A certain beggar, named Lazarus,— An exceedingly emphatic name; for it seems to be derived from עזר לא Laozer, which signifies a helpless person. Some have imagined, from the name of Lazarus and the particular detail of circumstances, that this was a history: but this must be a groundless supposition, as the incidents are plainly parabolical; and some ancient manuscripts, particularly that of Beza at Cambridge, have at the beginning,—and he spake unto them another parable. Some versions after the words, from the rich man's table, add and no man gave unto him; which Grotius thinks is intimated in his wishing to be fed with the crumbs which the dogs used to gather. If so, it was with singular propriety that he who denied a crumb, is represented as unable to obtain a drop.—But I should rather think that this gloss is ill-placed, since it appears more probable that the beggar used to lie at the rich man's door, as receiving alms from thence. The word moreover, at the end of Luke 16:21 should rather be rendered yea; for it is undoubtedly mentioned as an aggravating circumstance of the poor man's distress. "He lay at the rich man's gate," says St. Chrysostom, "that he might have no excuse, saying, 'I saw him not.' He was full of sores, that he might be to the rich man a spectacle of his own mortality, seeing, in the body of Lazarus, to what he himself was subject: and he is set forth as requesting food, not as complaining of his sores,—to shew the greatness of that poverty which so exceedingly pressed him, that he forgot his bodily pains."
Related Commentaries of Luke 16:20
Luke 16:20-21
20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.