Sources of Purgatory: Scripture and Tradition
Scriptural passages behind the evolution of Purgatory:
Matthew 12:31-32
“Wherefore
I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto
men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto
men. And
whosoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him,
but
whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither
in this
world, nor in the world to come.”
[The implication is that other sins could be forgiven in the next world.]
Luke 16: 19-26 Story of Dives [rich man] and Lazarus (not the one raised from the dead):
“There
was once a rich man, who dressed in purple and the finest linen, and feasted
in great magnificence
every day. At his gate, covered with sores, lay a poor man named Lazarus,
who would have been glad to
satisfy his hunger with the scraps from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs
used to come and lick his sores.
One day the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham.
The rich man also died
and was buried, and in Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up; and there,
far away, was Abraham with
Lazarus close beside him. ‘Abraham, my father,’ he called out, ‘take pity
on me! Send Lazarus to dip the tip of
his finger in water, to cool my tongue, for I am in agony in this fire.’ But
Abraham said, ‘Remember, my child,
that all the good things fell to you while you were alive, and all the bad
to Lazarus; now he has his consolation
here and it is you who are in agony. But that is not all: there is a great
chasm fixed between us; no one from
our side who wants to reach you can cross it, and none may pass from your
side to us.’”
Note: 1) Waiting place of the saved after death is called “bosom of Abraham,”
and is
physically close enough to the damned that they can see (but
not cross over).
2) Idea of “refreshment”
(refrigerium) sought by the damned. (Later in the Middle
Ages, they will get the weekend off from their torments, Friday
to Sunday.)
“There
can be no other foundation beyond that which is already laid, I mean Jesus
Christ himself. If anyone builds
on that foundation with gold, silver and fine stone, or with wood, hay, and
straw, the work that each man does will at
last be brought to light; the day of judgment will expose it. For that day
dawns in fire, and the fire will test the worth
of each man’s work. If a man’s building stands, he will be rewarded; if it
burns, he will have to bear the loss: but he
himself will be saved, even as by fire.”
Commentary on Paul I Cor 3:11-15 by French historian, Jacques Le Goff, The Birth of Purgatory (1984), p. 43
“This is a very difficult
passage, but one which played a crucial role in the development of Purgatory
in the Middle Ages,
a development whose progress can be followed in the successive exegeses of
this text from Paul. Speaking generally,
we can say that, at a very early date, the idea emerged that a man’s fate
in the hereafter depends on his quality as a man,
and that there is a certain proportionality between a man’s merits and demerits
and the rewards and punishments meted
out to him in the hereafter. In the afterworld, each man must undergo a trial,
which determines what his ultimate fate will be.
….Before being considered a place, Purgatory was first conceived as a kind
of purgatorial fire, whose location was not easy
to specify but which enbodied the doctrine from which the later doctrine of
Purgatory was to develop.”