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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Luke 16:23 - 16:23
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Luk 16:23. ᾼδη, hell) [‘inferno’]. Neither Abraham nor Lazarus were ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ, although the death and descent of Christ [to hell] had not yet taken place.
ᾍδης and Gehenna differ,
As a whole, and a part differ;
As a thing present, and a thing about to be, viz. after the day of Judgment;
As a receptacle of individuals, and a receptacle of all the bad without exception.
ᾍδης is much wider in its meaning, than Gehenna, Comp. Gen 37:35 [“I will go down into the grave (εἰς ᾍδου, to Hades) unto my son mourning”], where certainly Jacob is not expressing despair as to[the salvation of] his soul or that of Joseph [but merely his desire to follow Joseph to the unseen world of Hades]. In the first distinction which we have given between the words, ᾍδης itself and Gehenna itself are had regard to; in the third, it is the dwellers in each that are regarded. Abraham was ἐν τῷ ᾍδῃ in the widest sense of the term, as ᾍδῃς is used in the passage above quoted from Gen. But in Luke ᾍδῃς and the bosom of Abraham are opposed to one another.-ἐπᾴρας, having lifted up) A lamentable spectacle, presenting itself from the abyss.-[ἐν βασάνοις, in torments) And this, at a long interval before the last day; nay even preceding the death of Christ.-V. g.]-τὸν Ἀβραὰμ, Abraham) but not God Himself. For which reason also he cannot cry unto God, Have mercy on me.-κόλποις) The plural expressing the space from the breast to the knees.