ABSTRACT
Of the two different figures named Lazarus in the New Testament, the less prominent appears in the Gospel of Luke (16:19-31). In this text, Jesus tells a parable about a rich man (tradition has given him the name “Dives,” meaning wealthy) and the destitute Lazarus who begged daily for food outside the former’s gate. The rich man ignores the beggar’s pleas for help. After both Lazarus and the wealthy man die, the tables are turned when, in “Abraham’s bosom,” the rich man, tormented by thirst, can only beg Lazarus to give him a drink of water. Kierkegaard makes use of this figure to convey the lesson that external situations (e.g., poverty or wealth) should not define how people evaluate themselves and each other in the internal world of the spirit.
