Thanks for both the question and the interesting answer.? This is a great example of the differences between religions that have arisen over several thousand years.? Peter, your bible dictionary is correct but completely Catholic-centered.
The name?Λαζαροσ (Lazaros) is the Greek version of the Hebrew?????? (Eleazar), which means "whom God helped/helps."? It occurs 15 times in the New Testament in connection with two people, the beggar in Luke 16 and the brother of Mary and Martha whom Jesus raised from the dead in John 11.???The meaning of the name
applies to both.
Bible-believing scholars state that named
people were real and parables don’t actually give their characters names.? It’s interesting that Luke 16:20 introduces
the beggar Lazarus by saying, “And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, ….”? This certainly seems to reinforce that
a real person is being discussed.
The Hebrew Eleazar is another interesting
case.? It occurs 74 times in 71 verses,
two times in Matthews’s genealogy and the rest in the OT.? What makes this interesting is where his name
isn’t used, in Genesis 24 where Abraham’s unnamed servant is sent to find a bride for
Isaac.? This is widely seen as a prophecy
of the New Testament with Abraham representing God, Isaac as the Son, the unnamed servant
as the Holy Spirit, and Rebekah as the Son’s bride, the Christians.? Three times the servant bows and worships the
Lord.? Told to go to Abraham’s family to
seek the bride, instead, he goes to a well and prays for the first girl who
provides him water. ?He initiates the
contact.? When she does not just pass his
test (“Give me water”) she obliterates it (she waters his camels as well), he
gives her a nose ring weighing a half-shekel (the temple tax given to
God).? Of course, it also turns out that she is from Abraham's family after all.? Any rate, the whole chapter promotes
the concept that this is prophetic.??
Fair enough, so what?
Well,
it turns out that we find in Genesis 15:2 that if he goes childless, his chief
servant, Eliezer/Eleazor is his heir.?
So, Christine, is the name meaningful?? Thanks to Peter, I can say, "yessir, yessir (or ma'am), three bags full!"
Blessings,
Ray
On Tuesday, 4 August 2020, 11:47:54 am AEST, Peter L <peterlonsdale1@...> wrote:
Hi Christine
My bible dictionary gives the following explanation:
“Dives.( From the Latin for wealth), a term that became attached to the name of the rich man in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16: 19-31) because of its use in the Vulgate, a Latin translation of the Bible”.
Ray