LAZARUS, the Beggar. - He is mentioned by Jesus in the parable of Lk. 16:19-31. Tertullian, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Irenaeus, St. Bonaventure, C. a Lapide, and others hold that L. and the account are historical. St. Cyril of Alexandria believes that the person of L. is historical, but the account is not; so too Theophylact, Euthymius, Maldonatus, L. Fonck. The majority of moderns, with L.-C. Fillion, J. Knabenbauer, M. Sales, M.-J. Lagrange, D. Buzy, J.-M. Vosté, hold both the name and the account to be fictitious.
Not all agree on the doctrine taught in the parable. Buzy, followed by Marchal (in La Ste Bible, ed. L. Pirot, Paris 1948) holds that the parable deals only with the possible different lot of the rich and the poor, without any reference to the moral use of riches; the majority of commentators, on the other hand, with Vosté, see here the sanction for the bad use of riches and the reward for patiently endured poverty.
Bibliography
Pietro De Ambroggi
ICONOGRAPHY
In the pictorial cycle of Sant'Angelo in Formis the banquet of the rich man is represented, while on the right a dog licks the sores of the beggar L., stretched out on the ground; in the following scene, from the furnace of hell the rich man stretches his arms toward Abraham who, seated on the right, on high, holds on his knees a small child (the soul of the poor L.).
The parable was also depicted in a Greek manuscript of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris and in the Hortus Deliciarum; in the 12th century it appears at Moissac, at Avila, at Aosta, etc. In England, in Northampton Castle, a fresco dated to 1252 shows L. driven out by the rich man. At Winchfield, in Hampshire, at the end of the 15th century the story of L. and the rich man was painted. The latter, seated at table with three ladies, has L. driven away, who asks for alms at the door while a dog licks his sores. Beside it was depicted the dead L., whose soul, represented by a child, an angel gathers, received in heaven by a majestic nimbed figure, while in turn the flames surround the rich man.
Bibliography
Enrico Josi