Rich man and Lazarus
Saint Lazarus | |
---|---|
![]() Lazarus and Dives, illumination from the Codex Aureus of Echternach Top panel: Lazarus at the rich man's door Middle panel: Lazarus' soul is carried to Paradise by two angels; Lazarus in Abraham's bosom Bottom panel: Dives' soul is carried off by two devils to Hell; Dives is tortured in Hades | |
Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
Feast | June 21 |
Patronage | the poor, against leprosy lepers, Order of St Lazarus |
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (also historically called Dives and Lazarus and sometimes Lazarus and Dives) is one of the stories told by Jesus. Recorded only in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 16:19–31), it tells of the relationship (in life and in death) between an unnamed rich man and a poor beggar named Lazarus. The traditional "name" Dives, is not in fact a name but the word for "rich man",[1] dives, in the text of the Latin Bible, the Vulgate.[2] The rich man was also given the names Neuēs and Finees in the third and fourth centuries.[1]
Along with the parables of the Ten Virgins, Prodigal Son, and Good Samaritan, it was one of the most frequently illustrated parables in medieval art,[3] perhaps because of its vivid account of an afterlife.
The name Lazarus (from the Hebrew: אלעזר, Elʿāzār, Eleazar - "God is my help"[4]) is also given to a second, and arguably more famous, figure in the Bible: Lazarus of Bethany, also known as Lazarus of the Four Days. He is the subject of a prominent miracle attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus restores him to life four days after his death. However, the two are generally understood to be two separate characters.[5] Many allusions to Lazarus (particularly those involving the idea of resurrection from the dead) should be understood as referring to the Lazarus described in John, rather than to the poor beggar of this story.
The story
The story is as follows:
There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's Side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hell,[6] where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'
'No, Father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'
Views of historicity
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There are different views on the historicity and origin of the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus.[7] The story is unique to Luke and is not thought to come from the hypothetical Q document.[1]
As a literal, historical event
Some Christians view the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man as an actual event which was related by Jesus to his followers;[8] this was generally the view of the medieval Church. According to this view, this story is not a parable but literal biography. Supporters of this view point to the amount of detail in the story. For example, in no other parable does Jesus give a character's personal name, but refers to the characters as "a certain man", "a sower", etc.
As a parable created by Jesus
Other Christians consider that this is a parable created by Jesus and told to his followers.[9] Tom Wright[10] and Joachim Jeremias[11] both treat it as a "Parable". Proponents of this view argue that the story of Lazarus and the rich man has much in common with other stories which are agreed upon parables, both in language and content (e.g. the reversal of fortunes, the use of antithesis, and concern for the poor).
Martin Luther taught that the story was a parable about rich and poor in this life and the details of the afterlife not to be taken literally:
- "Therefore we conclude that the bosom of Abraham signifies nothing else than the Word of God,.... the hell here mentioned cannot be the true hell that will begin on the day of judgment. For the corpse of the rich man is without doubt not in hell, but buried in the earth; it must however be a place where the soul can be and has no peace, and it cannot be corporal. Therefore it seems to me, this hell is the conscience, which is without faith and without the Word of God, in which the soul is buried and held until the day of judgment, when they are cast down body and soul into the true and real hell." (Church Postil 1522-23)[12]
Lightfoot treated the parable as a parody of Pharisee belief concerning the Bosom of Abraham, and from the connection of Abraham saying the rich man's family would not believe even if the parable Lazarus was raised, to the priests failure to believe in the resurrection of Christ:
- "Any one may see, how Christ points at the infidelity of the Jews, even after that himself shall have risen again. From whence it is easy to judge what was the design and intention of this parable" (From the Talmud and Hebraica, Volume 3)[13]
Bullinger in the Companion Bible cited Lightfoot's comment above,[14] expanding it to include coincidence to lack of belief in the resurrection of the historical Lazarus (John 12:10, see below). Additionally Bullinger considered that the lack of identification "parable" by Luke is because contains a parody of the view of the afterlife in the story:
- "It is not called a parable because it cites a notable example of the Pharisee's tradition which had been brought from Babylon. See many other examples in Lightfoot vol.xii. pp.159-68" (Companion Bible, p.1488)
An alternative explanation of the parable is a satirical parable against the Sadducees. One writer to identify the Sadducees as the target was Johann Nepomuk Sepp.[15] The arguments in favour of identification of the Rich Man as the Sadducees are (1) the wearing of purple and fine linen, priestly dress,[16] (2) the reference to "five brothers in my father's house" as an allusion to Caiaphas' father in law Annas, and his five sons who also served as high priests according to Josephus,[17] (3) Abraham's statement in the parable that they would not believe even if he raised Lazarus, and then the fulfillment that when Jesus did raise Lazarus of Bethany the Sadducees not only did not believe, but attempted to have Lazarus killed again: "So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well" (John 12:10). This last interpretation had wide circulation in France during the 1860-'90s as a result of having been included in the notes of the pictorial Bible of Abbé Drioux[18]
Interpretations
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The parable illustrates a theme common to several of Jesus' parables: the treatment of the least of society is the true measure of piety. The rich man is "indifferent to the needs of the poor,"[1] and his claims to external virtue and legal satisfaction could not compensate for this neglect. Jesus taught, repeatedly, that the Kingdom of God is within the soul and not in the law, in contrast to the Pharisean understanding of the Messiah.
What makes this parable even more poignant is that the author of the Gospel is apparently also the author of the Acts of the Apostles, which relates the events after the Resurrection (or at very least, is aware of the resurrection). The readers are aware that not only do they have the words of Moses and the Prophets but that someone returned from death, too. Further, for early Christians, the parable answers the question of why, after the resurrection, Jesus did not preach and give new warnings to the living.
Afterlife doctrine
Christians debate what the story says about the afterlife:
Most Christians believe in the immortality of the soul and particular judgment and see the story as consistent with it. The parable teaches that both identity and memory remain after death.[4] Eastern Orthodox Christians see the story as consistent with their belief in Hades, where the righteous and unrighteous alike await the resurrection of the dead. Western Christians usually interpret Lazarus as being in Heaven or Limbo and the rich man in Hell.
Some Christians believe in the mortality of the soul ("soul sleep") and general judgment ("Last Judgement") only. This view is held by some Anglicans such as E. W. Bullinger.[19] Proponents of the mortality of the soul, and general judgement, for example Seventh-day Adventists, Christadelphians, and Christian Universalists, argue that this is a parable using the framework of Jewish views of the Bosom of Abraham.
References in Early Christianity and Medieval tradition
Hippolytus of Rome (ca. AD 200) describes Hades with similar details: the bosom of Abraham for the souls of the righteous, fiery torment for the souls of wicked, and a chasm between them.[20] He equates the fires of Hades with the lake of fire described in the Book of Revelation, but specifies that no one will actually be cast into the fire until the end times.
In many European countries the Latin title Dives (rich man) entered the vernacular as a proper name. In Italy the rich man is traditionally named Epulone, not Dives. An epulone was originally a title for a pagan Roman banquet host, but from the medieval period onwards is usually capitalized and treated as a proper name. The first use of the title was probably Petrus Crisologus in Consule sermones de divite epulone c.420.
The story was frequently told in an elaborated form in the Medieval period, and, as the story was believed to be factual rather than a parable, Lazarus was venerated as a patron saint of lepers by the Roman Catholic Church.[21] In the twelfth century, crusaders in the Kingdom of Jerusalem founded the Order of Saint Lazarus.
It was often shown in art, especially carved at the portals of churches, at the foot of which beggars would sit (for example at Moissac and Saint-Sernin, Toulouse), promoting their cause. There is a surviving stained-glass window at Bourges Cathedral.[22]
In literature and poetry
Chaucer's Summoner observes that "Dives and Lazarus lived differently, and their rewards were different."[23]
In William Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I, Sir John Falstaff alludes to the story while insulting his friend Bardolph about his face, comparing it to a memento mori: "I never see thy face," he says "but I think upon hell-fire and Dives that lived in purple; for there he is in his robes, burning, burning" (III, 3, 30-33).
In his novel Moby-Dick, Herman Melville alludes to Lazarus and Dives in Chapter Two as part of a metaphor describing a cold night in New Bedford.
- "Now, that Lazarus should lie stranded there on the curbstone before the door of Dives, .." (Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. pp. 11–12. 1786)
References to Dives and Lazarus are a frequent image in socially conscious fiction of the Victorian period.[24] For example:
- "workers and masters are separate as Dives and Lazarus" "ay, as separate as Dives and Lazarus, with a great gulf betwixt" (Elizabeth Gaskell; Mary Barton a tale of Manchester life 1848)
- "Between them, and a working woman full of faults, there is a deep gulf set." (Charles Dickens; Hard Times 1854)
Although Dickens' A Christmas Carol and The Chimes do not make any direct reference to the story, the introduction to the Oxford edition of the Christmas Books does do so.[25]
Richard Crashaw wrote a metaphysical stanza for his Steps to the Temple in 1646 entitled, "Upon Lazarus His Tears":
Rich Lazarus! richer in those gems, thy tears,
Than Dives in the robes he wears:
He scorns them now, but oh they'll suit full well
With the purple he must wear in hell.[26]
Dives and Lazarus appear in Edith Sitwell's poem "Still falls the Rain" from "The Canticle of the Rose", first published in 1941. It was written after The Blitz on London in 1940. The poem is dark, full of the disillusions of World War II. It speaks of the failure of man, but also of God's continuing involvement in the world through Christ:[27]
Still falls the Rain
At the feet of the Starved Man hung upon the Cross.
Christ that each day, each night, nails there, have mercy on us—
On Dives and on Lazarus:
Under the Rain the sore and the gold are as one.[28]
Benjamin Britten set Sitwell's text to music in his third Canticle in a series of five.[29]
In music and song
- "Dives Malus" (the wicked rich man) also known as "Historia Divitis" (c.1640) by Giacomo Carissimi is a Latin paraphrase of the Luke text, set as an oratorio for 2 sopranos, tenor, bass; for private performance in the oratories of Rome in the 1640s.
- Mensch, was du tust a German sacred concerto by Johann Philipp Förtsch (1652-1732)[30]
- The story appeared as an English folk song whose oldest written documentation dates from 1557[31], with the depiction of the afterlife altered to fit Christian tradition. The song was also published as the Child ballad Dives and Lazarus in the 19th century.[32] Ralph Vaughan Williams based his orchestral piece Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus (1939) on this folk song,[33] and also used an arrangement as the hymn tune Kingsfold.[34]
- "Poor Man Lazarus." (19thC) a spiritual sung by North American slaves in the 19th century, is unrelated to the Child Ballad.[35]
- "The Tramp on the Street" (1948) by husband-and-wife bluegrass duo Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper[36]
- "Diversus and Lazarus" (2004) by Steeleye Span on the album They Called Her Babylon is based on the Child Ballad.[37]
- "No Second Chances" (2007) by Christian metal band Whitecross[38]
- "Chasm" (2009) song on the 2009 album, Memento Mori, by Christian alternative rock band Flyleaf.[39]
See also
The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem
The Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem (OSLJ) is an order of chivalry which originated in a leper hospital founded by Knights Hospitaller in the twelfth century by Crusaders of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Saint Lazarus is one of the most ancient of the European orders of chivalry, yet is one of the less-known and less-documented orders. The first mention of the Order of Saint Lazarus in surviving sources dates to 1142.
The Order was originally established to treat the virulent disease of leprosy, its knights originally being lepers themselves.[40] According to the Order's official international website, "From its foundation in the 12th century, the members of the Order were dedicated to two ideals: aid to those suffering from the dreadful disease of leprosy and the defense of the Christian faith."[41] Sufferers of leprosy regarded the beggar Lazarus (of Luke 19:19-31) as their patron saint and usually dedicated their hospices to him.[41]
The order was initially founded as a leper hospital outside the city walls of Jerusalem, but hospitals were established all across the Holy Land dependant on the Jerusalem hospital, notably in Acre. It is unknown when the order became militarised but militarisation occurred before the end of the twelfth century due to the large numbers of Templars and Hospitallers sent to the leper hospitals to be treated. The order established ‘lazar houses’ across Europe to care for lepers, and was well supported by other military orders which compelled lazar brethren in their rule to join the order on contracting leprosy.[42]
References
- ^ a b c d Arland J. Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus: A Commentary, Eerdmans, 2002, ISBN 080286077X, pp. 110-118.
- ^ "Luke, chapter 16 verse 19". The Bible - Latin Vulgate. Vatican. Retrieved 2006-06-30. - "homo quidam erat dives et induebatur purpura et bysso et epulabatur cotidie splendide"
- ^ Emile Mâle, The Gothic Image , Religious Art in France of the Thirteen Century, p 195, English trans of 3rd edn, 1913, Collins, London (and many other editions)
- ^ a b William Barclay, The Parables of Jesus, Westminster John Knox Press, 1999, ISBN 066425828X, pp. 92-98.
- ^ Richard R. Losch, All the People in the Bible: An A-Z Guide to the Saints, Scoundrels, and Other Characters in Scripture, Eerdmans Publishing, 2008, ISBN 0802824544, pp. 255-256.
- ^ Greek: Hades
- ^ Multiple sources summarized at Jesus Database
- ^ e.g. Webpage which argues that Lazarus and the rich man is literally true.
- ^ eg The IVP Bible Background Commentary
- ^ Wright T. Luke for Everyone "doesn't add anything new to the general folk belief about fortunes being reversed in a future life. If it's a parable, that means once again that we should take it as picture language about something that was going on in Jesus' work" p201
- ^ The Parables of Jesus Joachim Jeremias. Die Gleichnisse Jesu p123-125
- ^ volume IV: p17-32, The Sermons of Martin Luther Baker Book House Grand Rapids, MI
- ^ 2007 edition p.176
- ^ Companion Bible p1489, citing "Lightfoot xii, 159-63"
- ^ Sepp Thaten und Lehren Jesu: mit ihrer weltgeschichtlichen Beglaubigung 1864
- ^ Whittaker, H.A. Studies in the gospels. Biblia, Staffordshire 1984, 2nd Ed. 1989 p495
- ^ Friedrich Gustav Lisco, (trans. Patrick Fairbairn) The parables of Jesus: explained and illustrated 1853 p343 "Many expositors have thought they discovered, in this story, a real history, and referred it to the family of Annas and his son-in-law, Caiaphas,"
- ^ "et c'est cet endurcissement que Jésus prédit quand il dit que du moment qu'ils n'écoutent ni Moïse ni les prophètes ils n'écouteront pas d'avantage quelqu'un qui viendrait de l'autre monde" Drioux Claude-Joseph La Bible populaire: hist. illustrée de l'Ancien et du Nouveau Testament. Hachette, Paris 1864 p497
- ^ E.W. Bullinger on Luke 16:19-31
- ^ Against Plato, On the Cause of the Universe
- ^ Lazarus on the Catholic Community Forum.
- ^ Emile Male, The Gothic Image , Religious Art in France of the Thirteen Century, p 200, English trans of 3rd edn, 1913, Collins, London (and many other editions)
- ^ The Summoners's Prologue and Tale , line 1877 - "Lazar and Dives lyveden diversly, And divers gerdon hadden they therby."
- ^ Smith Sheila The Other Nation OUP 1980 pp.12-16 for extended discussion of the Dives and Lazarus imagery.
- ^ :"And he cried it, how he cried it, from the housetops!— the wealth of Dives jostling the want of Lazarus, Trotty Veck's humble dish of tripe made humbler by Sir Joseph Bowley's opulent cheque-book; above all, Scrooge, who, obliged to subscribe to the prisons and the Poor Law, , shut his eyes to the conditions of those ghastly institutions,..." The Oxford Illustrated Dickens: Christmas books - Page vi Charles Dickens, illustrated by Phiz, Hablot Knight Browne - 1998
- ^ Samuel Johnson, The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper: Including the Series Edited with Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, 1810, p. 557.
- ^ Graham Elliott, Benjamin Britten: The spiritual dimension, Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0198162588, p. 100.
- ^ Jon Stallworthy, The Oxford Book of War Poetry, Second Reissue, Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 0199554536, p. 248.
- ^ Philip Reed, Mervyn Cooke, and Donald Mitchell, Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976, Volume 4: 1952-1957, Boydell Press, 2008, ISBN 1843833824, p. 294.
- ^ La Capella Ducale; Musica Fiata/Roland Wilson rec. live, 26 October 2007, Hauptkirche St. Nikolai, Hamburg, Germany. DDD CPO 777369-2 [79:09]
- ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish popular Ballads, Part IV, 1886; referring to (inter alia) Arber, Registers of the Company of Stationers
- ^ anonymous; from Child ballad 56 A, from Sylvester: a Garland of Christmas Carols, from an old Birmingham broadside. "Dives and Lazarus". The Oxford Book of Ballads, 1910. Bartleby.com. Retrieved 2006-06-29.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Michael Kennedy, The works of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Oxford University Press (London, 1980), p. 278.
- ^ A selection of shape-note folk hymns: from southern United States tune books 1816–61, ed. David W. Music, p. xxv, A-R Editions, Middleton, Wisconsin 2005.
- ^ "Poor man Lazarus". Repertoire. crescendoalpesto.ch. Retrieved 2006-06-29.
- ^ Lyrics to "The Tramp on the Street":
- "Only a tramp was Lazurus by fate
- He who lay down at the rich man's gate
- He begged for some crumbs from the rich man to eat
- He was only a tramp found dead on the street"
- The song goes on to compare the death and resurrection of Jesus to the death of Lazarus, and to ask the listener if he or she would turn Jesus away or invite him in to eat.
- ^ Steeleye Span: They Called Her Babylon (Review)
- ^ Whitecross Lyrics
- ^ Flyleaf, "Chasm" lyrics
- ^ David Marcombe, Leper Knights: The Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem in England, c. 1150-1544 (Rochester, NY: Boydell) 2003; Chapter 1 gives the general history.
- ^ a b "History", official international website of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem. Retrieved on 2009-09-14.
- ^ David Marcombe, Leper Knights, The Boydell Press 2003, p. 11
External links
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- Biblical Art on the WWW:
- An In-Depth Look at the Rich Man and Lazarus from a Universalist Perspective