What more effectual warning could be given him than to hear his own name brought into a parable, as belonging to the beggar who was carried into Abraham’s bosom, while his own actual life corresponded more or less closely to that of the rich man who passed into the torments of Hades? Was he not taught in this way, what all else failed to teach him, that if he wished for eternal life he must strip himself of the wealth which made it impossible for him to enter the Kingdom of God? It may be noted that almost every harmonised arrangement of the Gospel history places the parable almost immediately before the death and raising of Lazarus (see Note on John 11:1), while in some of them the question of the young ruler comes between the two.
(See Notes on Matthew 19:18.) In any case he was exposed to the temptations that wealth brings with it. We have seen some reason to identify him with the young ruler that had great possessions. (3) As that which seems most probable, the name may have been intended as a warning to Lazarus of Bethany. (2) The significance of the name, the current Greek form of Eleazar (=“God is the helper”), may have been meant to symbolise the outward wretchedness of one who had no other help. (1) There may have been an actual beggar of that name known both to the disciples and the Pharisees.
The occurrence in this one solitary instance of a personal name in our Lord’s parables, suggests the question, What was meant by it? Three answers present themselves, each of which is more or less compatible with the other two. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(20) And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus.-The word for “beggar,” it may be noted, is the same as the “poor” of Luke 6:20.
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