What happened to Lazarus's soul?

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In the Gospel of St John Chapter 11 (Fifth Sunday in Lent) we learn again the story of Lazarus whom Our Lord raised from the dead. Lazarus was truly dead—four days in the tomb. We are not told anything more about Lazarus, except that later there was a plot by the chief priests to kill him. We are not told of his experiences while dead.

What happened to Lazarus’s soul while he was dead? Where did it go?
 
Malperdy said:
In the Gospel of St John Chapter 11 (Fifth Sunday in Lent) we learn again the story of Lazarus whom Our Lord raised from the dead. Lazarus was truly dead—four days in the tomb. We are not told anything more about Lazarus, except that later there was a plot by the chief priests to kill him. We are not told of his experiences while dead.

What happened to Lazarus’s soul while he was dead? Where did it go?
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Scripture doesn’t say, so we can only speculate.

Keeping in mind that on the other side of the veil, there are no time or space considerations, the options would seem to be:

His soul was ushered into the presence of God, from whence it was promptly ushered back.

He was in some kind of suspended animation pending his resurrection by Jesus.

Both of these are out of the norm for the run of human flesh and would take a special intervention by God, but God, of course, can make exceptions to his own rules for his own providential purposes.
 
Well, Jesus had not yet opened the gates of Heaven for the righteous, which would mean that Lazarus’ soul would have rested in Sheol, the Place of the Sleeping, where all souls waited prior to Jesus’ Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension.
Then, when Jesus descended to hell (Sheol) He brought the righteous back with Him.

I thought it interesting that Lazarus exited the tomb wearing his burial wrappings, indicating that he would die again, whereas Jesus arose without them, signifying that He would live forevermore.
 
Hi Malperdy,

A soul is a spiritual being. It is not any “where” nor in any “time”. It went from a state of animating the body to a state of not animating the body and back to a state of animating the body. Lazarus may not have been aware that any change happened.

Verbum
 
Lazarus died before Jesus had opened heaven to the righteous, so if he “went” anywhere it was the abode of the dead, called sheol or the “bosom of Abraham” and was called back to be resurrected. We don’t know, so we can only speculate.
 
Verbum said:
A soul is a spiritual being. It is not any “where” nor in any “time”. It went from a state of animating the body to a state of not animating the body and back to a state of animating the body. Lazarus may not have been aware that any change happened.

Verbum
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Thank you. I think that is a really good answer!

Malperdy
 
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