In the last blog post we considered evidence which suggests the rich man and Lazarus were not real people. Instead, it appears that Jesus adapted a well known Jewish story to teach a lesson. So, what was the lesson Jesus was teaching in this story?
As always, context should be the primary factor in determining the meaning of a passage. The structure and content of Luke’s writings offers valuable insight to aid us in determining what Jesus’s true point was.
Continue reading →The story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is one of the best-known narratives in the New Testament. Many Christians read it as a window into the afterlife, but was that Jesus’s intention? A careful look at the context and cultural background of this passage suggests His purpose was something quite different. The point of the story of the rich man and Lazarus was to overturn a misconception. It illustrates that possessing wealth and honor are not indications that one is in good standing with God.
The popular belief that this passage offers insight into life after death is very prevalent. Therefore, we must examine the idea to test its validity. If Jesus was speaking of a real, historical event involving Lazarus and the rich man, then one could argue with greater confidence that Jesus’s point was to impart knowledge about the realm of the dead. On the other hand, if these characters were not real then Jesus’s intended message must have been something else.
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Genesis 10 lists the clans and nations that we’ll encounter later in the Bible. It shows us Noah’s family tree, but it doesn’t explain how or why his descendants spread across the ancient world. The last verse summarizes what the chapter was about.
“These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, (Gen. 10:32a ESV)
It also transitions us to chapter 11 and sets the expectation that we’ll be told how and why the nations dispersed after the flood.
and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.” (Gen. 10:32b ESV)
In the last blog post we examined why the Bible does not support some popular ideas about the tower of Babel story. In this post, we’ll focus on what the text really does say.
The story of the Tower of Babel in Gen 11 is an account of the origin of the nations. These are the nations whom the Jewish people would encounter in the unfolding of their history. It is such a straightforward story, Bible students have difficulty accepting its simple and direct message at face value. People layer a great deal of interpretive baggage on top of this story; baggage which the text does not support.
Before looking at what this story does say, let’s take note of what it does not say. I will describe a few of the more popular interpretations below. Notice what they all have in common: this story is about God punishing the people for their arrogance.
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God turned the world off and back on again. That’s pretty much what Noah’s Flood was all about. Mankind had become so wicked that God decided the best course of action was to start over. God had compassion on Noah and extended grace to him by sparing him and his family from the flood. Noah found favor in the sight of God because he was righteous and blameless (Gen 6:9), but He was not perfect as this strange passage about the events in Noah’s tent reveals.
Noah’s story is an echo of the story of the Garden. The world has been re-created and Noah finds himself in a vineyard (which is a kind of garden, Gen 9:20). He imbibes of the fruit of this garden resulting in drunkenness and becomes naked (Gen 9:21). Twice now in Genesis sin has left people in a vulnerable (naked) condition.
What happens next is somewhat unclear, but we can say for certain that Noah’s inebriated condition opens the door to some sketchy behavior by his son Ham.
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