280. Was the Story of the Rich Man and Lazarus a Parable or an Actual Fact?

It was a parable--an illustration of the kind made familiar in the teachings of Christ. It is the only parable in which a proper name is employed, and Lazarus was probably chosen because it was a common name. By some both men in the parable have been considered as real personages, and one tradition even gives the name of the rich man as Dobruk, while another gives it as Nimeusis. Neither tradition is deserving of credit, and the best commentators agree that the two characters were described by the Saviour simply to illustrate two type of men.