I agree with you.
**
There were no chapter or verse notations in the original manuscript** as it was simply one long manuscript. It is always a good idea to look at the previous chapter and also at the following chapter in order to see if more information is required in order to understand the context of the chapter that a person is reading in our modern Bibles.
The
original story
without the chapter and verse notations which are present in our modern Bibles:
“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
“Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and
send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but
now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you 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.’
“Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them,
lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but
if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”
Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come,
but woe to him through whom they do come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
Jesus is saying that it is certain that offenses against people will happen, but it will be woe/misery to the sinful person through/from whom these offenses come to other people, and this is why the rich man is in hell.
He was the cause or one of the causes of his own brothers’ downfall and if they end up in hell, then he will have to suffer more for leading them astray. This is why he wants his brothers to repent. If they are condemned as a result of his influence in their lives, then his own sufferings will increase as punishment for his own part in their condemnation.
We will have to account for even every idle word that we speak.
Matthew 12:36
This is why Jesus states:
Luke 13:23-27
Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”
And He said to them, 24 “
Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26 then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’
Matthew 7:13-14
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14
Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
The rich man entered the wide gate. He is not saved.
**
