I think you may be missing his point.Starhunter wrote:The parable was directed at the Pharisees which held many pagan views as taught in their education by the Alexandrian schools. Abraham's bosom will not be filled with millions of beggars, neither is there a telegram service for hell.PaulSacramento wrote:It is important to understand that the term soul meant something in the OT with its Hebrew cultural context and meant something else in the NT with its Hellenistic cultural context.
In the OT the soul was typically used to refer to being alive, while in the NT it often got "intermixed" with the OT concept of "spirit".
It is clear, however, that even in the NT there is the view that upon death we "sleep" until the resurrection ( Case in point the death of Lazarus in the GOJ).
BUT it is also clear, according to the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, that something goes to an area of the after life know as "Abraham's bosom".
Of course sometimes we fail to realize simple things in the terms used, like sleep for example.
Some, like the JW's, believe that "soul sleep" is a very deep and undisturbed state in which the dead are aware of nothing, typically Ecclesiastics is references to justify this view.
Of course we must reconcile what is mentioned ONCE with what is said by Christ and if the parable of Lazarus is any indication then the spirit is aware of SOMETHINGS at least.
Very few passages in the bible deal DIRECTLY with what happens after we dye, BUT from the parable of Lazarus AND the account of the transfiguration, it certainly seems that the spirit of at least some dead, do more than just sleep, THAT said, lets also remember that the analogy of sleeping IS an analogy and just as we living ave different types of sleep ( heavy, light, etc) then so too may the dead.
The Pharisees believed in the idea that being rich is righteous, and beggarly is sinful. Jesus was hitting at all their stupidities at once in that parable, I am fairly sure, by weighing up the whole tenor of scripture on this subject that He was not supporting their beliefs in any way.
That said, it is clear that Jesus would NOT feed into their erroneous view of the afterlife since we have it on record Him correcting the misunderstanding of the likes of the Saudacees also.
Jesus would not have told a parable that hinted at false beliefs.