Back in my Bible story days, I read and heard the parable that Jesus told about the rich man and the beggar named Lazarus. I’ll asssume that everyone who might respond is familiar enough with the story to not require a comprehensive summary. Just the high points, then: they both die, beggar goes to the Bosom of Abraham (which I felt encouraged to think of as Heaven), rich guy goes to an underworld afterlife, where he can see the beggar living it up (in a manner of speaking).
I distinctly recall Jesus telling his listeners that both guys were named Lazarus. And yet, these days, people who recount the parable refer to the rich guy with the name Dives.
It’s the Latin translation. The man is never given a name by Jesus, but the word “dives” is Latin for “favored by the gods,” and has the same root as “divine” (divus) and deus. In the Latin Vulgate translation of the Gospel, the word dives appears as part of the description of the rich man.
There’s no scriptural authority for the proposition that they were both named Lazarus. But neither was his actual name “Dives.”
The parable is at Luke 16:19-31 (“There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores . . .”) The poor man is given a name; the rich man is not. But in the Vulgate he is referred to as dives (a rich man, a man favoured by the gods) and this has come to be treated as a proper name for him.
And according to Wikipedia the rich man was formerly known by some other names too, but never “Lazarus”. You may be confused because there is another Lazarus who was resurrected by Jesus - they’re different people.
Nitpick/correction – this story is not a parable. Jesus was relating something that actually happened. Parables never contain proper names. They say things like “a certain man” or “a rich man” or “a poor man” or something like that.
Huh, I’ve been a churchgoer all my life and never heard the rich man referred to as Dives (or any other name). I wonder if it’s more of a Catholic tradition?
There are a number of problems raised by the pericope if we presume it to be a “true story” and not a parable, Lazarus’ name notwithstanding. I’m sure I’ve read suggestions that the story didn’t even originate with Jesus, although I love the ending when the rich man begs that Lazarus be allowed to return to life to warn the rich man’s family and is told “If they did not believe Moses and the prophets, they will not believe even someone raised from the dead.” Foreshadowing!