MortalWombat

I was thinking about the two different Gospel stories about a guy named Lazarus: the one in John where he is a friend of Jesus who dies and gets resurrected by Jesus, and the other in the parable with the rich man in Luke where he is poor and dies and goes to heaven, while the rich man goes to hell.

Is Luke's parable a dig at John's story of Jesus resurrecting Lazarus?

The verse in John following the resurrection of Lazarus is "Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him."

But in Luke's parable, the rich man while suffering in hell asks Abraham to send Lazarus back to life to warn his brothers so they will repent and avoid damnation. But Abraham denies him this, saying that if they won't listen to the words of Moses and the prophets, they won't be swayed by someone coming back from the dead.

Am I reading too much into this, or might there be something to this?

John Kesler

There are scholars who believe that John's account of Lazarus borrows from Luke's gospel. As The Anchor Bible Dictionary states (volume 4, page 265):

FathomFFI

I find parallels between the Lazarus story and the "Widow of Nain" story beginning at Luke 7.11.

Doug Shaver

The only thing the two stories have in common is the name of a major character. I think it's quite a reach to infer from that that one author got the idea for the story from the other author.

Doug Shaver

I hope you're joking, but just in case . . . No, definitely not Lazari.

Dave31

Now, I found this bit of info very interesting from a book titled, "Who Was Jesus?" by D.M. Murdock

If nothing else, I thought the "Strong's (G2976), means "whom God helps." might be helpful here...?

andrewcriddle

The stuff about Osiris-Eloh may be sound.
It appears to go back to the 19th century scholar Dunbar Heath.
However it would be nice to have a more recent source.

Andrew Criddle

Ben C Smith

I myself think there is in all likelihood some connection between the parable of Lazarus and the resurrection story of Lazarus. I am not at all decided, however, on what that connection may be. It is not unheard of to suppose that the fourth evangelist read Luke and fashioned his story from the parable; however, it may also be that the story of Lazarus preceded the parable, which was a reaction to it in some way.

At any rate, here are some of the connections, as I see them:

1. The Lucan parable of Lazarus is the only one in the canonical gospels that names its protagonist; the Johannine story of Lazarus is one of the relatively few that names its recipient.
2. In both the protagonist, named Lazarus, dies.
3. In the parable the rich man requests that Lazarus be sent back from the dead; in the story Lazarus actually comes back from the dead.
4. The Lucan parable asserts that, if one disbelieves Moses, one will disbelieve a resurrection; this is thematically similar to John 5.46.

Ben.

DCHindley

MortalWombat,

The passage in Luke 16:30-31 seems to be an ironic rebuke directed toward the Jews. For the Christian who wrote gLuke, Jesus was resurrected, but the Jews did not accept this as a fact. It sounds to me as though the author of gLuke thinks that is ironic, considering Jesus was also a Jew. It does not appear that the author thought that many Jews would or could believe that Jesus was resurrected, so the split with Judaism seems to be wide.

Luke 16:30 And he [the rich man] said, `No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' 31 He said to him, `If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.'

On the other hand, John 8:17 and John 10:34 have Jesus speak of "your [Jewish] law" as if Jesus is not really even a Jew himself. So again we have a disconnect between the author of gJohn and Judaism.

John 8:17 17 In your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true
John 10:34 34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, `I said, you are gods'?

Yet note the passage John 12:9-11, where many Jews are stated to have "believed in Jesus" (whatever that means) on account of Lazarus' resurrection from the dead.

John 12:9-11 9 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came, not only on account of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus also to death, 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

If there is a literary or "intertextual" connection between gLuke and gJohn, or at very least between the parable as told by aLuke and the story as told by aJohn, then which way did the relationship go? Logically, the parable in gLuke could have derived from the story of gJohn, or vice versa, or both can have drawn from a common source or tradition, or finally the two authors could have come up with the parable and story independently of one another.

Ben is also quite correct that there appears to be a connection with John 5:46-47.

John 5:46-47 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

Interesting question.

DCH

andrewcriddle

According to http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4...7BOwbyMlPX9UpM the phrase given by Dunbar Heath as Osiris-Eloh should be understood as meaning Osiris the God.

Andrew Criddle