Some insist we’re immediately resurrected and live in New Jerusalem from now on others claim we live in some glorified spiritual form while we await the Resurrection. Jesus, they insist, is not accurately describing what happens when people die.

Primarily because they have very different beliefs about afterlife. On the other extreme, we have people who insist this story is pure fiction.

Which makes no sense, because Lazarus’s family asked Jesus to come cure him they didn’t just dump Lazarus at Dives’s door, hoping this idle rich guy might uncharacteristically do something charitable. Some of ’em even claim the Lazarus of this story is Lazarus of Bethany, Jesus’s personal friend whom he later raised from the dead, Jn 11.1-44 and this is how Lazarus died. This is the only story where Jesus refers to someone by name-so they figure this must mean something, and claim Jesus is straight-up talking about a real-life guy named Lazarus, who lived in first-century Israel. Traditionally this man’s been called Dives (usually pronounced 'daɪ.viz instead of like the verb) ’cause that’s what he’s called in verse 19 in the Vulgate dives is Latin for “rich.” So I’m gonna call him Dives it saves time.Įvery once in a while some literalist insists this story is not a parable. Since it’s actually not about Lazarus, stands to reason the rich man should come first. This story is often called the Story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, or Lazarus and the Rich Man, depending on who oughta come first.

Bible gateway lazarus story