Luke 16:23-26

After the short sleep of death, what an awakening! The idea of suffering does not lie in the words ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ, which our versions render by: in hell. Scheol (Heb.), Hades (Gr.), the Inferi or infernal regions (Lat.), simply denote the abode of the dead, without distinguishing the different conditions which it may include, in opposition to the land of the living. Paradise (Luke 23:43) as well as Gehenna (Luke 12:5) forms part of it. Hence, also, from the midst of his punishment the rich man can behold Abraham and Lazarus. The notion of pain is actually found only in the words: being in torments.

On Abraham in the abode of the dead, comp. John 8:56, where Jesus speaks without figure.

The plural τοῖς κόλποις, substituted for the singular (Luke 16:22), denotes fulness; a whole region is meant where a company is gathered together.

The situation, Luke 16:24 et seq., is very similar to that of the dialogues of the dead found in the ancients, and particularly in the Rabbins. Φωνήσας, calling in a loud voice, corresponds to μακρόθεν, afar off, Luke 16:23. Nothing more severe for those Pharisees, who made a genealogical tree the foundation of their salvation, than this address put into the mouth of the poor condemned man: Father Abraham! “All the circumcised are safe,” said the Rabbins; therefore, was not circumcised equivalent to son of Abraham? In this situation, there arises in the mind of the rich man a thought which had never occurred to him while he was on the earth, namely, that the contrast between abundance and destitution may have its utility for him who is in want. He expresses his discovery with a simplicity in which shamelessness disputes the palm with innocence. The gen. ὕδατος with βάπτειν : to drop water; this expression denotes water falling drop by drop from the finger which has been immersed in it; it thus corresponds to the word crumbs, Luke 16:21.

On flame, comp. Mark 9:43-49. Lustful desires, inflamed and fed by boundless gratification, change into torture for the soul as soon as it is deprived of the external objects which correspond to them, and from the body by which it communicates with them.

The address: my son, in the mouth of Abraham, is more poignant still than that of: Father Abraham in that of the rich man. Abraham acknowledges the reality of the civil state appealed to, and yet this man is and remains in Gehenna!

The word remember is the central one of the parable; for it forms the bond between the two scenes, that of the earth and that of Hades. “Recall the contrast which thou didst leave unbroken on the earth..., and thou shalt understand that the present corresponding contrast cannot be alleviated without injustice. Thou hast let the time pass for making Lazarus thy friend (Luke 16:8-9); he can now do nothing for thee.” In ἀπέλαβες, thou receivedst, there is, as in the ἀπέχειν, Matthew 6:2; Matthew 6:5; Matthew 6:16, the notion of receiving by appropriating greedily for the purpose of enjoyment. The selfish appropriation of goods was not tempered in him by the free munificence of love. He thought only of draining to the very bottom the cup of pleasure which was at his lips. The same idea is expressed by the pronoun σοῦ added to ἀγαθά, “ thy good things;” this qualification is not added to κακά, in the second clause; Abraham says simply: “evil things.” God trains the human soul by joys and by sorrows. The education of every soul demands a certain sum of both. This thought forms the foundation of Luke 16:25. It refers exclusively to the pedagogical economy here below or in the world above. The words comforted and tormented are not the equivalents of saved and damned, absolutely taken. Nothing could be final among the members of the ancient covenant till they had been brought into contact with Jesus Christ. “The gospel,” says St. Peter (1 Ephesians 4:6), “was preached to them that are dead, that they might be [capable of being] judged.” The knowledge of Jesus Christ is the condition on which the pronouncing of the final sentence on every soul is based. The hour of this judgment has not yet struck for the rich man. Consequently this verse neither teaches salvation by poverty nor damnation by riches; ὧδε, here, which is read by all the Mjj., is preferable to ὅδε, he. Here is opposed to: in his lifetime.

Ver. 26. But even supposing that some concession might be made in respect of justice, there is another reason which cuts off all hope the impossibility of the thing. The Rabbins represent the two parts of Hades as separated by a wall; Jesus here substitutes a gulf, a figure which agrees better with the entire description. It is the emblem of God's inflexible decree. Only from the fact that this gulf cannot be crossed at present, it does not follow that it may not be so one day by means of a bridge offered to repentant Jews (comp. Matthew 12:32). The omission of οἱ before ἐκεῖθεν, by the Alex., identifies those who pass with those who repass.