What Does the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus Really Mean?

The parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus was told by Jesus Christ and written in Luke 16:19-31. And as is common with many Bible subjects, the parable has generated a lot of discussions, and many different interpretations have been made of it by teachers of the Bible. For example, one of the leading Evangelical/Pentecostal churches in Nigeria wrote, “When a sinner dies, his soul immediately proceeds to hell where, with full consciousness, he tastes the excruciating pain that hell offers. The story of poor Lazarus and the rich man, best exemplifies the eternal punishment awaiting sinners (Luke 16:23,24).” – Deeper Life Leadership Strategy Congress, January 4-9, 2021, “Hell” p. 152/153.

Does this literal interpretation of the parable brought out the true interpretation of the parable? No. The Bible nowhere teaches this false doctrine of immediate entry into hell or heaven as espoused by this church.

There are others who say that the record seen in Luke 16:19-31 is not a parable because nowhere else in the Bible did Jesus Christ use proper names in his parables as is done here where Lazarus (the Greek version of the Hebrew name Eleazar meaning “God helps”) and Abraham were used. But it should be noted that Jesus was talking to the public, including the Pharisees and the teachers of the Mosaic law (Luke 15:1,2). To such a group of people, Jesus always spoke in parables. The Bible says, “The disciples came to him [Jesus] and asked, ‘Why do you speak to the people in parables?’ He replied, ‘Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. This is why I speak to them in parables.’ ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand…’ Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.” (Matt. 13:10,11,13,34 NIVUK emphasis and word in square bracket added by me).

The story of the rich man and Lazarus was a parable. A parable is a short and simple fictional story told to teach a moral lesson or a religious principle. And being a parable, it is wrong to understand the story as if it related a historical (or literal) event.

While not trying to postulate a new doctrine on the story, there are some glaring misconceptions which this article seeks to draw attention to.

Immediate entry into hell at death

There is nowhere the Bible has taught the idea of immediate entry into heaven or hell at the point of death. Those who teach these things don’t understand the Bible. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out – those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.” (John 5:28-29 NIVUK, emphasis added). No one will be condemned to hell fire until after the second resurrection and the judgment of the world at the great white throne judgment. See Acts 17:31 and Rev. 20:5, 11-15; 21:8.

All the people who ever lived and died are in their graves awaiting the resurrection of their souls. The righteous ones will be resurrected to inherit eternal life on the day of Christ’s return to the earth. Their resurrection is called the “first resurrection.” See 1 Cor. 15:20-23, 1 Thes. 4:16 and Rev. 20:1-4, 6. The righteous ones will be resurrected to partake of the millennial (1000-year) reign of Jesus Christ here on earth. After the millennial reign, all the sinners who have ever lived and died will be resurrected to be judged. It is after the judgment that any sinner will be thrown into the lake of fire and be put to death the second time. With this plain fact in mind, let no one misunderstand Christ as teaching immediate entry into hell fire in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The torment which the rich man is said to undergo in “hell” and the comfort which Lazarus enjoy at the bosom of Abraham cannot be immediate experiences at the time of death. All sinners will eventually be burnt to death at the end of the age. The following words from the mouth of Jesus Christ are noteworthy:

“He [Jesus] answered, ‘The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds [KJV: tares] are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. ‘As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They [the angels] will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear. (Matt. 13:37-43 NIVUK, words in square brackets and emphases added).

Here, he explained in plain language the parable of the weeds which he told in verses 24-30. In the parable, Jesus told his servants not to pull up the weeds (or tares) sown by the devil until the time of the harvest when they’ll be bound in bundles and thrown into the fire to be burnt (v. 30). He couldn’t have said here (vv. 39-43) that the wicked ones will be thrown into fiery furnace at the end of the age (KJV: end of the world) and say in Luke 16:23-24 that the rich man went into fiery torment immediately at the time of death. Being a parable, the account of Luke 16:19-31 must be understood in terms of the plain, literal, words of Jesus Christ in other places. As far as the Bible has revealed, all dead people, beginning with Abel, are still in their graves awaiting the resurrection. None has gone to heaven or hell.

Torment in Hades?

In verses 23-25, the rich man is said to be in torment in a flame in hell. What is translated “hell” in the KJV (v. 23) is the Greek word “Hades” which means “the grave” or “pit” or “the unseen realm of the dead.” This is the place where all the dead, whether righteous or not, go to await the resurrection. Jesus Christ himself, at death, went to Hades where he spent three days and nights before he was resurrected by God (Acts 2:22-32).

In verses 23 and 24 we read, “And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’” (Luke 16:23-24 NKJV, emphases added).

What exactly did Jesus mean by what he said in these verses? Was he teaching that there is indeed fire in Hades and the sinner goes into torment at the time of death? If indeed he was teaching on the reality of a fire of torment, why did he not use the word “Ge-Hinnom” (Greek: Gehenna) which was the valley where the fire was, then, always burning and worms were always consuming the dead bodies of some of the criminals and animals that did not fall into the valley proper but hanged at the ledges of the slopes of the valley? The following are some plausible answers to these questions.

Some scholars have regarded the parable as a parody of the Pharisee tradition about the afterlife, a belief which was brought from Babylon. Jesus was teaching the people about the consequences of living lives characterised by greed (Luke 16:14-15) and lack of care for others, hidden under the cloak of self-righteous hypocrisy. He wanted his hearers to know that people with such characteristics will end up in the lake of fire at the end of the age.

Some other scholars teach that in the Intertestamental period, the about 400-year period between the Old Testament and the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist in the New Testament (circa 400 BCE to circa 25 CE), some Jewish writers have developed a teaching which divided Sheol (Greek: Hades) into two regions – one region serves as a place of comfort for the righteous dead while the other is for the torment of the wicked dead. This idea is said to have been imported from Babylon by the exiles. The paradisical side is the one called “Gan-Eden” or “Abraham’s bosom” while the pyretic side is called “Ge-Hinnom” or, in this parable, Hades The two sides of the same place is here shown to be separated by a great chasm such that no one can cross from either side. But the people on both sides are within vocal and visual reach of one another. It is believed that this tradition had become common knowledge by the Jews up to the days of Christ on earth.

Christ’s use, in this parable, of this belief of the Jews should not be interpreted as an endorsement of this tradition. Neither should it be taken as the truth about heaven and hell. It is a biblical fact that no one goes to hell until after the resurrection and judgment of the world. What we must accept from the parable is that all who fail to live according to God’s standard of righteousness and love for God and humanity will not enter into the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ simply used their already-held tradition to teach them moral and spiritual lessons.

Is Abraham’s bosom in heaven?

Poor Lazarus, at death, is said to be carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom (v. 22). The next verse says the dead rich man “lifted up his eyes” and saw Abraham and Lazarus at his bosom. This has led some people to the wrong conclusion that the rich man was in “hell” below while Abraham and Lazarus were in “heaven” above. But “lifting up the eyes” does not convey this vertical view as they have supposed. Instead, the phrase refers to looking into a distance from where one is. Many verses of the Bible clearly prove this. See, for example, Gen. 13:10;  22:4,13; 24:63,64; 31:10; 33:1,5; 37:25; Exod. 14:10; Num. 24:2; Judg. 19:17; 1 Sam. 6:13; 2 Sam. 18:24. Moreover, our Lord Jesus Christ said, “No-one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man” (John 3:13 NIVUK). Abraham is still in the grave awaiting the resurrection of the righteous.  Abraham’s bosom cannot be any other place than the renewed earth where God’s kingdom will be ruled by Jesus Christ. So, people will be carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom at the return of Jesus Christ to the earth (Matt. 24:31; Mark 13:27). Compare Matt. 8:11-12: “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven [here on the renewed earth]. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth [of regret].” (Matt. 8:11-12 NIVUK, words in square brackets added by me).

Poor Lazarus is used as a symbol for all the people described by Jesus Christ in these words:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit [the lowly in spirit], for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn [who have sobriety], for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matt. 5:3-8 NIVUK, words in square brackets and emphases added by me). The greedy, hypocritical Pharisees who sneered at Jesus (Luke 16:14) did not possess these godly qualities. This made Jesus Christ tell them in the parable that destruction is awaiting them unless they turned from their hypocrisy, love of money and other evils of their lives.

All faithful believers, be they Jews or Gentiles, are Abraham’s children through Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:7-9,14,26-29). They will be gathered to Abraham’s bosom, not in Hades or Heaven, but in the kingdom of God here on the remade Earth after the first resurrection which will take place on the day of Christ’s return to the Earth (Matt. 8:11,12; 24:31; Mark 13:27; 1 Cor. 15:23; 1 Thes. 4:16).

Faulty Interpretation of Parables

One mistake some teachers of the Bible make is to interpret parables the same way they interpret teachings where plain language is used. This often cause them to make wrong conclusions. This problem is seen in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man because many people have interpreted it as if it were a literal, historical story. Hence they failed to make correct application of the story. When the story says the rich man was in a fiery torment in Hades or “hell” (KJV), it is wrong to conclude that there is fire in Hades or hell. “Hell” and the “lake of fire,” also called “hell fire” are not the same thing or place. There is no fire in “hell” which means the grave or the unseen world of the dead. Am I contradicting the Bible? No. It is written: “And death and hell [Hades] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death” (Rev. 20:14 KJV). It is evident from this verse that hell, which will eventually be thrown into the lake of fire, cannot be the lake of fire. We should understand, therefore, that “hell” in Luke 16:23 must mean the lake of fire which is also termed “hell fire” three times in the Gospels. The Bible has clearly taught us that no one will be thrown into this place of burning until after the great white throne judgment at the end of the age ( Matt. 13:27-30,40-43; Rev. 20:15; 21:8). The parable should not be made to contradict this plain teaching of the Bible. What Jesus Christ was teaching the self-justifying, money-loving, uncaring, unloving, hypocritical, leaders is that they risk being destroyed in the lake of fire at the time of judgment. He was not teaching immediate entry into heaven or hell-fire in the parable. Neither was he teaching the already-held belief of the Jews of his time that Sheol (Hades) was a place of bliss for the righteous dead on one part of it, but a place of torment for the wicked dead on the other part. Jesus Christ merely used their already-held myths to teach them lessons on acceptable righteousness and the judgment of God which will take place after the millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.