Luke 16:24

Father Abraham. Apparently, according to the parable, Abraham is presented as presiding over hades (see on v. 23). The rich man addresses Abraham as if he were God. The sufferer is a descendant of the patriarch, and appeals to him as a son to a father.

Send Lazarus. The rich man evidently assumes that Lazarus should be placed at his beck and call in hades, which, in a sense, would be a continuation of their relative positions on earth.

Dip. Gr. bapto (see on Matt. 3:6).

Tip of his finger. Those who seek to find in this parable a support for the false doctrine of immortal, disembodied souls, find here embarrassment instead. As if disembodied spirits have “fingers”! Lazarus’ body was in the grave, and therefore his fingers were also in the grave. It is incredible that one disembodied spirit should take a finger, which it is not supposed to have, dip it in water, and then touch the nonexistent tongue of another disembodied spirit. Obviously, Jesus is relating an imaginative story designed to make clear a certain particular truth concerning the relationship between this life and the next (see on v. 19), and does not intend His words to be taken literally. To the rich man, now figuratively suffering in hades, the least alleviation of his “torments” would be graciously accepted. The rich man now longs for a drop of clear, cool water as Lazarus formerly desired the scraps from his table (see on v. 21). If the rich man had “eyes” (v. 23) and a “tongue” (v. 24), and Lazarus had a “finger” (v. 24), it would necessitate the teaching that immediately at death good and bad men go to their rewards as real beings with bodily parts! However, that they do not immediately go to their rewards at death is obvious from the parable itself — their bodies were in the grave, where there is no such thing as fire (see on v. 22).

Tormented in this flame. For evidence that it is not at death, but rather when Jesus returns visibly to this earth (after the millennium) that the wicked suffer the fires of hell, see on v. 19. Concerning “everlasting fire” see on Matt. 5:22.