Abraham’s Bosom

LUKE 16:19-31 reveals Jesus offering a striking, memorable and telling account of a real event (not a parable) that He, as God, has knowledge of: the story of Lazarus and the rich man. LUKE 16:22-23 reveals Lazarus being carried to a place identified as Abraham’s bosom, where Abraham himself is residing at the time of the event. Old Testament believers went to Abraham’s bosom, which is the same place as the Paradise which Jesus spoke of to the repentant thief on the cross in LUKE 23:43. Up until Christ’s resurrection, the grave was divided in two—one a place of comfort, called Paradise or Abraham’s bosom, and the other a place “of torments” as Jesus describes in LUKE 16:23-24, but both were located physically in the grave, or Hades. In LUKE 16:26, Abraham tells the rich man that “between us (in Abraham’s bosom) and you (in torment) there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.” As Wordsworth walks with his 10-year-old daughter, Caroline, whom he has been separated from since birth, he tells her that she “liest in Abraham’s bosom all the year” since God is with her even when she is not aware of Him.