Lazarus and rich man was just a parable to illustrate a point.
Yet, it is never called a parable. Though that is a common excuse given for those who refuse to glean their beliefs about the spiritual world from the Bible instead of modern tradition. There are several characteristics that are not like a Parable; firstly, unlike any other parables, one of the characters is named Lazarus. When the rich man sees or remembers his (Pharisee) brothers, he requests of Abraham to send Lazarus to warn them of their fate. Abraham replies, not that it would be impossible, only that it wouldn't do any good if not even the Prophets could convince them (Lk 16:19-31). This is more like a prophesy since this is exactly what later happened. Lazarus, the well know Christian, eventually is dead for a while, and when he comes back from Hades, the Pharisees still aren't convinced (Jn 11:43-46; 12:9-12).
Christ describes Hades as an actual place, with spirits possessing visible forms, with tongues, fingers, even thirst. Suggesting spiritual bodies, that can be seen, sense, recognize other spirits. Some of the elements may well be figurative, but what Christ teaches aligns with the ancient Jewish beliefs, and makes no corrections to it, rather its practically an endorsement of those beliefs.
Near exactly as Josephus, a 1st century Jewish scholar, from a priestly family, informs the Greeks what the Jews believe about Hades. "Hades, where the souls of the righteous and unrighteous are detained... of whose
gates we believe their stands on archangel with an Host... the just are guided to the right hand... enjoying the prospect of good things... no place of toil... but
the countenance of the fathers and of the just... While they wait for... eternal new life in heaven, which is to succeed this region. This place we call
The Bosom of Abraham... the unjust... [are] forced to the left hand by angels... as prisoners..., thrust them still downwards... into the neighborhood of hell itself... with a fearful expectation of a future judgment...
They see the fathers... [and]
a chaos deep and large is fixed between them, insomuch that a just man that hath compassion upon them cannot be admitted... Hades, where the souls of all men are confined until a proper season which God hath determined, whom he will make a resurrection of
all men from the dead." (Josephus, Discourse to the Greeks Concerning Hades 1-5).
Christ did speak of the "gates of [Hades]" (Mt 16:18), that the good spirits do go to "Abraham's bosom" separated from the wicked below them by a "great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot" (Luke 16:19-31), and that it is from Hades that all good and evil will be resurrected (John 5:28-29).
In ancient Israel, it was believed that the soul transposed to a spiritual world they called "Sheol [(H#7585)] the Greek equivalent of the world of "Hades [(G#86)]". Sheol is not some sort of abstraction, or else Jerusalem couldn't have made a covenant with it to protect them in times of danger (Isa 28:8ff). It is from this place they believed ghosts could return to interact with the living. These kinds of spirits were known in Ancient Near Easter literature as an "[ob (H#178)]" (pronounced with a long 'o' as to make a ghostly sound). The Old Testament also casually made use of this word because they believed in them too (Isa 29:4). The reason there was a harsh penalty for contacting an "ob" was not for being a fraud, but because it was true (Lev 20:27). King Saul himself believed it was true, which is why unprovoked he asked his servant "Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit" a woman of the ob (1 Sa 28:7). There was one living in Endor, so at night, in disguise, Saul came to her saying "I pray thee divine unto me by the [ob], and bring me up who I shall name unto thee." (1 Sa 28:8).
The reason Samuel must come "up" is because Sheol's cardinal direction is "down" (Job 11:8; Prov 7:27; Eze 31:16) and one descends into it (Eph 4:9). Samuel actually appears but in a "divine form... Samuel had informed her who he was" (Josephus, Ant 6 14:2 [334]). "When the woman saw Samuel, she cried... thou art Saul" (1 Sa 28:12). Even though Biblical commentators for theological reasons usually say otherwise, the text plainly says, "it was Samuel" (1 Sa 28:14), the text says the witch was fooled by Saul, and Saul was not fooled by the witch. Now, there is no reason to disbelieve the reality of this story. We see the return of the Spirit of Samuel, he remembers who Saul is, knows everything that has transpired since his death, as though he weren't sleeping.
As there is no Biblical suggestion that the spirit goes unconscious. Those murdered that cry out for justice, those even after the ascension of Christ, the martyrs (Rev 6:9-10) and since the beginning since Abel was murdered, he "crieth unto me from the ground" (Gen 4:8). Sheol is described in the Book of Enoch as the "hollow places" where souls reside. "where the spirits of the souls of the dead should assemble into them" (1 En 22:3), "until the day of their judgment" (1 En 22:4). Among them, "there voices were reaching unto heaven" (1 En 22:5) when Enoch asks "This spirit... making suit, whose (spirit) is it...? This is the spirit that left Abel" (1 En 22:6).
Some might think it's strange that Samuel not only has form but also has clothes in his spiritual body. Yet, when Apostle Paul was caught up to "paradise", says "whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell" (2 Cor 12:3). If it is not possible for the spirit to dwell outside the body, and if the spirit has no sensation, not way to view itself, why is Paul unsure if he is a spirit or not, unless it's pure assumption that they don't?
Samuel tells King Saul that because he disobeyed the Lord, the Lord has chosen David, and now he will be "with" Samuel in Sheol. "Now shalt thou and thy sons be with me" (1 Sa 28:19). "Samuel seeing that the end of Saul's life was to come, said... God hath forsaken thee... and thou shalt the be with me [in Hades]" (Josephus, Ant 6:14:2 [335]). "Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me" (Ps-Philo 64:8). Like how Christ tells the criminal on the cross, "today", "I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise" (Lk 23:43). This "paradise" where Christ was, he didn't mean in Heaven, he spent days without ascending to heaven, in Hades (Jn 20:17; 1 Pt 3:19; 4:06), He certainly doesn't mean they were entombed in the same grave together when he says they'll be together.
For dogmatic reasons people just disbelieve spirits depicted as still having a physical form, a tongue, a finger, a thirst for water, and must therefore be figurative. While some elements maybe figurative, it is also promoting the spirit indeed has form, in a spiritual would with clearly spiritual analogs of life on earth. The spirit is clearly conscious, holds memory, and makes new discovery, and even the possibility for spirits to return to earth as messengers.
This was a vital purpose of the mission of Christ to "preach deliverance to the captives" (Luke 4:18), these were the "prisoners" that were gathered in the pit "who after many days shall be visited" (Isaiah 24:21-22), they were the Holy One's captive enemies from Sheol "by the blood of the covenant, I have sent forth thy prisoners of the pit where there is
no water" (notice this is unlike the pit of the rich man who had a thirst, and only Abraham's bosom had water, Luke 16:19-31; which maybe figurative for the gospel that is like a thirst, John 4:14; Amos 8:11-13) and they become "prisoners of hope" (Zachariah 9:11).
The Holy One "ascended on high", and "led captivity captive", (Psalms 68:17-18). Paul quotes this, commenting the captives were from Christ's descent into Hades, "he ascended, what is it but that he also
descended first into the lower parts of the earth?" (Ephesians 4:8-11).
This was a frequent theme of the Early Christians that the Messiah lifted Adam and Eve out of Hades, as told in non-canonical book like the Gospel of Nichodemus "And the Lord... took the right hand of Adam and went up out of hell (tenes dexteram Adae ascendit ab inferis) and all the saints followed him... He went therefor into paradise holding our forefathers by the hand, and all the righteous" (Nicodemus 19:12). The Apostles also held the "keys" (Rev 3:7), "keys of the kingdom" that allows them to prevail against Hades (Matthew 16:19). So, they "triumph in the Messiah, and maketh manifest the savior of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savior of Messiah, in them that are saved, and in them that perish;" (2 Corinthians 2:14-15).
The Apocrypha, 2 Maccabees, where the concept of Purgatory originated from Jewish ordinances for the dead. Following the battle of Marsea in 163 B.C. Judas Maccabaeus, the Jewish High Priest and commander of the army, discovered that soldiers killed in the battle concealed golden idols beneath their cloths, so he collected money; to buy sacrificial animals to atone for the fallen (2 Maccabees 12:43-46). This passage was used by Dr. Eck in favor of Purgatory in the 1519 Leipzig debate with Martin Luther, and became part of the reason why Protestants exclude the Apocrypha from their Bibles. This verse showed the Catholics that there is a space between death and the resurrection. After the manner of Judas Maccabaeus, Catholics hold prayers, rites and masses for the spirits of dead, though they don't do sacrifices. These texts aren't proof, they establish a pre-established belief that spirits do not sleep in death, that Soul Sleep is a new innovated doctrine
