Texts in Conversation
Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke and a vision in 4 Ezra describe a place divided by an uncrossable boundary, sharing apocalyptic Jewish cosmology that is structured around fixed divisions between reward and judgment.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
4 Ezra 7:36
2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
34 Only judgment will remain. Truth will stand. Faith will grow strong. 35 Recompense will follow. The reward will be shown. Good deeds will awake, and wicked deeds won’t sleep. 36 The pit of torment will appear, and near it will be the place of rest. The furnace of hell will be shown, and near it the paradise of delight. 37 Then the Most High will say to the nations that are raised from the dead, ‘Look and understand whom you have denied, whom you haven’t served, whose commandments you have despised. 38 Look on this side and on that. Here is delight and rest, and there fire and torments.’ Thus he will speak to them in the day of judgment.
Date: 70–132 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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.’
Date: 75–85 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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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 rewards and punishments ..."
Dale C. Allison Jr., Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, and History (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 34–36.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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