Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 61:3 (Sep 2018)
Article: The Rich Man and Lazarus, Abraham’s Bosom, and the Biblical Penalty "Karet" (“Cut Off”)
Author: Ed Christian

JETS 61:3 (September 2018) p. 513

The Rich Man and Lazarus, Abraham’s Bosom,
and the Biblical Penalty Karet (“Cut Off”)

Ed Christian*

* Ed Christian is Associate Professor of English at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown, PA 19534. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: The post-death setting of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31) is unusual. Many have assumed that the place Lazarus is taken after he dies, “Abraham’s bosom,” is in heaven. However, Hippolytus (ca. 170–236), called by the Catholic Encyclopedia “the most important theologian and the most prolific religious writer of the Roman Church in the pre-Constantinian era,” believed that hades is the equivalent of sheol, a place where “the souls of the righteous and unrighteous are detained,” separated by a gulf, and that “Abraham’s bosom” is a name for where the righteous are kept, in peace, in hades. To be in “Abraham’s bosom” is synonomous with being “gathered to one’s fathers” after death, awaiting eventual resurrection. This viewpoint suggests that the OT penalty of being “cut off” (karet) means to be cut off from one’s fathers after death, the fate of the rich man.

Key Words: Rich Man and Lazarus, Dives, Lazarus, Abraham’s bosom, hades, sheol, karet, Hippolytus, Luke 16:19–31, parable

For many centuries, most of those commenting on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus have assumed that the place Lazarus is taken after he dies, “Abraham’s bosom,” is in heaven, but this has not always been the case. In this essay, I will show that Jesus’s listeners probably understood “Abraham’s bosom” to be a region in sheol or hades populated by the righteous and that to “be gathered to” one’s “fathers” was the equivalent of being among the righteous in the place of the dead. I will also suggest that the rich man is an example of those who—to use the OT phrase—have been “cut off.” He has been “cut off” from fellowship with his “fathers,” his righteous ancestors, and so from the hope of eternal life with God.

I. ROCK MY SOUL IN THE BOSOM OF ABRAHAM?

The meaning of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (found only in Luke 16:19–31) is readily discovered, and most of the parable is clear enough, but the post-death setting beginning with verse 22 is unusual.

In the OT, when sheol, the place of the ...