Etymology From Late Latin Lazarus, from Koine Greek Λᾱ́ζᾱρος (Lā́zāros), the given name of Biblical figures mentioned in Luke 16 and John 12, from Biblical Hebrew אֶלְעָזָר ('El'azár), a given name shared by various people in the Hebrew Bible and literally meaning "God has helped". Doublet of Eleazar.
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Figuratively, Usually A person who was dead and has been resurrected; a dead person who could potentially be resurrected.
This was the classic age of all the various exhumations, restorations, and resurrections; it was a retrospective time — a time of ghosts and Lazaruses, more or less decomposed.1855, The New Monthly Magazine, volume 105, page 302:
1870, Edmond de Pressensé, Annie Harwood Holmden (translator), The Early Years of the Christian Church, Book 3: First Century, page 462, Those who hear the voice of the Son of man and live, are so many Lazaruses called to the life divine.
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Finally, in whatever state or condition of life the faithful may find themselves, even if they cannot, like the apostles, assist the Lazaruses to rise from their tombs[…].2010, Ippolito Desideri, translated by Michael J Sweet, Mission to Tibet: The Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Account of Father Ippolito Desideri, page 598:
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A poor person, a beggar.
And do you not think, that all these poor Lazaruses, that you have persecuted, and do persecute, that when they die, they will not be carried into Abraham's bosom?1706, George Fox, Gospel Truth Demonstrated, in a Collection of Doctrinal Books, volume 2, published 1831, page 273:
These are the Lazaruses who lie prostrate at the gates of our cities and neighborhoods, and these are the needs that affluent Americans have conditioned themselves not to see because reaching out in any significant way would be far too costly.2002, Stephen W. Plunkett, This We Believe: Eight Truths Presbyterians Affirm, page 109:
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Do we respond to the poor Lazaruses in our midst with charity (scraps from our table), or do we seek to change the economic conditions that set up these extremes of rich and poor?2008, Charles McCollough, The Art of Parables, page 126:
Etymology From Late Latin Lazarus, from Koine Greek Λᾱ́ζᾱρος (Lā́zāros), the given name of Biblical figures mentioned in Luke 16 and John 12, from Biblical Hebrew אֶלְעָזָר ('El'azár), a given name shared by various people in the Hebrew Bible and literally meaning "God has helped". Doublet of Eleazar.