Hell - Part 4 - The Parable of Lazarus & the Rich Man
With these previous articles about “hell” as the background (Trashdump, Hades, and Hellfire), we are ready to look at the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-Luke 16:31). This parable offers views of what has come to be called "heaven" and "hell." However, there are a number of very odd things about this parable. The oddest is that it is not a parable at all.
Is this “Heaven” and “Hell?”
According to Jesus, this story is about hades (Luke 16:23 ), the Greek version of the afterlife, not our Christian idea of “hell,” but rather a concept closer to Judean Sheol. Jesus only uses the term hades four times. This is one. The selfish rich man in the parable finds himself in hades, the Greek underworld. His situation is, however, related to Jesus’s concept of Gehenna, the trash dump. The connection to Jesus’s ideas is lost in the translators’ desire to make this trash dump seem more like the Christian concept of hell.
Unlike Gehenna, an idea Jesus only references is eleven verses, the Greek term translated as “heaven” is a central concept in his teaching, used in a hundred and eleven verses, most commonly in the phrase translated as, “the kingdom of heaven,” the topic of most of Jesus’s parables. Strangely, however, that term is not used here. The Greek word that is translated as “heaven” is avoided.
The diseased beggar, Lazarus, does not go to "the kingdom of heaven," literally, “the realm of the skies” (see the article here). Instead, he is brought to "Abraham's bosom," (Luke 16:22). "Bosom" is the Greek kolpos, which means “lap” or “chest.” Jesus only uses this word three times, twice in this parable and, earlier in Luke, referring to rewards being poured into a lap until they overflow. This may be the source of our English cliche, the “lap of luxury.”
However, nowhere is the “lap” connected with “the realm of the skies.” It’s meaning comes from how Judeans in Jesus’s time ate. They reclined diagonally on couches, facing the table, so their heads were positioned at the lap or chest of the one next to them. So being at Abraham’s lap is being brought to his table, an idea Jesus used in Matthew 8:11 the describe the reward of faith.
The Greek word describing Lazarus being brought to Abraham is a verb, apophero (ἀπενεχθῆναι), a word Jesus uses nowhere else. It means to “carry off,” “pay back,” and “return,” an elegant play on words. Lazarus is “carried off” to be “paid back,” by a “return” to his forefather.
What is “Torment?”
The parable connects to our concept of hell because, after being sent to hades, the rich man is “in torments” (Luke 16:23 ) and describes himself as “being tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24). In translation, this sounds like a description much like that of Christian hell. However, in examining the Greek, we find that this is , not what Jesus actually said. Two different, unrelated Greek words are conflated into “in torments” and “am tormented.” Neither means quite what the translators want them to mean. Both are used only in this parable.
The most interesting word is the one translated in Luke 16:23 as “in torment.” "Torment" is from the Greek noun, basanos (βασάνοις). Its primary meaning is "touchstone." a magical stone used to test for truth. More generally it means "test," "trial of genuineness," and a "trial" of strength. From this basic meaning, we also "inquiry by torture," "confession upon torture," and the "agony" of battle. This is consistent with Jesus’s view of the afterlife as a forked path: one branch going onto continues life and the other, going into a trial, a trial of “fire,” the fire of the trash dump, burning away what is diseased and worthless, the fire for the productive destruction of lies.
The translation of the phrase “being tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24) is more honest but still full of surprises.
The verb in this verse is odynao (ὀδυνῶμαι), that means to "cause one pain or suffering." It is from a Greek noun meaning "consuming grief. What is interesting is the form of this verb. It could be passive, the man saying he is being made to suffer, as translated, but its form could also be the middle voice meaning that the man is causing pain for himself. Jesus’s choice of such an unusual verb may have been driven by his desire to express both ideas at once. However, in its second use in this parable, Jesus uses this verb explicitly with the unnecessary subject pronoun, saying, literally, “you yourself, however, are causing yourself pain.”
The noun translated as “flame” is also interesting and even more unusual, only used in Luke 16:24. It is phlox (φλογὶ) meaning "flame" of fire, the glow of "hot coal", and the "fire" of a meteor. It is based on phos, the Greek word for light; not pyr, the word for fire. In Greek, it is related metaphorically to getting red with anger. This is not the painful heat of a fire, but the light it sheds. “Light” is Jesus’s metaphor for knowledge. So those tried torturing themselves in the bright light of self-awareness.
Is This a Parable or Humor?
There are other odd things about this story.
Named characters. In all of Christ's parables, the speaking characters have no names. They are archetypes. In most of those stories, the rich man, the man of property, or the king is usually a symbol for the Father. In this story, that pattern is reversed. The beggar is named Lazarus, the name of one of Jesus’s friends. The other character is Abraham, one of the patriarchs. To serious Jews, putting words in the mouth of Abraham is either humor or heresy.
Not an analogy. The Greek word translated as “parable” means “analogy,” that is, a comparison using metaphors. Most of Jesus’s stories are true analogies, comparisons of higher things with those of our everyday lives. This story isn't a parable at all because it describes something beyond human experience. It contrasts two very different ideas, the Greek hades and the Judean “lap of Abraham.” There is indeed a “great chasm,” as Abraham said, between these two ideas. The humor is in Jesuubg these two ideas together in the same story.
The use of uncommon words. Most of Jesus’s parables use simple language, very unlike the humorous verbal wordplay of his story. This story uses a number of uncommon words not used elsewhere by Jesus. All of these uncommon words would have sounded funny to his listeners at the time, indeed many are plays on words.
However, the biggest giveaway is the ending. It is purely a punchline. Abraham says, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." Rim shot!
At the time of Jesus’s life, the humor was that only some Judeans believed in the raising of the dead to live again. Both Jesus and the opponents to whom he was telling this story shared this belief, but they were both opposed by the temple priests in this idea. This line makes light of their shared belief and their inability to change the minds of the temple priests based on Moses and the prophets.
Conclusion
Of course, the real joke comes later, after Jesus himself was raised from the dead. Jesus knew this would happen so this is a message for future generation - s. That he, the Christ, will not be believed even though he rose from the dead. This was the point of his story. It is a lesson on the balancing of things in ongoing life, a trial of truth, not a story of eternal punishment. More specifically, he is literally saying that people who found reasons to distrust the prophets will also distrust Jesus’s words. This is clearly true. Luke certainly saw the humor in this when he recorded this story in his gospel.
Indeed, when it comes to both “heaven” and “hell,” we Christians today prefer to teach “our traditions” rather than the words of Jesus. This is another thing that lse Jesus predicted.
Coming Next: An article on the meaning of Jesus’s words translated as “eternal life.”
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