Luke 16:31

The context

This is the last line of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, in which the rich man asks that someone be sent from the dead to warn his brothers. Abraham refuses, on the ground that they already have Moses and the prophets. The parable ends there, without recording a reply.

What it establishes

The parable makes the written witness the sufficient means of turning a person toward repentance, and it treats a demand for spectacular evidence as evasion. The point is about the hearers of the parable more than about the characters.

What it does not establish

A character in a parable is speaking. The line is a narrative device making a point about heedlessness, not a doctrinal rule that evidence never persuades anyone, and it is not a statement about the canon's scope.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• Near-death experiences are the same in every religion — the light, the life review, even a Jesus figure. So all religions lead to the same place.

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.