below.

:

clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day 20 and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21 and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom : the rich u read, that which.

19.] Now connects this
directly with what goes before; being an
answer, not immediately to any thing
said by the Pharisees, but to their scoffs
at Him;-as if He had said, 'hear now a
parable.'
a certain rich man.]

Tertullian thought that Herod was meant,
and by Lazarus John; and this view has
been taken by others also: but surely with
no probability. Our Lord might hint with
stern rebuke at the present notorious
crime of Herod, but can hardly be thought
to have spoken thus of him. That the
circumstances will in some measure apply
to these two, is owing, as above in ch. xv.,
to the parable taking the general case,
of which theirs was a particular instance.
Others have thought that the rich man
sets forth the Jews and the poor man the
Gentiles. In my view, the very name of
the poor man (see below) is a sufficient
answer to this. Observe, that this
rich man is not accused of any flagrant
crimes-he lives, as the world would say,
as became his means and station; he does
not oppress nor spoil other men: he is
simply a son of this generation, in the
highest form.
purple and fine
linen, the Tyrian costly purple-and the
fine linen (for under clothing) from Egypt.
20.] The significant name Lazarus
and Eleazarus, the same as Eleazar,-and
meaning, God is my help, should have
prevented the expositors from imagining
this to be a true history. Perhaps

by this name our Lord may have intended
to fill in the character of the poor man,
which indeed must otherwise be under-
stood to be that of one who feared God.

He was, or had been-cast down, i. e. was placed there on purpose to get what he could of alms. his gate, see on Matt. xxvi. 69: it was the portal, which led out of the vestibule into the court. 21.] It would seem that he did obtain this wish, and that the word desiring, as would fain in ch. xv. 16, must mean that he looked for it, willingly took it. The moreover

seems also to imply, that he got the crumbs: this verse relating the two

points of contrast to the rich man: his
only food, the crumbs, with which he
longed to fill his belly, but could not :-
his only clothing, nakedness and sores,
and instead of the boon companions of
the rich man, none to pity him but the
dogs, who licked-certainly in pity, not
increasing his pain, as Bengel thinks,—
his sores, as they do their own. Such
was the state of the two in this world.
22.] The burial of Lazarus is not
mentioned, "on account of the neglect
attending the burial of beggars," as Eu-
thymius.
was carried by the
angels] In the whole of this description,
the following canon of interpretation may
be safely laid down :-Though it is un-
natural to suppose that our Lord would
in such a parable formally reveal any new
truth respecting the state of the dead,—
yet, in conforming himself to the ordinary
language current on these subjects, it is
impossible to suppose that He, whose es-
sence is Truth, could have assumed as ex-
isting any thing which does not exist. It
would destroy the truth of our Lord's say-
ings, if we could conceive Him to have
used popular language which did not
point at truth. And accordingly, where
such language was current, we find Him
not adopting, but protesting against it:
see Matt. xv. 5. The bearing of the
spirits of the just into bliss by the holy
angels is only analogous to their other
employments: see Matt. xiii. 41: Heb, i.
14.
Abraham's bosom] The above
remark does not apply here- for this, as
a form of speech among the Jews, was
not even by themselves understood in
its strict literal sense; and though the
purposes of the parable require this, ver.
23, no one would think of pressing it into
a truth, but all would see in it the
graphic filling up of a state which in
itself is strictly actual. The expression
Abraham's bosom signified the happy side
of Hades, where all the Fathers were
conceived as resting in bliss.
No pre-

eminence is signified as in John xiii. 23;
-all the blessed are spoken of as in
Abraham's bosom. See also John i. 18.

man also died, and was buried; 23 and in ▾ hell he lift up
his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off,
and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And 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.
25 But
Abraham said, Son, m remember that thou in thy lifetime
wreceivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil
things but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great
gulf fixed so that they which would pass from hence to
▾ literally, Hadës. It is not the final place of torment.

:

W render, receivedst in full.

I read, with all the ancient authorities, comforted here.
y render, in order that.

The death of the rich man last should be remarked; Lazarus was taken soon from his sufferings; Dives was left longer, that he might have space to repent. and was buried] There can be no doubt that the funeral is mentioned as being congruous to his station in life, -and, as Trench observes, in a sublime irony,'-implying that he had all things properly cared for; the purple and fine linen which he wore in life, not spared at his obsequies. 23. in Hades] Hadës,

m ch. vi, 2

when they left their bodies?
25.] The answer is solemn, calm, and
fatherly;-there is no mocking, as is found
in the Koran under the same circum-
stances; no grief, as is sometimes repre-
sented affecting the blessed spirits for the
lot of the lost.
remember] Analogy
gives us every reason to suppose, that in
the disembodied state the whole life on
earth will lie before the soul in all its
thoughts, words, and deeds, like a map
of the past journey before a traveller.
That which he was to remember is not
sufficiently expressed by receivedst,' A. V.:
-it is analogous to the word in Matt. vi.
2, 5, 16,-and expresses the receipt in full,
the exhaustion of all claim on. Those
that were good things to thee, thy good
things came to an end in thy lifetime:
there are no more of them.
What a
weighty, precious word is this thy: were it
not for it, De Wette and the like, who
maintain that the only meaning of the
parable is, Woe to the rich, but blessed
are the poor,' would have found in this
verse at least a specious defence for their
view.
evil things-not, his evil
things,-for to him they were not so.
comforted: see ch. vi. 24. 26.] Even
if it were not so,-however, and for what-
soever reason, God's decree hath placed
thee there, thy wish is impossible.
a great gulf] In the interpretation,-the
irresistible decree-then truly so, but no
such on earth-by which the Almighty
Hand hath separated us and you, in order
that, not merely so that, none may pass it.
In the graphic description, a yawning
chasm impassable. is fixed] for ever.
This expression precludes all idea that the

in Hebrew Sheöl, is the abode of all dis-
embodied spirits till the resurrection; not,
the place of torment,-much less hell, as
understood commonly, in the A. V.
Lazarus was also in Hadës, but separate
from Dives; one on the blissful, the other
on the baleful side. It is the gates of
Hades, the imprisonment of death, which
shall not prevail against the Church (Matt.
xvi. 18);-the Lord holds the key of
Hades (Rev. i. 18):- Himself went into
the same Hades, of which Paradise is a
part. in torments-not eternal con-
demnation ;-for the judgment has not yet
taken place; men can only be judged in
the body, for the deeds done in the body:
-but, the certainty and anticipation of it.
he lift up his eyes, not necessarily
to a higher place, though that may be
24.] "The proud man of
earth is the beggar in hell," Augustine.
On Father Abraham see Matt. iii. 9.
this flame, not subjective (i. e. con-
fined to his own feeling) only, though
perhaps mainly. But where lies the limit
between inner and outer to the disem-
bodied? Hardened sinners have died cry-
ing Fire!'-Did the fire leave them,

meant.

you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. 27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: 28 for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 29 zz Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham : but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the

n John xii. 10, prophets, "neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

11, 37.

a Matt. xviii. 6,7. Mark

zi.

XVII. 1 a Then said he unto the disciples, a It is im1.19. 1 Cor. possible but that offences will come but woe unto him, through whom they come! 2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into 2 render, may not be able: and that they may not. zz read, But Abraham.

is by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ," Rom. x. 17. "We are saved by faithful hearing, not by apparitions." Bengel. This verse furnishes a weighty testimony from our Lord Himself of the sufficiency then of the O. T. Scriptures for the salvation of the Jews. It is not so now.

30, 31.] Nay-not, they will not hear them' he could not tell that, and besides, it would have taken away much of the ground of the answer of Abraham :the word deprecates leaving their salvation in such uncertainty, as the chance of their hearing Moses and the prophets seems to him to imply.-Leave it not so, when it might be at once and for ever done by sending them one from the dead."' Abra

ham's answer, besides opening to us a depth in the human heart, has a plain application to the Pharisees, to whom the parable was spoken. They would not hear Moses and the Prophets :-Christ rose from the dead, but He did not go to them ;this verse is not so worded, 'they would

a render, And he said.

have rejected Him, had He done so;'-
the fact merely is here supposed, and that
in the very phrase which so often belongs
to His own resurrection. They were not
persuaded-did not believe, though One
rose from the dead. To deny altogether
this allusion, is to rest contented with
merely the surface of the parable.
Observe, Abraham does not say, 'they will
not repent'-but, 'they will not believe, be
persuaded:' which is another and a deeper
thing.
Luther does not seem to con-
clude rightly, that this disproves the pos-
sibility of appearances of the dead. It
only says, that such appearances will not
bring about faith in the human soul: but
that they may not serve other ends in
God's dealings with men, it does not
assert. There is no gulf between the
earth and Hades: and the very form of
Abraham's answer, setting forth no impos-
sibility in this second case, as in the
former, would seem to imply its possi-
bility, if requisite. We can hardly pass
over the identity of the name LAZARUS
with that of him who actually was re-
called from the dead, but whose return,
far from persuading the Pharisees, was
the immediate exciting cause of their
crowning act of unbelief.

CHAP. XVII. 1-10.] FURTHER DIS-
COURSES. The discourse appears to pro-
ceed onward from the foregoing.
1.] The words were perhaps spoken owing
to some offence which had happened ;-the
departure of the Pharisees in disgust, or
some point in their conduct; such as the

the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

с

f

с

d

15, 21.

Matt. vil. xi. 23.

20: xxi. 21. Mark ix. 23:

3 Take heed to yourselves: b If thy brother b trespass b Matt. xviii. [c against thee], rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive e Lev. xix. 17. him. 4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times [d in a day] turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. 5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. 6 d And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. 7 But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him 8 by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? 8 And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten och. xii. 37. and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?

e

9 Doth he thank that servant because he did the things

b render, sin.

domit.

f

render, mulberry.

comit, with nearly all the oldest authorities.
e better, because literally, Add unto us faith.
g see note.

2.] See
these

previous chapter alluded to.
Matt. xviii. 6, 7, and notes.
little ones] Perhaps the publicans and
sinners of ch. xv. 1; perhaps also, re-
peated with reference to what took place,
Matt. 1. c.
3, 4.] See on Matt.

xviii. 15, 21, 22.
The take heed to
yourselves here is to warn them not to be
too readily dismayed at offences, nor to
meet them in a brother with an unfor-

giving spirit. rebuke him] "Love
begins with speaking truth," Stier :- who
remarks, that in the Church, as in the
world, the love of many waxing cold,
not being strong or warm enough for this
rebuke, is the cause why offences abound.

5.] 'Increase our faith,' of the A. V., is not exact: Add unto us, i. e. give us more faith, is more literal and simpler.

This is the only example in the Gospels in which the Apostles are marked out as requesting or saying any thing to the Lord. They are amazed at the greatness of the faith which is to overcome offences and forgive sins as in vv. 3, 4:-and pray that more faith may be added to them." 6.] See on Matt. (xvii. 20) xxi. 21. On this occasion some particular tree of the sort was close at hand, and furnished the instance, just as the Mount of Transfiguration in the former of those passages, and the Mount of Olives in the latter. The mulberry

h

read, the.

tree is not very common in Palestine, but still found there. It must not be confounded with the sycomore, ch. xix. 4, which is the Egyptian fig. See note there.

7-10.] The connexion is,-'Ye are servants of your Master; and therefore endurance is required of you,-faith and trust to endure out your day's work before you enter into your rest. Your Master will enter into His, but your time will not yet come; and all the service which you can meanwhile do Him, is but that which is your bounden duty to do,— seeing that your body, soul, and spirit are His.' 7.] by and by (literally, immediately) in the A. V. is wrongly joined with will say unto him: it corresponds to "afterward" in ver. 8, and must be joined with go and sit down. 8.] till I have eaten and drunken: see ch. xii. 37, where a different assurance seems to be given. But our Lord is here speaking of what we in our state of service are to expect; there, of what, in our state of freedom, reward, and adoption, the wonders of His grace will confer on us. Here the question is of right: there, of favour.

9.] Our Lord is not laying down rules for the behaviour of an earthly master to his servants,-but (see above) is speaking of the rightful state of relation between us, and Him whose we are, and

f Job xxii. 3:

XXXV. 7.
Ps. xvi. 2.

Matt. xxv. 30.
Rom. iii. 12:

xi. 85.
Philem. 11.

that were commanded him? [i I trow not.] 10 So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

Luke ix. 51, he

52. John iv.

4.

11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

passed 12 And as he

h Lev. xiii. 40. ten men that they lifted up

xiv. 2. Matt.

mercy on us.

i

h

entered into a certain village, there met him were lepers, which stood afar off: 13 and their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have 14 And when he saw them, he said unto Lev. xiii. 2 them, i Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came Ti.. ch.v. to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17 And Jesus answering said, m Were there not

14.

1

i omitted by several ancient authorities.

krender, was entering.

j render, was passing.

1 render, glorifying God with a loud voice.
m render, Were not the ten cleansed?

whom we serve.
10.] This shews the
sense of the parable, as applying to our
own thoughts of ourselves, and the im-
possibility of any claim for our services to
God.
In Rom. vi. 23 (see also the
foregoing verses) we have the true ground
on which we look for eternal life set
before us :-viz. as the gift of God whose
servants we are,-not the wages, as in the
case of sin, whose we are not. In the case
of men this is different; a good servant is
"profitable" (Philem. 11), not useless.
See Acts xvii. 25. The case supposed
introduces an argument à fortiori, i. e.
from the stronger to the weaker: how
much more, when ye have failed in so
many respects.' 'Wretched is he, whom
the Lord calls an unprofitable servant:
happy, he who calls himself so.' Bengel.

Thus closes the series of discourses

which began with ch. xv. 1.

It

11-19.] HEALING OF TEN LEPERS. does not appear to what part of the last journey this is to be referred. There is no reason for supposing it to have been subsequent to what has just been related :this is not implied. It may have been at the very beginning of the journey. From the circumstance that these lepers were a mixed company of Jews and Samaritans, the words rendered through the midst of Samaria and Galilee, probably mean 'be

tween Samaria and Galilee,' on the fron-
tiers of both. This seems to be parallel
with Matt. xix. 1. The journey mentioned
there would lead Him between Samaria
and Galilee. 12.] afar off: see Levit.
xiii. 46: Num. v. 2. Their misery had
broken down the national distinction, and
united them in one company.
On the
nature of leprosy and its significance, see
on Matt. viii. 2.
14.] One of our
Lord's first miracles had been the healing
of a leper; then He touched him and said,

Be thou clean:' now He sinks as it were
the healing, and keeps it in the back-
ground;-and why so? There may have
been reasons unknown to us; but one we
can plainly see, and that is, to bring out
for the Church the lesson which the his-
tory yields. In their going away, in the
absence of Jesus, they are healed: what
need to go back and give him thanks?
Here was a trial of their love: faith they
had, enough to go, and enough to be
cleansed: but love (with the one excep-
tion)-gratitude, they had not.
shew yourselves] See note on Matt. viii. 4.
as they went] The meaning evi-
dently is, that they had not gone far, and
that the whole took place within a short
time. They had not been to the priests,
as some suppose. 15.] The words here
set before us something immediate, and,