Luke 16:26

New Testament

24 So he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am in anguish in this fire.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus likewise bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. 26 Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us, so that those who want to cross over from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us. 27 So the rich man said, ‘Then I beg you, father—send Lazarus to my father’s house 28 (for I have five brothers) to warn them so that they don’t come into this place of torment.’

4 Ezra 7:36

2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha

34 Judgment alone shall remain; truth shall stand firm and faithfulness be strong; 35 recompense shall at once begin and open payment be made; good deeds shall awake and wicked deeds shall not be allowed to sleep. 36 Then the place of torment shall appear and over against it the place of rest; the furnace of hell shall be displayed, and on the opposite side the paradise of delight. 37 ‘Then the Most High shall say to the nations that have been raised from the dead: “Look and understand who it is you have denied and refused to 38 serve, and whose commandment you have despised. Look on this side, then on that: here are rest and delight, there fire and torments.”

 Notes and References

"... That place of punishment, as so often in Jewish apocalyptic texts (e.g., 1 Enoch 10:6; 54:1–2; 90:24–25; 100:9; Sib. Oracles 3:53–54; 4 Ezra 7:36–38; 13:10–11; Apocalypse of Abraham 31:2–5), is a place of fire according to Matt 7:19; Mark 9:47–48; and perhaps John 15:6. Likely related is Luke 12:49 ... Luke 16:19–31 encourages deeds of loving-kindness by depicting pleasant reward in “Abraham’s bosom” and miserable retribution in “Hades.” Admittedly, this is only a morality tale; but like the parable of the sower, which does not intend to be a lesson about farming practices yet presupposes such practices, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, though not intended to offer details about the afterlife, presupposes postmortem ewards and punishments ..."

Allison, Dale C. Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, and History (pp. 34-36) Baker Academic, 2013

 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.