Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Luke 16:19-31, The rich man and Lazarus
A rich man feasts every day while a beggar named Lazarus lies at his gate. Both die; Lazarus is carried to Abraham's side, and the rich man finds himself in torment in Hades.
Luke 16:19-31, in every translation this tool compares.
Jesus tells of a wealthy man who lives in luxury while a sick beggar named Lazarus lies at his gate, hungry for scraps, with dogs licking his sores. After both die, Lazarus is carried to Abraham's side, while the rich man suffers in Hades and asks for relief and then for a warning to be sent to his five brothers. Abraham refuses both, saying the gulf between them cannot be crossed and that brothers who ignore the law and the prophets would not be convinced even by someone returned from the dead.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/unclean-by-touch\/","n":"Unclean by touch","s":"Under the law, skin disease, bleeding, corpses, tombs and certain animals made a person ritually unclean, and touch could pass it on.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/burial-and-mourning\/","n":"Burial and mourning","s":"Mourners came at once, the dead were buried the same day, wrapped in linen in rock tombs, and family carried the duty of burial. Pagan mourning, with little hope beyond a shadowy underworld, could be bleak.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/hades-and-abrahams-side\/","n":"Hades and Abraham's side","s":"Jews spoke of the dead going down to Hades, and of the righteous resting at Abraham's side or in paradise. The pictures were traditional, varied, and could be borrowed by a story.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/reclining-at-table\/","n":"Reclining at table","s":"At banquets men lay on couches, propped on the left elbow, and where you lay showed your rank.","r":""}
The surprise is that Jesus names the beggar and not the rich man; Lazarus is the Greek form of Eleazar (Keener and his notes), meaning God helps (Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary). Blomberg writes, "Dogs were not pets in Jewish households"; these were unclean street scavengers, and their licking would have revolted the hearers (Keener and his notes). Jewish stories had angels carry the righteous away, and everyone, however poor, was owed a burial, so the silence about Lazarus's burial stands against the rich man's funeral, and the place at Abraham's side is the honored guest's place beside the host at a banquet (Keener and his notes; Blomberg). The story is close to a folk tale, Egyptian in origin and retold in Jewish circles, of a rich tax collector given a grand funeral and a poor scholar who reaches paradise (Blomberg). How far the details describe the afterlife is debated. Keener says some are standard Jewish tradition and some only serve the story; the ESV Study Bible holds that the story still seems to teach awareness at once after death; Blomberg suggests that Abraham's side may name a relationship with God more than a place.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 16:19, 16:20, 16:21, 16:22 and 16:23
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 16:19-31, 16:19, 16:20, 16:21 and 16:22-23
- Craig L. Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables, 6.9 The Rich Man and Lazarus
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Luke 16:22-23
- Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 16:19-31, 16:19, 16:20, 16:20-21, 16:23 and 16:26
