Purgatory and Sheol

[rivera01]

Prior to the Incarnation, was purgatory already in existence? I ask this because I thought of the patriarchs and those who died in friendship with God if they did with venial sin if they went through some sort of purgation or if their wait in Sheol purified them that they attained Heaven after the resurrection.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Some people see 2 Maccabees 12:38-46, where Judas Maccabee orders that sacrifices be offered in the Temple for slain Jewish soldiers who had sinned by wearing pagan amulets, as supporting the idea of a Purgatory existing in Sheol, although not everyone agrees.

 

[Vico]

Prior to the Incarnation, was purgatory already in existence? …

St. Thomas Aquinas’ opinion is that Christ did not deliver souls from Purgatory.
https://www.newadvent.org/summa/4052.htm#article8

Also, Catechism of the Catholic Church

633 Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, “hell” - Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek - because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God.480 Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the Redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was received into “Abraham’s bosom”:481 "It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham’s bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell."482 Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.483

480 Cf. Phil 2:10; Acts 2:24; Rev 1:18; Eph 4:9; Pss 6:6; 88:11-13.
481 Cf. Ps 89:49; 1 Sam 28:19; Ezek 32:17-32; Lk 16:22-26.
482 Roman Catechism I, 6, 3.
483 Cf. Council of Rome (745): DS 587; Benedict XII, Cum dudum (1341): DS 1011; Clement VI, Super quibusdam (1351): DS 1077; Council of Toledo IV (625): DS 485; Mt 27:52-53.

 

[GEddie]

At least one Protestant has made the counter-argument that if that argument were accepted, mortal sin could be “purged,” as idolatry is a mortal sin.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Tis_Bearself]

At least one Protestant has made the counter-argument that if that argument were accepted, mortal sin could be “purged,” as idolatry is a mortal sin.

We have no idea of the state of mind of the deceased people. It may be their free will was affected by battle stress, for example, or that they repented at the last minute before death and were forgiven but still had to spend purgatory time. I am sure Judah Maccabee thought of all this too.

Protestants as usual are wrong in assuming we here on earth decide some deceased person has died in a state of mortal sin and thus we just don’t bother to pray for them because we assume they’re not going to Purgatory.