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The Rich Man and Lazarus
-the
intermediate state-
THE TRADITIONS OF THE PHARISEES
In the Talmud (see the link:,
what is the Talmud?) we have those very traditions gathered
up which the Lord refers to in His condemnation. Many are there
preserved which were current in our Lord's day. We can thus find out
exactly what these popular traditions were.
- In Kiddushin (Treatise on Betrothal), fol.
72, there is quoted from Juchasin, fol. 75, 2, a long story about
what Levi said of Rabbi Judah: “This day he sits in Abraham's
bosom,” i.e. the day he died.
There is a difference here between the Jerusalem and the Babylonian
Talmuds – the former says Rabbi Judah was “carried by angels”; the
latter says that he was “placed in Abraham's bosom.”
Here we have again the Pharisees' tradition as used against them by
our Lord.
- There was a story of a woman who had seen six of
her sons slain (we have it also in II Maccabees vii). She heard the
command given to kill the youngest (two-and-a-half years old), and
running into the embraces of her little son, kissed him and said,
“Go thou, my son, to Abraham my father, and tell him 'Thus saith thy
mother. Do not thou boast, saying, I built an altar, and offered my
son Isaac. For thy mother hath built seven altars, and offered seven
sons in one day,” etc.
- (3) Another example may be given out of a host of
others: “There are wicked men, that are coupled together in this
world. But one of them repents before death, the other doth not, so
one is found standing in the assembly of the just, the other in the
assembly of the wicked. The one seeth the other and saith, 'Woe! And
Alas! there is accepting of persons in this thing. He and I robbed
together, committed murder together; and now he stands in the
congregation of the just, and I, in the congregation of the wicked.'
They answered him: 'O thou foolish among mortals that are in the
world! Thou wert abominable and cast forth for three days after thy
death, and they did not lay thee in the grave; the worm was under
thee, and the worm covered thee; which, when this companion of thine
came to understand, he became a penitent. It was in thy power also
to have repented, but thou dist not'. He saith to them, 'Let me go
now, and become a penitent'. But they say, 'O thou foolishest of
men, dost thou not know, that this world in which thou are, is like
a sabbath, and the world out of which thou comest is like the
evening of the sabbath? If thou does not provide something on the
evening of the Sabbath, what wilt thou eat on the Sabbath day? Dost
thou not know that the world out of which thou camest is like the
land; and the world, in which thou now art, is like the sea? If a
man make no provision on land for what he should eat at sea, what
will he have to eat?' He gnashed his teeth, and gnawed his own
flesh.”
- We have examples also of the dead discoursing
with one another; and also with those who are still alive
“R. Samuel Bar Nachman saith, R. Jonathan saith, How doth it appear
that the dead have any discourse among themselves? It appears from
what is said (Deut.34:4), And the Lord said unto him, This is the
land, concerning which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,
saying.” What is the meaning of the word saying? The Holy Blessed
God saith unto Moses, 'Go thou and say to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
the oath which I sware unto you, I have performed unto your
children'.” Note that 'Go thou and say to Abraham,' etc.
Then follows a story of a certain pious man that went and lodged in
a burying place, and heard two souls discoursing among themselves.
“The one said unto the other, 'Come, my companion, and let us wander
about the world, and listen behind the veil, what kind of plagues
are coming upon the world'. To which the other replied, 'O my
companion, I cannot; for I am buried in a cane mat; but do thou go
and whatsoever thou hearest, do thou come and tell me',” etc. The
story goes on to tell of the wandering of the soul and what he
heard, etc.
- There was a good man and a wicked man that died;
as for the good man, “he had no funeral rites solemnized”; but the
wicked man had. Afterward, there was one who saw in his dream, the
good man walking in gardens, and hard by pleasant springs; but the
wicked man “with his tongue trickling drop by drop, at the bank of a
river, endeavouring to touch the water, but he could not".
6.
As to “the great gulf”, we read, “God hath set the
one against the
other (Ecc. vii. 14) that is
Gehenna and Paradise. How far are they
distant? A hand-breadth”.
Jochanan saith, “A wall is between.” But the
Rabbis say “They are so even
with one another, that they may see out
of one into the other."
The traditions set forth above were widely spread in many early
Christian writings, showing how soon the corruption spread which led on
to the Dark Ages and to all the worst errors of Romanism.
The Apocryphal books (written in Greek, not in Hebrew, first and second
centuries B.C.) contained the germ of this teaching. That is why the
Apocrypha is valued by traditionalists, and is incorporated by the
Church of Rome as an integral part of her Bible.
The Apocrypha contains prayers for the dead; also “the song of the three
Children” (known in the Prayer Book as the Benedicite), in which “the
spirits and souls of the righteous” are called on to bless the Lord.
The Te Deum, also, which does not date further back than the
fifth century, likewise speaks of the Apostles and Prophets and Martyrs
as praising God now.
From all this it seems to us perfectly clear that the Lord was not
delivering this as a parable, or as His own direct teaching; but that He
was taking the current, traditional teachings of the Pharisees, which He
was condemning; and using them against themselves, thus convicting them
out of their own mouths. We are quite aware of the objection which will
occur to some of our readers. But it is an objection based wholly on
human reasoning, and on what appears to them to be probable.
It will be asked, is it possible that our Lord would give utterance in
such words without giving some warning to us as to the way to which He
used them? Well, the answer to such is that, warning has been given
in the uniform and unanimous teaching of Scripture. His own words:
“they have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them,” addressed to the
Pharisees through “the Rich Man” may be taken as addressed to us also.
We have (as they had) the evidence of the Old Testament (in “Moses and
the Prophets”), and we have also the evidence of the New Testament,
which accords with the Old. If we “hear them,” it would be impossible
for us to suppose, for a moment, that Christ could be teaching here,
that which is the very opposite to that of the whole Word of God.
We have the Scriptures of truth; and they reveal to us, in plain,
direct, categorical, unmistakable words, that “the dead know not
anything”; and that when man's breath goeth forth, “in that very day his
thoughts perish.” It is taken for granted, therefore, that we shall
believe what God says in these and many other passages of His Word; and
had we not absorbed tradition from our earliest years we should have at
once seen that the popular interpretation of this passage is quite
contrary to the whole analogy of Scripture. We ought to discern, at the
very first glance at it, that it is unique, and stands out so isolated,
by itself, that we should never for one moment dream of accepting as
truth that which, if we know anything of His Word, we should instantly
and instinctively detect as human tradition used for a special purpose.
But, unfortunately, we have been brought up for the most part on man's
books, instead of the Bible. People draw their theology from hymns
written by men who were saturated with tradition; who, when they did
write a good hymn generally spoiled it in the last verse, by setting
“death” as the church's hope, instead of Christ's coming. Hence, hymns
are solemnly sung which contain such absurd, paradoxical teaching as the
singing of God's praises while our tongues are seeing corruption, and
“lie silent in the grave.”
Persons saturated with such false traditions come to this Scripture with
minds filled with the inventions, fabrications, and imaginations of man;
and can, of course, see nothing but their own traditions apparently
sanctioned by our Lord. They do not notice the fact that in the very
parable itself the Lord corrected the false doctrine by introducing the
truth of resurrection. But when we read the passage in the light of the
whole Word of God, and especially in the light of the context, we see in
it the traditions of the Pharisees, which were “highly esteemed among
men,” but were “abomination in the sight of God” (v. 15).
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