A lot has been written and even movies made showing the importance of every word and that there can be hidden meaning in every word in the Bible. At the same time many things that are not hidden are not understood or ignored. The bible defines its own terms and answers all questions.
So here are questions about the Rich Man and Lazarus. There is hidden meaning. Why does the scripture give us all of these details?
The Rich Man.
He was clothed in purple and fine linen.
He fared sumptuously every day.
He only asked for a finger tip of water.
He had five brethren. (In the Hebrew this can be sons, uncles or any in the immediate family. Here it is sons.)
The rich man was, according to the Greek, base, down and embarrased after he died. (The word fire is not in the Greek text.)
Lazarus.
He was full of sores.
Desired to be fed with the rich man’s crumbs.
Dogs licked his sores.
Was carried to Abraham’s bosom after he died. (The text does not say heaven.)
The scripture answers all of these questions and more. It is not the simple story we have been told.
Matthew 13:13-15 “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”
If you think you are going to be saved on someone else’s study of God’s word then you have not understood. You will be one who needs to buy more oil. Matthew 25:8-9.