beyond Jesus. On the contrary, here also the well-known rule is applicable: “distingue tempora, et concordabit scriptura.” The Saviour, who was speaking to His contemporaries in Israel, could not do otherwise than emphasize the relative truth that the law and the prophets remain in force; but Paul, who appeared in the midst of heathenism, must immediately proclaim that the ministry which preaches condemnation, the ministration of the letter, was abrogated. The word of the Saviour aims exclusively at the spirit, the heart; the eternal substance; the word of the Apostle, on the other hand, at the form, the letter, the external constraining authority of the Old Testament. How far Paul was in principle from Antinomism appears from Romans 3:31.

2. “ Whosoever putteth away his wife committeth adultery.” According to this saying literally interpreted, it certainly appears as if our Lord declared Himself unconditionally against all divorce, and as if the Roman Catholic Church were fully right when she permits at the most a separatio quoad torum et mensam, but never quoad vinculum. We must, however, complement this declaration of the Saviour from Matthew 5:32; Matthew 19:9, and assume that the transgression by which marriage is dishonored by the one party gives to the other party also liberty—we by no means say obligation—to regard it on his or her side also as broken. Whether it is more Christian to make use of this permission or not, this is not to be deduced from the letter of the Saviour’s words, although we believe that it is in His spirit if the question is answered negatively. But, certainly, he who in the case stated avails himself of his liberty for a divorce, is not on this account alone to be condemned, and the innocent party, therefore, of two married people separated on this legitimate ground, need not be forbidden to conclude a new connection. The limitation μὴ ἐπὶ πορνείᾳ is therefore here also by no means to be left out of consideration, for in the case of πορνεία an actual divorce has already taken place, so that the legal one is only the normal continuation of it, and the injured spouse in this case does not abandon “ his wife,” but an adulteress, who has ceased to conduct herself as his wife. In short: “Jesus negatives the question whether the man could arbitrarily divorce the woman, and declares Himself against every one-sided and arbitrary divorce.” De Wette.

3. The parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man is the sublimest delineation of this side and of that side of the grave in its astounding antitheses. What is the trilogy of a Dante, in which he sings Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, compared with the trilogy of this parable, which places with few but speaking strokes the great whole of Earth, Gehenna, and Paradise at once before our eyes ? In the vesture of a figurative discourse which is taken from the eschatology of His time, the Saviour gives here the most astonishing disclosures, and lifts the veil which covers the secrets of the future.

4. The antithesis which in the parable takes place between the rich man and the poor man on earth, exhibits to us the picture of the most mournful reality. Comp. Proverbs 22:2. The Saviour, like Moses, is far from wishing to annihilate the distinction between the rich and the poor as if by a stroke of magic, Deuteronomy 15:7-11; Mark 14:7. He permits the antithesis here on earth to exist, and therein one of the greatest riddles of the righteous administration of Providence. But at the same time He removes the stumbling-block, inasmuch as He depicts to us this life not as the life, but only as the first half of our being, and inasmuch as He causes the light of eternity to rise over the dark night of this earth.

5. Although it is not the immediate purpose of this parable (see above), to give a special instruction about future things, yet many a question about the other world is here answered in a satisfactory manner. So much is shown to us at once: after death the life of the pious continues uninterruptedly, as well as that of the ungodly. Far from teaching a sleep of souls, the Saviour declares on the other hand that consciousness continues beyond the grave. The rich man sees, it is true, his external condition altered, but in his inner man he has remained the same. He knows who and where he is; he recognizes Lazarus; can speak of his father’s house, and his five brothers, and their moral condition is to him not unknown. Quite as puffed up as before, he looks down upon Lazarus, and his character yonder, therefore, still shows the same shadows as here. The pain which he suffers consists in a righteous retribution of the evil which he has done here; to Lazarus the crumb was refused, to him a drop is forbidden. [A refinement hardly borne out by the text.—C. C. S.] Traces of true repentance he does not show, but he does of suffering and despair. He calls not on God but on father Abraham, and is not grieved at his sins but only at their consequences. Natural feeling for his brethren makes him tremble at the thought that they also may come to the place of torment, but indirectly he still excuses himself as if he had been in this life not sufficiently warned. No wonder that when such an inward difference exists between him and the blessed, an outward cleft also exists which can no more be filled up than passed over. Although the Saviour here speaks of the condition immediately after death, not of that after the Parusia, it appears, however, that according to His conception the sharp separation beyond the grave, between the children of light and those of darkness, becomes in any event a cleft and abyss. As well the doctrine of purgatory, as that of the Apocatastasis, is opposed by this parable, and according to the last word of Abraham to the rich man, we can on this side expect nothing more for the unbeliever than an irrevocable silence.

6. The happiness of the life to come consists, according to this parable, in this, that the redeemed of the Lord is comforted (παρακαλεῖται, Luke 16:25). The soul, freed from the earthly probationary suffering, is carried by angels to a happier place. What the Saviour here teaches of the ministerium angelorum is indirectly confirmed by such passages as Luke 15:10; Hebrews 1:14, a. o. Paradise, which is here spoken of as the destined place of the blessed, must be carefully distinguished from the third heaven, 2 Corinthians 12:4, the dwelling-place of the perfected righteous. The Paradise is, on the other hand, in the intermediate state a place of incipient, although very refreshing, rest, in which the Jews conceived all the saints of the Old Testament as united in joy. By the bosom of Abraham, we are to understand the most swelling part of the garment, which is made by casting it around upon the breast. Here also, as in Matthew 8:11-12; Luke 13:25-29, and other passages, future blessedness is designated under the image of a feast, where the favorite of the father of the family, in this case Abraham, so lies upon his couch that he can rest upon his bosom. The ideas of refreshment and fellowship are therefore here most intimately united. The poor Lazarus rests in the bosom of the rich Abraham, as if to show that not poverty or riches in itself, but faith and obedience, constitute the ground of their blessedness. This blessedness is experienced in union with others of the same character, as is also true of the state of perdition (comp. the μεταξὺ ἡμῶν καὶ ὑμῶν); but the thought of the fate of the damned does not disturb the rest of the blessed. With full composure Abraham can address the rich man, Lazarus can hear him without rejoicing, but also without giving him hope. How much more sublime is this representation than that in the Koran, e.g., where the blessed scoff at the damned, and gloat over the contemplation of their torments!

7. In our predilection for the first and chief end of the parable, we must not overlook the dogmatic and Christological importance of its second purpose. It is noticeable how the Saviour here also in unequivocal tone gives testimony for the sufficientia scripturœ V. T. A fortiori may this testimony be extended also to the Scriptures of the New Testament. United, these means of grace are, for the enlightenment, for the renewal and sanctification, of the sinner, so perfectly adequate, that it is as inconceivable as fruitless to expect even yet more powerful voices of instruction. That, moreover, if the word is to accomplish this purpose, the operation of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary, is by no means denied by our Lord. The word is the seed for the new birth, yet sunshine and rain from above must make the seed fruitful upon the field. But there is no operation of the Spirit to be expected where the power of the word is lightly esteemed; the narrative shows sufficiently, that any extraordinary awakening, which any one believes himself able to bring to pass in any other way than that of the living κήρυγμα, is of brief duration and doubtful significance. No sufferer can, therefore, reckon upon being saved by God in extraordinary ways, if he has despised the common way described in God’s word; and could even the sign of Jonah be again repeated, it would be in vain for him who despises the preaching of Jonah.

8. In the conclusion of this parable the Saviour utters at the same time a condemnation of all extraordinary attempts which are made in our time also by knocking-spirits, table-tippings, appearances of ghosts, somnambulism, &c, to come upon the trace of the secrets of the future world. Such a superstition is the less to be excused, because it is commonly united with secret unbelief in God’s word and testimony. It appears in this, moreover, only too plainly, that even those who fancy themselves in possession of such extraordinary energies and Revelation, yet are often not converted, and therefore their obstinacy itself confirms the last word which Abraham has here uttered.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The truth, recognized by the conscience, opposed by the sinful heart.—The enmity of the Pharisees against the preaching of the law of love.—The Pharisaical temper exists in every natural man; they wish to appear righteous before God.—“God knoweth your hearts;” this truth may be considered: 1. As a certain; 2. as a terrifying; 3. as a comforting, truth.—The heaven-wide distinction between the judgment of God and the judgment of man, 1 Samuel 16:7.—The Old Testament period, a period of preparation.—So soon as the kingdom of God is proclaimed with power it is vehemently opposed.—The inviolableness of the law: 1. In what sense? 2. with what right? 3. for what purpose, does the Saviour proclaim the inviolableness of the law?—Married life transfigured by the Spirit of Christ.—Divorce not something relatively good, but a necessary evil.

The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them both.—How poor a rich man, how rich a poor man, may be: 1. In the present; 2. in the future, world.—The rich man, a. poor in true joy; b. in sympathizing love; c. in well-grounded hope; d. in eternal happiness.—The poor man, a. rich in calamities; b. rich in pain; c. rich in everlasting consolation.—The comedy and the tragedy of earthly life only a few steps removed from one another.—How the good living of the earth does not soften, but hardens, the heart.—The inexcusableness of an unloving temper exhibited in the person of the rich man: 1. The poor man is alone; 2. hard by the door; 3. well known; 4. daily before his eyes; 5. incapable of labor; 6. modest enough not to complain; 7. content even with crumbs; 8. an object of the attention of the dogs, and yet is he contemned by the rich man.—Death the end of the inequality of life. Comp. Job 3:17-19.—Death to one the greatest gain, to the other the most terrible loss.—The care of angels for the dying saint, on its undoubtedly certain, on its indescribably consoling, side.—What avails the last honor shown the dying sinner, if it is immediately after death followed by eternal ignominy?—The awakening in the morning of eternity: 1. What there continues of that which we here possess at every awakening: a. our consciousness, b. our personality, c. our memory; 2. what there falls away of that which we here recover at every awakening: a. the illusive joy of the sinner, b. the perplexing trial of the saint, c. the work of the grace of God on both; 3. what there begins of that which we here at every awakening see approaching somewhat nearer: a. a surprising meeting again, b. a righteous retribution, c. an eternal separation.—The mutual beholding of each other by the blessed and the damned.—The carnal relationship with Abraham is in the spiritual world not denied, but it avails nought.—The Jus talionis in the future life.—The sorrow of the damned: 1. Over that which they lack; 2. behold; 3. endure; 4. expect.—Woe to the man who knows no higher good than that which he has received in this life!—The great cleft: 1. Its depth; 2. its duration; 3. its two opposing sides.—Not earthly suffering opens the way to heaven, but the manner in which it is borne.—The terrible recollection, in the place of torment, of relatives whom one has left behind on earth.—If natural relationship does not become a spiritual one, it becomes at last only a source of suffering the more.—If sinners really believed how terrible hell is, they would without doubt be converted.—God’s word the only and adequate means for the conversion of the sinner. Whoever contemns this means, has no other to expect.—One risen from the dead even would not be able to bring the sinner to true faith.—Whoever expects another means of grace, outside of those ordained by God; 1. Such an one miscalculates fearfully; 2. such an one sins deeply.

Starke:—Quesnel:—There comes a time when God, in turn, scoffs at those who have scoffed at His truth.—The avaricious man likes to deck himself with feathers of hypocrisy.—Cramer:—There are two kinds of pride—spiritual and worldly; neither pleases God, both are an abomination to Him.—Brentius:—The New Testament age requires New Testament people. Heathen sumptuousness of living prophesies for Christendom nothing good.—Hedinger:—Piety goes often a-begging, but is rich in God.—Quesnel:—Sickness of body serves often for healing of the soul; happy he whom the Chief Physician counts worthy to be thus cured.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Shame on you, ye uncompassionate rich! The rational man is shamed by irrational beasts!—Those who become everlastingly glorious, must before have been wretched.—Ah, how is the leaf turned after death!—Canstein:—False trust in the outward fellowship of the covenant with God is found even in the damned.—Hedinger:—In cruel eternity all grace and comfort has an end. Proverbs 11:7.—The condemned have in their pain longing for mitigation, but obtain it not, and the vain longing will increase their pain.—They who, through a bad example, give others too occasion to sin, will, in hell, on this account, be tormented by their consciences.—Majus:—Each one must indeed have concern for the salvation of his friends, but early and betimes. James 5:20.—Canstein:—Evil men will not accommodate themselves to God’s dispensation, but despise and censure it, and will, according to their own fancy, manage yet more conveniently for themselves.—Hedinger:—Out of love to atheists and those who do not like the Scriptures, God will do no miracles.—Ungodly men do not change, and fear not God, even in hell: let no one wonder at this.—Nova. Bibl. Tub.:—Faith is content with the word of God, which is full of miracle and proof; but unbelief nothing will suit.—Heubner:—God will hereafter destroy all seeming.—The more lofty one’s schemes have been, the deeper will he fall.—Riches easily mislead to living well without doing well.—To be voluptuous and without love is quite enough to be damned for.—Of rich men like Dives, there are enough; of poor men like Lazarus, few.—Death for the pious sufferer a wished-for friend, who brings him redemption.—How various is the entering of men into the other world!—Short pleasure followed by eternal torment.—God punishes not with vehement indignation, but with composed righteousness.—Whoever seeks heaven in earthly things will hereafter lose the true heaven.—One need not be poor and full of sores, and yet may be like Lazarus.—Take heed against building the foundation of salvation on natural kindness of heart.—The damned torment one another.—It may be that the dead think oftener of the living than the living of them.—Faith is content with the proofs which God gives, but unbelief has never enough of them.—Man has no right to prescribe to God how He will lead him to salvation.—Here have we also the ground why Christ, after His resurrection, did not appear to the unbelieving.

On the Pericope, comp. four sermons of Chrysostom on this section. Ed. Montfaucon, tom1.—The sermon of Massillon, Sur le Mauvais Riche.—Lisco:—Of the unbelief of false citizens of the kingdom.—How we have to judge the complaint of the inaccessibleness of the Christian means of salvation.—Schultz:—Our soul retains in the future life its consciousness and its memory.—Florey:—Four declarations in the New Testament, which this Gospel proclaims and confirms to us: 1. Matthew 19:23; Matthew 2. 1 John 2:17; 1 John 3. James 1:12; James 4. 2 Timothy 3:14-15.—Wolf:—That death alters the fate of earthly-minded men, but not their temper.—Dettinger:—Eternity—how it Judges, how it parts, how it brings together.—Ruling:—The gulf between the child of the world and the child of God is not filled up by death, but only fixed in reverse order.—Fuchs:—1. The poor Lazarus, a. a poor man, but also a rich man, b. a sick man, but also a well man, c. a sojourner, but also a citizen; 2. the rich man, a. a rich man and yet a poor man, b. a well man and yet a sick man, c. a citizen and yet a vagrant.—L. A. Petri:—The worldly man’s wretched life and fate: 1. Poor in life; 2. wretched in death; 3. lost in eternity.—Rautenberg:—Death on two sides: 1. Oh death, how bitter art thou! 2. oh death, how beneficent art thou!—Von Kapff:—What Jesus here teaches of the condition, of souls after death: 1. Of those that live without God; 2. of those that live in God.—Uhle:—Some glimpses over the grave out into the still realm of the dead.—Couard:—Voluptuousness: 1. Its nature; 2. its source; 3. its consequences.—Saurin:—The sermon Sur le suffisance de la Révélation. Serm., tom. i. p404.

Footnotes