What Does Luke 16:23 Mean?
In the unseen place he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and perceived Abraham from far off, and Lazarus in his fold.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.THE KEY
His sight reaches Abraham, but Lazarus rests in an intimacy the tormented man does not share.
THE MEANING
You see a man in hell, in torment, lifting his eyes and seeing Abraham far away, with Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom. The scene holds anguish and nearness in view at once: seeing that intimacy does not bring him into it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that seeing someone’s nearness means sharing it: the rich man sees Lazarus, yet remains in torment and at a distance.
THE ROOT
μακρόθεν
makrothen
GROWS FROM
μακρ-
makr-
Long or extended; used of distance in space and duration in time.
“afar” in this verse is makrothen. The word for distance belongs to the same family as words for what lasts a long time. Here, the distance is made visible; elsewhere, the same root can describe those who are far off being brought near.
ALSO GROWS
makros: Long; far or distant.
μακρός
It carries the spatial sense of the root that makes Abraham’s distance visible in this scene.
makran: Far away; at a distance.
μακράν
The same word family appears in Ephesians 2:13, where those far off are made near.
makrothymia: Patience; long-suffering, or slow to heat.
μακροθυμία
The shared sense of what is long shifts from spatial distance to duration and restraint.
βασάνοις
basanois
GROWS FROM
βασαν-
basan-
Touchstone: a stone used to test metal; the word family also came to name torture and torment.
“torments” in this verse is basanois. This word family links the touchstone that tests metal with the act of torture and the state of torment. The connection gives the anguish the weight of an ordeal, while the verse presents it as actual suffering.
ALSO GROWS
basanos: Touchstone; also torture or torment.
βάσανος
This is the noun behind the verse’s word for torments, carrying both the sense of testing and the later sense of anguish.
basanizō: To test or examine by torture; to torment.
βασανίζω
The verb shows the forceful action within this word family: suffering imposed as an ordeal.
basanismos: Torture or torment.
βασανισμός
This related noun keeps the same family’s focus on the experience of anguish.
THE PATTERN
Distance can mark a real separation, while seeing across it does not itself create nearness.
But your crookedness has cut between you and your God, and your shortcomings have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.And in all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set firm, so that those who wish to cross from here to you cannot, and those from there cannot cross over to us.But now, in the Anointed One, Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
But now, in the Anointed One, Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of the Anointed One.The word for “afar” in Luke and “far off” in Ephesians share the same Greek word family for distance. Luke shows sight reaching across distance; Ephesians speaks of those far away being brought near.
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