finding difference bible stories lazarus rich man

By contrast, the face value view and the incidental view are not contradictory. The parody view also contradicts the incidental view, because it is implausible that the parable's primary purpose is to convey a moral message about the use of wealth and obedience to the law and prophets, and yet at the same time to use subtle irony to subvert certain ideas about the nature of the afterlife. Obviously the face value view and the parody view contradict each other. 2 (ii) The parody view is antithetical to both of the other two views, whereas the first two views lie on a continuum. In my estimation, the evidence advanced in support of the parody view is very flimsy indeed.

The parody interpretation is the most complicated, requiring us to see a subtle irony in Luke's construction that has escaped most readers, ancient and modern. Occam's Razor dictates that this simplest solution is most likely the right one. At least on the surface, the story makes sense when taken at face value. Luke certainly does not say that the afterlife story is a parody, intended to subvert popular ideas. (i) The parody view must shoulder the heaviest burden of proof. We will refer to these three interpretations of the parable's afterlife scene as the face value view, the parody view, and the incidental view, respectively.īefore trying to decide between these three alternatives, a couple of preliminary observations. Observe that these three interpretations are as different as they could possibly be! Jesus is either telling us what the afterlife is like, or what it is not like, or is telling us nothing about the afterlife. The third view is that the parable parodies popular ideas about the afterlife from Jesus' day and is thus intended to subvert belief in the kind of afterlife depicted in the story. Thus, the parable teaches nothing about life after death, just as the Parable of the Sower teaches nothing about agriculture.

The second view is that the story's message is entirely a moral one, about the use of money and obedience to God's Word the afterlife scene is just a setting for this message. The first view is that the story conveys an accurate idea of what happens after death. The story depicts a scene from the afterlife, and there are three main views on what the story teaches about the afterlife.

The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, found in Luke 16:19-31 (hover to read), 1 is one of the most fascinating, but also most disputed, parables of Jesus in the canonical Gospels.

Finding difference bible stories lazarus rich man