Verse 22
22. The beggar died It is not said that the beggar was, like the rich man, buried. His carcass may have been thrown into the valley of Hinnom; so that while his soul may have been in Paradise, his body may have been in the earthly symbol of hell.
He was carried That is, his true self, his soul. Phaedon asked the dying Socrates: “How shall we bury you, Socrates?” “Just as you please,” said Socrates, “if you can catch me.” And smiling, he continued: “I cannot convince Phaedon that the mind conversing with him is myself; but he thinks me to be the corpse he will soon see laid out, and asks how he shall bury ME.”
Lazarus’s dogs gave place to the angels. Thus heavenly beings minister to them which shall be heirs of salvation. Abraham’s bosom The abode of the blessed spirits was symbolized by the Jewish Church as a great banquet at whose head was the great father of the faithful, Abraham. Happy he who, as John reclined on the Saviour’s breast at the last supper, reclines at the paradisaic table in Abraham’s bosom. But this, the chief point of happiness, was then not only conceived as belonging to all, but the very term Abraham’s bosom became the name for the blessed abode. So it is said by the Jewish doctors, “We, dying, shall be received by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob into their bosoms.”
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