Definition of "Lazarus"

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

Those who hear the voice of the Son of man and live, are so many Lazaruses called to the life divine.

1870, Edmond de Pressensé, Annie Harwood Holmden (translator), The Early Years of the Christian Church, Book 3: First Century, page 462

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

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

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