Q. Where did the idea of Purgatory come from?
A. From Sacred Scripture and our elder brothers in Faith, the Jewish Faith. Please see my post: Where is Purgatory is Scripture? for the evidence of Purgatory in Sciripture. The quotes below are from Kaddish,Religion Facts: Judaism and Judaism 101 .
Religion Facts: Judaism
Judgement
Traditional Judaism includes belief in both heaven and hell, as we will see below. How is one’s destination decided? The School of Shammai offered this description:There will be three groups on the Day of Judgment: one of thoroughly righteous people, one of thoroughly wicked people and one of people in between. The first group will be immediately inscribed for everlasting life; the second group will be doomed in Gehinnom [Hell], as it says, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence” [Daniel 12:2], the third will go down to Gehinnom and squeal and rise again, as it says, “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on My name and I will answer them“ [Zechariah 13:9]… [Babylonian Talmud, tractate Rosh Hashanah 16b-17a]
Judaism 101: Life, Death and Mourning
Kaddish
Kaddish is commonly known as a mourner’s prayer, but in fact, variations on the Kaddish prayer are routinely recited at many other times, ….
Why, then, is Kaddish recited by mourners?After a great loss like the death of a parent, you might expect a person to lose faith in G-d, or to cry out against G-d’s injustice. Instead, Judaism requires a mourner to stand up every day, publicly (i.e., in front of a minyan, a quorum of 10 adult men), and reaffirm faith in G-d despite this loss. To do so inures to the merit of the deceased in the eyes of G-d, because the deceased must have been a very good parent to raise a child who could express such faith in the face of personal loss.
Then why is Kaddish recited for only 11 months, when the mourning period is 12 months?
According to Jewish tradition, the soul must spend some time purifying itself before it can enter the World to Come. The maximum time required for purification is 12 months, for the most evil person. To recite Kaddish for 12 months would imply that the parent was the type who needed 12 months of purification! To avoid this implication, the Sages decreed that a son should recite Kaddish for only eleven months.
Judaism 101: Olam Ha-Ba: The Afterlife
Gan Eden and Gehinnom
The place of spiritual reward for the righteous is often referred to in Hebrew as Gan Eden (GAHN ehy-DEHN) (the Garden of Eden). This is not the same place where Adam and Eve were; it is a place of spiritual perfection. Specific descriptions of it vary widely from one source to another. One source says that the peace that one feels when one experiences Shabbat properly is merely one-sixtieth of the pleasure of the afterlife. Other sources compare the bliss of the afterlife to the joy of sex or the warmth of a sunny day. Ultimately, though, the living can no more understand the nature of this place than the blind can understand color.
Only the very righteous go directly to Gan Eden. The average person descends to a place of punishment and/or purification, generally referred to as Gehinnom (guh-hee-NOHM) (in Yiddish, Gehenna), but sometimes as She’ol or by other names. According to one mystical view, every sin we commit creates an angel of destruction (a demon), and after we die we are punished by the very demons that we created. Some views see Gehinnom as one of severe punishment, a bit like the Christian Hell of fire and brimstone. Other sources merely see it as a time when we can see the actions of our lives objectively, see the harm that we have done and the opportunities we missed, and experience remorse for our actions. The period of time in Gehinnom does not exceed 12 months, and then ascends to take his place on Olam Ha-Ba.
Only the utterly wicked do not ascend at the end of this period; their souls are punished for the entire 12 months. Sources differ on what happens at the end of those 12 months: some say that the wicked soul is utterly destroyed and ceases to exist while others say that the soul continues to exist in a state of consciousness of remorse.
Filed under: Purgatory
There was a Place called paradise that is the in between however, it is not pergatory. The paradise place existed before Jesus came. It was for rightious Jews that was maintained until Christ ascended whereby he took them to heaven. There is no sex on the afterlife as some islamic people(havin so many Virgins.)There is no purification process.
Dear Dennis,
How do you know the place in between Heaven and Hell, formerly called Paradise, is NOT the place of purification?
Since there WAS a place in between by whose authority does anyone know it is not now, Purgatory, the place of purification that even the Jews believed in?
How do you know there is no purification process?
I’ve been reading about the Catholic Church and its stand on “outside the Church there is no salvation”
I just read a website from th Society of St. Pius – X, South Africa and this is what it said:
No, if a Protestant is a good Protestant he can save his soul?
NO, absolutely not! It is not because he is a pagan, or a “good” protestant, that he saves his soul, but that he is a Catholic without knowing it. Neither can anyone save his soul in virtue of any other religion but in the Catholic faith alone. All other churches are concoctions of the devil.
My response to them:
All other churches are concoctions of the devil? Give me a break. How can any priest make that assertion?
What gives the Catholic Church or any church that assumption? I use to be Catholic until about 16 years old, now 58. I was taught by my mother, of all people, that the Catholic Church is good at making up false doctrine. She gave me good insight about the Catholic Church and all its false doctrine.
Now I’m an agnostic. I believe, if there is a God, how could he have produced the world and the mess we are all in now. The Supreme Being could care less about or existence and how we handle things.
If we are lost, ten its are own fault.
Too bad for our souls, if we indeed have one. With that, I remain, Steve
Dear Steve,
Thanks for your comments. I have responded to them in two posts. Please follow the links
Concoctions of the Devil
AND
I am an Agnostic
Can you tell me if the word used in Lk calling Mary full of grace is used anyother place in scripture. I was told the same wrod was used in Eph 1:6
Dear Jim,
No the word is not used anywhere else in Scripture. You might be interested in this post HERE
Wow! I got to this place trying to reconsile my beliefs as a Catholic w. that of the Churchs’ view on purgatory.Who could have known that the Jewish faith had it’s own ( and probably earlier!)wrestlings on this subject to deal with?!
So, how is it going? Are you OK with the Church’s Doctrine of Purgatory?
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
Purgatory
Lk 12:59; 1 Cor 3:15; 1 Pet 1:7; Mt 5:25-26 … temporary agony.
Heb 12:6-11 … God’s painful discipline.
Mt 12:32 … no forgiveness … nor in the age to come.
1 Pet 3:19 … purgatory (limbo?).
Rev 21:27 … nothing unclean shall enter heaven.
Heb 12:23 … souls in heaven are perfect.
Col 1:24; 2 Sam 12:14 … “extra” suffering.
2 Mac 12:43-46 … sacrifice for the dead.
2 Tim 1:15-18 … prayer for Onesiphorus for “that Day.”
1 Jn 5:14-17 … mortal/venial sins
This is from Christopher Wong website.
Unfortunately none of these posts hold any water. To put it in the words of Yeshua(Jesus); “you are mistaken because you don’t understand the Scriptures or G-d’s power”. You cannot possibly understand the “new testament” without having an intricate knowelege of the “old testament” and first century Jewish culture. The “new testament” was written by Jews, and can only be understood by reading it from a Jewish mindset. And it can no way no how be understood without having a concrete understanding of the “old testament”. For that, you will have to look to the Jewish people, because 99 percent of non-Jews unfortunately have not known what they are talking about for centuries, even though they are “scholars” some of which have doctorate degrees in theology/divinity/biblical studies. You need to learn from a Rabbi, not a priest/preacher/pastor/minister.
David,
Your comment is a fact-free ad hominem attack. If you have something substantive to say we would love to hear it.
You better look up what the meanings of Gehenna and Sheol are- Sheol is the common grave and Gehenna was a trash dump outside the city walls. The dead bodies were thrown there and burned.
People do not die and go anywhere. If all people died, and were resurrected to heaven or hell upon death, then who is in the great crowd of resurrected ones?
Nancy,
Most of the references in the post about ghenna and sheol are from Jewish sites. I know that the garbage dump was called ghenna. Perhaps it was named after the place of eternal torment. Sheol was the place of the dead.
When we die our bodies are dead and rest in the grave but our souls go immediately to judgement. At the end of time our body will be reunited with our soul in our eternal destination–Heaven or Hell.
What great crowd of resurrected ones are you referring to? Is it something is scripture?