![]() ![]() In reply, God reveals that the fate of the two reversed after death.īar Mayan had done one good deed in his life, and he receives his reward in his splendid funeral. ![]() This leads an onlooker to question the justice of God. ![]() A poor Torah scholar also dies, unnoticed, and receives a most humble burial. 7 Bar Mayan, a sinful and rich tax collector, dies and receives a splendid funeral. He therefore takes his father on a tour of Amente, where they see the rich man in torment vividly described, while the poor man stands justified by the side of Osiris, the judge of humankind.Ī similar Jewish story is the Bar Mayan tale (first–second century ad). The young Si-osiris, however, knows otherwise. On seeing this, Setme wishes for an end similar to that of the rich man. One day father and son come across two funerals-one of a rich man, complete with splendid honors the other of a poor man, who is cast into a common necropolis. 6 An Egyptian magician, Si-osiris, returns from Amente, the land of the dead, and is reincarnated into the poor family of Setme. The best known is an Egyptian folktale (first century ad). Stories of reversal of fortune: The search for an immediate background. A number of reversal of fortune stories may be noted. Two types of stories can be discerned: (a) those of reversal of fortune in the afterlife that have direct parallels to the parable and (b) those about revelations from the afterlife that offer a broad, general background into views of the afterlife. They also recognize that similar stories were prevalent throughout Mediterranean cultures. Scholars recognize that no direct parallel to this parable exists in the Bible. In this short study, I argue that Jesus shows His familiarity with a genre of stories prevalent throughout the ancient Mediterranean world and deconstructs this story in such a way so as to both discredit the genre and reinforce the biblical outlook. Seemingly, something deeper is at stake, and the attempt to dismiss the importance of the details ultimately fails to satisfy. ![]() Why would Jesus tell a parable with so many details if the details were unimportant? And why use theologically awkward details? The same main point could have been made in much better and theologically palatable language. This line of defense is not without merit but raises difficult questions. 5 In this parable, the main point may be that there is no opportunity for repentance after death. The main conditional defense has been to utilize Adolf Jülicher’s approach to parables, namely, that parables are example stories with one main point, with the details serving only as props. 4 Previous defenseīe that as it may, the parable is very difficult to fit into a conditionalist outlook. 3 For such reasons, scholars of different outlooks advise that it should not be viewed as a road map of the afterlife. Darrell Bock has called it the “most complex” of Jesus’ stories. The parable is unique, with no direct or even remote relation to other Bible stories. Indeed, the existence of the two protagonists seems a completely reversed continuation of their lives before death with only the location changed. THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS FULLThis story depicts not immortal souls floating in heaven or hell but actual persons with full physical capacities to see, hear, speak, and feel heat and cold. Though often cited as support, the parable does not back the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. For conditionalists like me, who believe that death is a state of no consciousness and hell a place of ultimate destruction, it poses a twin challenge: (a) it depicts continued, conscious existence after death and (b) the fire torments rather than destroys. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus 2 (henceforth, the parable) has long perplexed Bible students. ![]()
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