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Lazarus, the rich man, and bodies after death
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One may raise a difficulty about Lazarus and the rich man. The simpler readers take the story as if both men, still with their bodies, receive what their lives deserved. More careful readers deny that the scene belongs to the resurrection: after the rising, no one is left still living in this age.
The rich man says, "I have five brothers; send Lazarus to tell them what is here, so they do not come into this place of torment ." From that speech people hunt for tongue, finger, Abraham's bosom, and the reclining place.
Perhaps, then, the soul's shape at departure is of like form to the dense…
Greek Περὶ τοῦ Λαζάρου καὶ τοῦ πλουσίου ἀπορεῖσθαι δύναται· τῶν μὲν ἁπλουστέρων
οἰομένων ταῦτα λελέχθαι, ὡς ἀμφοτέρων μετὰ τῶν σωμάτων λαμβανόντων τὰ ἄξια
τῶν τῷ βίῳ πεπραγμένων· τῶν δὲ ἀκριβεστέρων, ἐπεὶ μετὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν οὐδεὶς ἐν
βίῳ καταλείπεται, οὐκ ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει οἰομένων ταῦτα γεγονέναι· λέγει γὰρ ὁ
πλούσιος, ὅτι «πέντε ἀδελφοὺς ἔχω, καὶ ἵνα μὴ ἔλθωσιν εἰς τὸν τόπον τοῦτον τῆς
βασάνου, πέμψον Λάζαρον ἀπαγγέλλοντα αὐτοῖς τὰ ἐνταῦθα·» καὶ διὰ τούτων
ζητούντων τὴν γλῶσσαν, καὶ τὸν δάκτυλον, καὶ τοὺς κόλπους Ἀβραὰμ, καὶ τὴν
ἀνάκλισιν. Καὶ τάχα τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ἅμα τῇ ἀπαλλαγῇ σχῆμα ὁμοειδὲς ὂν τῷ παχεῖ καὶ
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About this text Fragments from Origen on the rising of the dead: Lazarus and the rich man, the soul's bodily form after death, and the risen being like the angels.
Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–c. 254) is the author of these fragments on the resurrection. Methodius is the writer who reports the words. This is not Chrysostom's treatise on the resurrection of the dead.
He takes up the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Simpler readers treat both men as still in the body. More careful readers say the scene is not yet the resurrection, because after the rising no one is left living in this age. The rich man speaks of his five brothers.
The fragments then speak of the form the soul has at death, of Samuel seen in a body, and of the saying that those who reach the resurrection will be as the angels, and so without flesh. The citations use the old names of the biblical books.
We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.
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