the role of the lukan parables in terms of the purpose of luke's gospel

8. The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (16: 19-31)
8-1. The Literary Context of the Parable
Inasmuch as the relation of the parable to the preceding parable and the saying in vv. 14-18
have already considered above, I will here deal only with the problem of the origin and the
unity of the parable. Hugo Gressman contends that the parable has its origin in the Egyptian
story of Setme. 1 Even though it is not clear whether its origin derives from the story of
Setme and Si-Osiris, there are seven Jewish versions of the story, the earliest of which occurs
in the Palestinian Talmud, the story of a rich tax collector named Bar Ma’yan and a poor
Torah scholar in Ashkelon. 2
Along the same vein, R. F. Hock claims that there are important
1. “An Egyptian in Amente, the realm of the dead, was allowed to return to earth in order to deal with an
Ethiopian magician who was proving too powerful for the magicians of Egypt. He was reincarnated as the
miraculous child of a childless couple, Setme and his wife, and called Si-Osiris. When he reached the age of
twelve he vanquished the Ethiopian magician and returned to Amente. But before this there was an occasion
when father and son observed two funerals, one of a rich man buried in sumptuous clothing and with much
mourning, the other of a poor man buried without ceremony or mourning. The father declared he would rather
have the lot of the rich man than the pauper, but his son expressed the wish that his father’s fate in Amente
would be that of the pauper rather than that of the rich man. In order to justify his wish and demonstrate the
reversal of fortunes in the afterlife, he took his father on a tour of the seven halls of Amente. The account of the
first three halls is lost. In the fourth and fifth halls the dead were being punished. In the fifth hall was the rich
man, with the pivot of the door of the hall fixed in his eye. In the sixth hall were gods and attendants, in the
seventh a scene of judgment before Osiris. Si-Osiris explains to his father what they saw, and the fate of the
three classes of the dead: those whose bad deeds outnumber their good deeds (like the pauper), those whose bad
deeds outnumber their good deeds (like the rich man), and those whose good and bad deeds are equal.” Richard
Bauckham, “The Rich Man and Lazarus: The Parable and The Parallels,” NTS 37 (1991), 225-46, here 225-26.
See also F.LI. Griffith, Stories of the High Priests of Memphis: The Sethom of Herodotus and the Demotic Tales
of Khamuas (Oxford: Clarendon, 1900); Hugo Gressmann, Vom reichen Mann und armen Lazarus. Eine
literargeschichtliche Studie (Abhandlungen der Königlich preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften:
Philosophisch-historische Klasse, 1918), 3-89; K. Grobel, ‘“… Whose Name Was Neves,’” NTS 10 (1963-64),
373-82, here 376-78; Jeremias, Parables, 183; Forbes, The God of Old: The Role of the Lukan Parables in the
Purpose of Luke’s Gospel, 182; Snodgrass, Stories with Intent, 422.
2. “They die on the same day, but whereas the taxcollector is buried in style, the poor pious man is unmourned.
A friend of his is troubled by the contrast, until in a dream he sees the poor man in paradise and the taxcollector
tormented in hell. His punishment is tantalization: he continually tries to drink from a river but cannot. The
friend of the poor man also sees a certain Miriam being punished in hell (according to one report she hangs by
her breasts, but according to another the hinge of the gate rests in her ear: compare the punishment of the rich
man in the Egyptian story). He learns that the poor man sinned once in his life, while the rich man performed
one good deed in his life. The splendid funeral of the rich man was his reward for his one good deed, while the
poor man’s one sin was his reward for his dying neglected. The story illustrates the principle that the righteous
are punished for their few sins in this world, so that in the next world the reward for their few good deeds, so
that in the next world they may justly receive only punishment.” Richard Bauckham, “The Rich Man and
Lazarus: The Parable and The Parallels,” 227. See also Palestinian Talmud, y. Sanh. 6.23c; y. Hag. 77d; S.
Lieberman, “On Sins and Their Punishment,” in Tests and Studies (New York: Ktav, 1974), 33-48; M
Himmelfarb, Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature (Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania, 1983), 29-31, 78-82.
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