| I personally don't remember I've ever read anything about the authenticity of this particular parable, thgouh once I got interested in its interpretation. Together with that which has already been said by Talità - which I utterly endorse, please allow me to give you my consideration, although I'm sure they're not as important as Meier's or Talità's. We ought to consider the following points about the content of the parable: 1) Singularity: the parable of Lk. 16:19-31 is never presented properly as a parable, whilst generally Jesus's parables are; furthermore, this is the only parable one of whose character is given a name (i. e., Lazarus). Some old tradition give even the rich man a name (Neve, or sometimes Dives, from latin divitiae), but most definitely they can't be traced back to the "original text" of Luke. 2) Anapocalipticity: while most of Jesus's parables about God's judgement are located in the Day of Judgement, and not in the hereafter, this parable depicts the judgement of God as occurring in the Underworld (Abraham's bosom and Hades), with no reference whatsoever to the Day of Resurrection. Hence, it seems quite unlikely that Jesus uttered this parable, as he generally mentions God's judgement as occurring in the Last Day. I'm not saying that there were not Jewish ideas about a future hereafter, where the dead would receive either a reward or a punishment; nor am I stating that Jesus surely did not believe (nor preach) in a hereafter: I'm just stating that generally it is not part of Jesus's ministry[1]. On the other side, one could argue that two main concepts of the parable can be traced back to Jesus's ministry: the reversal of wealth and the judgement of God. It is a common Leitmotiv in Jesus's apocalyptic ministry, that the poor and the oppressed should receive a solace in the Day of Judgement; together with this, very often Jesus speaks about the coming judgement by God. However, these two themes are too "general", in my opinion, to be directly linked to Jesus. So, maybe, if I were to express my opinion, I'd say that, being cautious, the parable is 33% probably true and 67% probably false. This is my two cents. Yes, we Kant.
-------------------- NOTES: [1] In fact, still nowadays evangelical Christians base their debates about the immortality of human souls mainly on this sole parable.
Edited by Lorenzo M - 30/9/2016, 18:58
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