Church Fathers Commentary Luke 16:27-31

"And he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father`s house; for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. But Abraham saith, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one go to them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the dead." — Luke 16:27-31 (ASV)

St. Gregory the Great: When the rich man in flames found that all hope was taken away from him, his mind turned to the relatives he had left behind, as it is said: Then he said, I pray you therefore, father Abraham, to send him to my father’s house.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He asks that Lazarus be sent because he felt himself unworthy to offer testimony to the truth. And since he had not even obtained a little cooling relief, much less did he expect to be set free from hell for the purpose of preaching the truth.

St. John Chrysostom: Now mark his perverseness; not even in the midst of his torments does he hold to the truth. If Abraham is your father, why do you say, “Send him to your father’s house”? But you have not forgotten your father, for he has been your ruin.

St. Gregory the Great: By their own punishment, the hearts of the wicked are sometimes taught to exercise charity, but in vain. Thus, they have a special love for their own, who, while attached to their sins, did not love themselves. Hence it follows: For I have five brethren, that he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

St. Ambrose of Milan: But it is too late for the rich man to begin to be a master when he no longer has time for learning or teaching.

St. Gregory the Great: Here we must remark what fearful sufferings are heaped upon the rich man in flames. In addition to his punishment, his knowledge and memory are preserved. He knew Lazarus, whom he had despised, and he remembered his brothers, whom he had left behind.

So that sinners may be punished even more in their torment, they both see the glory of those they had despised and are tormented by thoughts of the punishment of those they have unprofitably loved. But when the rich man asked for Lazarus to be sent to them, Abraham immediately answered, as follows: Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

St. John Chrysostom: It is as if he said, “Your brothers are not your concern so much as they are God’s, who created them and appointed teachers to admonish and urge them.” By “Moses and the Prophets,” he here means the Mosaic and prophetic writings.

St. Ambrose of Milan: In this place, our Lord most plainly declares the Old Testament to be the foundation of faith, thwarting the treachery of the Jews and countering the iniquity of heretics.

St. Gregory the Great: But he who had despised the words of God supposed that his brothers could not hear them. Hence it is added: And he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one went to them from the dead, they would repent. For when he heard the Scriptures, he despised them and thought them fables; therefore, he judged his brothers to be like himself.

Gregory of Nyssa: But we are also taught something else: that the soul of Lazarus is neither anxious about present things nor looks back to anything that it has left behind. The rich man, however, as if caught by birdlime, is held down by his carnal life even after death. For a man who becomes altogether carnal in his heart is not out of the reach of his passions, even after he has put off his body.

St. Gregory the Great: But the rich man is soon answered with words of truth, for it follows: And he said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. For they who despise the words of the Law will find the commands of their Redeemer who rose from the dead to be all the more difficult to fulfill, as they are more sublime.

St. John Chrysostom: The truth that he who does not hear the Scriptures also pays no heed to the dead who rise again is testified by the Jews. They wished to kill Lazarus at one time, and at another they laid hands on the Apostles, even though some had risen from the dead at the hour of the Cross.

Observe this also: every dead man is a servant, but whatever the Scriptures say, the Lord says. Therefore, even if dead men should rise again and an angel descend from heaven, the Scriptures are more trustworthy than all. For the Lord of angels, the Lord of both the living and the dead, is their author.

If God knew that the dead rising again would profit the living, He would not have omitted it, seeing that He arranges all things for our advantage. Again, if the dead were often to rise again, this too would in time be disregarded. The devil would also easily insinuate perverse doctrines by devising his own resurrections—not by really raising the deceased, but by deceiving the sight of beholders with certain delusions, or by contriving to have some pretend to be dead.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But someone may ask, “If the dead have no care for the living, why did the rich man ask Abraham to send Lazarus to his five brothers?” Yet, just because he said this, did the rich man actually know what his brothers were doing or what their condition was at that time? His care for the living was of a kind that he could still be completely ignorant of what they were doing, just as we care for the dead, although we know nothing of what they do.

Again the question occurs: How did Abraham know that Moses and the prophets are here in their books? From where had he also known that the rich man had lived in luxury, but Lazarus in affliction? He surely did not know these things while they were happening during their lifetime. Rather, he might have learned them at their death from Lazarus, so that the prophet’s words might not be false: Abraham did not hear us. The dead might also hear things from the angels, who are always present where things are done here on earth. They might also know some things that it was necessary for them to know—not only past things, but future ones as well—through the revelation of the Church of God.

But these things may be interpreted allegorically, so that by the rich man we understand the proud Jews, ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own. The purple and fine linen are the grandeur of the kingdom. And, he says, the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you. The sumptuous feasting is the boasting of the Law, in which they gloried, abusing it to feed their pride rather than using it as the necessary means of salvation. But the beggar, by name Lazarus, whose name is interpreted “assisted,” signifies need—as, for instance, a Gentile or a tax collector, who is all the more relieved since he presumes less on his own abundant resources.

St. Gregory the Great: Lazarus, then, full of sores, figuratively represents the Gentile people, who, when they turned to God, were not ashamed to confess their sins. Their wound was in the skin, for what is the confession of sins but a kind of bursting forth of wounds? But Lazarus, full of wounds, desired to be fed by the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, and no one gave to him. This is because those proud people disdained to admit any Gentile to the knowledge of the Law, and words of knowledge flowed down to him, just as crumbs fell from the table.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But the dogs that licked the poor man’s sores are those most wicked men who loved sin, who with a ready tongue unceasingly praise the evil works that another person, groaning and confessing within himself, loathes.

St. Gregory the Great: Sometimes in the holy Word, “dogs” are also understood to be preachers, according to the verse, That the tongue of your dogs may be red with the blood of your enemies. For just as the tongue of a dog heals a wound while it licks it, so holy teachers, when they instruct us in the confession of sin, touch the soul’s wound, as it were, with their tongue.

The rich man was buried in hell, but Lazarus was carried by angels into Abraham’s bosom—that is, into that secret place of rest of which the Truth says, Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness.

Being far off, the rich man lifted up his eyes to see Lazarus. This is because unbelievers, while suffering the sentence of their condemnation in the depths, fix their eyes upon some of the faithful who are abiding in rest above them before the day of the Last Judgment. Afterward, they will in no way be able to contemplate their bliss. But what they see is far off, for they cannot reach that place by their own merits.

The rich man is described as burning chiefly in his tongue because the unbelieving people held the word of the Law in their mouths but despised keeping it in their deeds. A man, then, will burn most in that part of himself where he most clearly showed that he knew what he refused to do. Now, Abraham calls him “son” but at the same time does not deliver him from his torments. This is because the fathers of this unbelieving people, observing that many have strayed from their faith, are not moved with any compassion to rescue them from torment, even though they still recognize them as sons.

St. Augustine of Hippo: By the five brothers whom he says he has in his father’s house, he means the Jews, who were called “five” because they were bound under the Law, which was given by Moses, who wrote five books.

St. John Chrysostom: Or, he had five brothers, meaning the five senses, to which he was formerly a slave. Therefore, he could not love Lazarus because his brothers did not love poverty. Those brothers have sent you into these torments; they cannot be saved unless they die. Otherwise, the brothers must necessarily dwell with their brother.

But why do you ask that I should send Lazarus? They have Moses and the Prophets. Moses was the poor Lazarus who considered the poverty of Christ greater than the riches of Pharaoh. Jeremiah, cast into the dungeon, was fed on the bread of affliction. All the prophets teach those brothers. But those brothers cannot be saved unless someone rises from the dead. For those brothers, before Christ had risen, brought me to death. He is dead, but those brothers have risen again, for my eye sees Christ, my ear hears Him, and my hands handle Him.

From what we have said, then, we determine the proper place for Marcion and Manichaeus, who destroy the Old Testament. See what Abraham says: If they do not hear Moses and the prophets. It is as though he said, “You do well to expect Him who is to rise again, but Christ speaks in them. If you will hear them, you will hear Him also.”

St. Gregory the Great: But the Jewish people, because they disdained to spiritually understand the words of Moses, did not come to Him of whom Moses had spoken.

St. Ambrose of Milan: Alternatively, Lazarus is poor in this world but rich toward God, for not all poverty is holy, nor are all riches vile. Rather, just as luxury disgraces riches, so holiness commends poverty. Or consider an apostolic man, poor in speech but rich in faith, who keeps the true faith without requiring the embellishment of words.

I liken him to such a one, who, often beaten by the Jews, offered the wounds of his body to be licked, as it were, by certain dogs. Blessed are those dogs, to whom the drops from such wounds fall in such a way as to fill the heart and mouth of those whose office it is to guard the house, preserve the flock, and keep off the wolf!

And because the Word is bread, our faith comes from the Word. The crumbs are like certain doctrines of the faith—that is to say, the mysteries of the Scriptures. But the Arians, who court the alliance of royal power so that they may attack the truth of the Church—do they not seem to you to be clothed in purple and fine linen? Rich heresy has composed many Gospels, and poor faith has kept this single Gospel, which it had received. Rich philosophy has made itself many gods; the poor Church has known only one. Do not those riches seem to you to be poor, and that poverty to be rich?

St. Augustine of Hippo: Again, the story may also be understood in such a way that we take Lazarus to mean our Lord. He was lying at the rich man's gate because He condescended to the proud ears of the Jews in the lowliness of His incarnation. He desired to be fed from the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, meaning He sought from them even the least works of righteousness.

These were works that, through pride, they would not use for their own benefit. Although very slight and lacking the discipline of a persevering good life, they might at least do these works by chance, just as crumbs frequently fall from the table. The wounds are the sufferings of our Lord; the dogs who licked them are the Gentiles, whom the Jews called unclean, and yet, with the sweetest aroma of devotion, they lick the sufferings of our Lord in the Sacraments of His Body and Blood throughout the whole world.

Abraham’s bosom is understood to be the secret place of the Father, to which our Lord was taken up after His Passion and resurrection. He was said to be carried there by the angels, it seems to me, because the angels announced to the disciples that reception by which Christ reached the Father’s secret place. The rest may be taken according to the former explanation, because that secret place is well understood to be the Father's, where the souls of the righteous live with God even before the resurrection.