Rich Man and Lazarus

Rich Man And Lazarus

The Parable of the rich man and Lazarus (also called the Dives and Lazarus or Lazarus and Dives) is a well-known parable of Jesus appearing in the Gospel of Luke.

According to Gospel of Luke (Luke 16:19–31), the parable tells of the relationship, in life and in death, between an unnamed rich man and a poor beggar named Lazarus. The traditional "name" Dives, is not in fact a name but the word for "rich man", dives, in the text of the Latin Bible, the Vulgate. The rich man was also given the names Neuēs (i.e. Nineveh) and Fineas (i.e. Phineas) in the third and fourth centuries.

Along with the parables of the Ten Virgins, Prodigal Son, and Good Samaritan, it was one of the most frequently illustrated parables in medieval art, perhaps because of its vivid account of an afterlife.

The name Lazarus (from the Hebrew: אלעזר, Elʿāzār, Eleazar - "God is my help") is also given to a second, and arguably more famous, figure in the Bible: Lazarus of Bethany, also known as Lazarus of the Four Days. He is the subject of a prominent miracle attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus restores him to life four days after his death. However, the two are generally understood to be two separate characters. Many allusions to Lazarus (particularly those involving the idea of resurrection from the dead) should be understood as referring to the Lazarus described in John, rather than to the poor beggar of this story.