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Lazarus
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Lazarus (Hebrew: ?????, El?azar Eleazar "God (has) helped") is the name of two separate men mentioned in the New Testament. The more famous one is Lazarus of Bethany, the subject of the miracle recounted only in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus raises him from the dead. The other appears uniquely in Jesus' parable of Lazarus and Dives.
In allusion to John's account of the resurrection of Lazarus, the name is often used to connote apparent restoration to life.
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Lazarus (Hebrew: ?????, El?azar Eleazar "God (has) helped") is the name of two separate men mentioned in the New Testament. The more famous one is Lazarus of Bethany, the subject of the miracle recounted only in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus raises him from the dead. The other appears uniquely in Jesus' parable of Lazarus and Dives.
In allusion to John's account of the resurrection of Lazarus, the name is often used to connote apparent restoration to life. For example, in the scientific term "Lazarus taxon", which denotes organisms that reappear in the fossil record after a period of apparent extinction. The Lazarus phenomenon refers to an event in which a person spontaneously returns to life (the heart starts beating again) after resuscitation has been given up. There are also numerous literary uses of the term.
The parable of Lazarus
In the Gospel of Luke 16:19–31, Jesus tells of one Lazarus, a beggar who lay outside the gate of a rich man, whom later tradition has given the name Dives— from the Latin for 'rich'— who dressed in fine clothing and dined sumptuously every day, but gave nothing to Lazarus. Both men died, and the beggar received his reward in the Hereafter, in Abraham's bosom at the everlasting banquet, while the rich man craved a drop of water from Lazarus' finger to cool his tongue, as he was tormented with fire. Lazarus is the only person in a New Testament parable given a name; the rich man of the parable has been named Dives by tradition, although the name does not appear in Luke.
For the last century, "Catholic exegetes now commonly accept the story as a parable... The purpose of the parable is to teach the evil result of the neglect of others. Lazarus was rewarded, not because he was poor, but for his virtuous acceptance of poverty; the rich man was punished, not because he was rich, but for vicious neglect of the opportunities given him by his wealth."
Many Christians believe that the passage is not a parable at all, but a factual report, as it is the only story told by Jesus where there is no mention of it being a parable. Another reason they believe that it is a true account is the fact the beggar's name is given (Lazarus), something not done in any of Jesus' parables.
Others say that the name is given in this case because of the Hebrew meaning "God has helped." In their view, the meaning of this story is twofold. First, as noted above, to teach that God rewards according to the state of repentance of a man's life. Second, to teach that if people will not listen to the Bible or those preaching it, they would not listen even if someone was raised from the dead. This passage is key to the doctrine of the power of Scripture to save.
Lazarus of Bethany
The miracle of Lazarus
In the Gospel of John, Lazarus, also called Lazarus of Bethany or Lazarus of the Four Days, was a man who lived in the town of Bethany. His sisters, Mary and Martha, sent word to Jesus that the one he loved was ill. Jesus delayed, and when he finally arrived it was found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Martha reproached him, and when Jesus assured her that Lazarus would rise, she thought he was referring to resurrection on Judgment Day. To this Jesus replied, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die". In the presence of a crowd of Jewish mourners, Jesus had the stone rolled away from the tomb and bade Lazarus to come out. This he did, still wrapped in his grave-cloths. Jesus then called for his followers (friends and family alike) to remove the grave-cloths. The narrator claims many other Jews were convinced of Jesus' divinity after visiting Lazarus. .
The developed Lazarus legend
Lazarus the beggar and Lazarus the resurrected were combined in Romanesque iconography carved on portals in Burgundy and Provence.
The 13th century Golden Legend identifies Lazarus as the brother of Martha and Mary Magdalene, One tradition reports that he fled to Cyprus, where he became the first bishop of Larnaka/Kittim, appointed directly by Paul and Barnabas. It was claimed that the bishop's pallium was presented to Lazarus by the Virgin Mary, who had woven it herself. Such apostolic connections were central to the claims to autocephaly made by the bishops of Kittim—subject to the patriarch of Jerusalem—during the period 325–413. The church of Kittim was declared (or confirmed) self-governing in 413.
An alternative medieval tradition in the Golden Legend sent Mary, Martha, and Lazarus to Gaul after the Ascension, in a ship without sails, oars or rudder. Provencal tradition, in particular, held Lazarus as the first bishop of Marseille. Pilgrims visited their tombs at the abbey of Vézelay in Burgundy. In the Abbey of the Trinity at Vendôme, a phylactery was said to contain a tear shed by Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus. The cathedral of Autun, not far away, is dedicated to Lazarus as Saint Lazare.
The Legenda Aurea records the grand lifestyle imagined for Lazarus and his sisters in the 14th century:
Mary Magdalene had her surname of Magdalo, a castle, and was born of right noble lineage and parents, which were descended of the lineage of kings. And her father was named Cyrus, and her mother Eucharis. She with her brother Lazarus, and her sister Martha, possessed the castle of Magdalo, which is two miles from Nazareth, and Bethany, the castle which is nigh to Jerusalem, and also a great part of Jerusalem, which, all these things they departed among them. In such wise that Mary had the castle Magdalo, whereof she had her name Magdalene. And Lazarus had the part of the city of Jerusalem, and Martha had to her part Bethany. And when Mary gave herself to all delights of the body, and Lazarus entended all to knighthood, Martha, which was wise, governed nobly her brother's part and also her sister's, and also her own, and administered to knights, and her servants, and to poor men, such necessities as they needed. Nevertheless, after the ascension of our Lord, they sold all these things.
In the section In paradisum, which often appears embedded in the Requiem, the deceased is wished to Paradise—In paradisum deducant te Angeli— with Lazarus, who once was poor (cum Lazaro quondam paupere); the text reminds us how often the Lazarus of John, who possessed a rock-cut tomb and was resurrected, has been conflated with the beggar Lazarus of Luke.
Tombs of Lazarus
The first tomb of Lazarus in Bethany, in Arabic al-Azariyya, named for Lazarus, who is a Shi'ite saint, is a place of pilgrimage to this day. The tomb, as it was described in 1896, was entered down a flight of twenty-four rock-cut steps from the then-modern level, to a square chamber serving as a place of prayer, leading by more steps to a lower chamber that was reverenced by Muslim and Christians as the tomb of Lazarus. A modern Franciscan church dedicated to the resurrected saint occupies the site of the Lazarium noted by the pilgrim Egeria, where at the liturgy for Lazarus on the Saturday in the seventh week of Lent, "so many people have collected that they fill not only the Lazarium itself, but all the fields around." the Lazarium was destroyed by an earthquake and replaced by a church that remained until the time of the Crusaders. By 1384, a mosque had been built on the site. In the 16th century, the Mosque of al-Uzair (Ezra) was built on the site.
Lazarus's second tomb is on Cyprus at the Greek Orthodox church of Agios Lazaros in Larnaka. In 890 A.D. his tomb was discovered bearing the inscription "Lazarus the friend of Christ". The marble sarcophagus can be seen inside the church under the Holy of Holies. His relics were taken from Cyprus to Constantinople in 898, although in 1972 human remains were discovered under the altar during renovation works in the church at Larnaka, and were identified with part of the saint's relics.
The relics were stolen from Constantinople by the Crusaders and transferred to France in 1204 as part of the booty of war from the Fourth Crusade.
The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem
The Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem originated in a leper hospital run by hospitaller brothers, founded in the twelfth century by the crusaders of the Latin Kingdom. It was originally established to treat virulent diseases such as leprosy, its knight originally being lepers themselves. It is one of the less-known and less-documented orders.
Liturgical references
Lazarus of Bethany is honored as a saint by those Christian churches which keep the commemoration of saints, although on different days, according to local traditions.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church as well as the Byzantine Catholic Church, the day before Palm Sunday is celebrated as Lazarus Saturday. This day, together with Palm Sunday, hold a unique position in the church year, as days of joy and triumph between the penitence of Great Lent and the mourning of Holy Week. During the preceding week, the hymns in the Lenten Triodion track the sickness and then the death of Lazarus, and Christ's journey from beyond Jordan to Bethany. The scripture readings and hymns for Lazarus Saturday focus on the resurrection of Lazarus as a foreshadowing of the Resurrection of Christ, and a promise of the General Resurrection. The Gospel narrative is interpreted in the hymns as illustrating the two natures of Christ: his humanity in asking, "Where have ye laid him?" , and his divinity by commanding Lazarus to come forth from the dead . Many of the Resurectional hymns of the normal Sunday service, which are omitted on Palm Sunday, are chanted on Lazarus Saturday. During the Divine Liturgy, the Baptismal Hymn, "As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" , is sung in place of the Trisagion. Although the forty days of Great Lent end on the day before Lazarus Saturday, the day is still observed as a fast; however, it is somewhat mitigated. In Russia, it is traditional to eat caviar on Lazarus Saturday.
In the Roman Catholic Church Saint Lazarus' memorial is on June 21. In Cuba a major festival is dedicated to San Lázaro.
He is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on July 29 together with Mary and Martha.
In Christian funerals the idea of the deceased being raised by the Lord as Lazarus was raised is often expressed in prayer.
Syncretism
Via syncretism, Lazarus has become an important figure in Santeria as the Yoruba deity Babalu Aye. Like the beggar of the Christian scriptures, Babalu-Aye represents someone covered with sores licked by dogs who was healed by divine intervention. Silver charms known as the crutch of St. Lazarus or standard Roman Catholic-style medals of St. Lazarus are worn as talismans to invoke the aid of the syncretized deity in cases of medical suffering, particularly for people with AIDS.
Within Christianity, the begging Lazarus of the parable (feast day June 21) and Lazarus of Bethany (feast day December 17) are often conflated, with some churches celebrating a blessing of dogs, associated with the beggar, on December 17, the date associated with Lazarus of Bethany. In Santeria, the date associated with St. Lazarus is December 17, despite Santeria's reliance on the iconography associated with the begging saint whose feast day is June 21.
In popular culture
Well-known as an established tale, Lazarus has appeared countless times in music, writing and art.
- Among the painted depictions of Lazarus is the work Lazarus Breaking His Fast by Walter Sickert.
- Several bands have composed songs titled "Lazarus", including Chimaira, I Am Ghost, and Placebo.
- Lazarus is mentioned in several notable works of literature. A few prominent examples include The Sickness Unto Death by Sřren Kierkegaard, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot, the novels of Robert A. Heinlein, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr., and "Lady Lazarus", a poem written by Sylvia Plath.
- Lazarus is also referenced in other media, including the movie Casper, the computer game Diablo, the television series The X-Files ("Lazarus"), Doctor Who (The Lazarus Experiment), and the Batman comic books.
External links
- - article from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1910
- - article from the Catholic Encyclopedia
- - Fr. Demetrios Serfes (Greek Orthodox)
- - Icon and Synaxarion
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