---
title: Luke 16:26
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-16-26/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-16-26.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Luke 16:26
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Luke 16:26

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> And besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that even those who wish cannot cross from here to you, nor can anyone cross from there to us.’

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "And besides all these things, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that those who want to go over from here to you cannot, neither may people cross over from there to us."

## JW Usage

The Watchtower reads the whole account of the rich man and Lazarus as a parable about a change in spiritual condition between two classes of people during Jesus' ministry, not as a description of the afterlife. Because the dead are taught to be unconscious, the chasm is understood symbolically, and the passage is not treated as evidence about what happens after death.

## Protestant Usage

You will not get far arguing about whether this is a parable — treat it as one if they prefer, and work with what the parable teaches. Even read symbolically, the chasm is fixed, and Abraham says explicitly that no one can cross it in either direction. Whatever the story is about, its picture of the two destinies is that they are settled and the boundary is impassable. Then note what the rich man asks for and what he is told. He wants a warning sent to his five living brothers. Abraham refuses and points him back to Moses and the prophets — the message already available to people while they are alive. If a postmortem opportunity existed, this is the moment for it, and instead Jesus has Abraham direct attention back to this life. That is the useful observation, and it holds whether the account is parable or narrative. Jesus chose to tell a story in which the decision belongs to the living. Compare Revelation 20:5, Hebrews 9:28, 2 Corinthians 6:2.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [One Death, One Judgment — No Second Chance in the Millennium](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/postmortem-salvation-rebuttal.md) — Hebrews 9:27 / Luke 16:26 / 2 Corinthians 6:2 — postmortem evangelism rebutted [Eschatology]