The Witness of Scripture

The doctrine of Purgatory, though defined with full clarity only by the Magisterium of the Church, finds its roots in Sacred Scripture. Three passages in particular have been invoked from the earliest centuries as witnesses to a purification after death. All quotations here follow the Douay-Rheims translation.

2 Maccabees 12:43–46

"And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection. (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead.) And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins."

This is the most explicit scriptural testimony to prayer for the dead. Judas Maccabeus, the great Jewish warrior, arranged for an expiatory sacrifice to be offered in Jerusalem on behalf of his fallen soldiers, that they might be freed from the sin discovered upon them. The sacred author commends this act and declares it "a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins."

If the dead were already in Heaven, they would have no need of prayers. If they were in Hell, no prayer could avail them. That Judas prays for them — and that Scripture commends the act — implies a third state: one in which the dead, though saved, can still be aided by the suffrages of the living. The Church has always understood this passage as pointing directly to Purgatory.

Note: 2 Maccabees is part of the deuterocanonical books, received as inspired Scripture by the Catholic Church. The Council of Trent solemnly defined the canon of Scripture including 2 Maccabees.

1 Corinthians 3:11–15

"For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid; which is Christ Jesus. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble: Every man's work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire."

St. Paul teaches that a man may build upon the foundation of Christ with works of varying quality — gold and silver, or wood and stubble. On the day of judgement, fire will test these works. The man whose works are burned up "shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire."

The Fathers of the Church saw in this passage a clear reference to a purifying fire after death. St. Augustine wrote that the expression "saved, yet so as by fire" could not refer to the fire of Hell (from which no one is saved) nor to any merely earthly trial, but to a purgatorial fire through which those who built poorly upon the foundation of Christ are cleansed before entering into glory. St. Gregory the Great likewise interprets this fire as the purification of Purgatory.

S. Matthew 12:32

"And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come."

Our Lord declares that the sin against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven "neither in this world, nor in the world to come." The implication — recognised by St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, and many others — is that certain sins can be forgiven in the world to come. If no forgiveness were possible after death, the qualification "nor in the world to come" would be meaningless. This passage therefore implies a state after death in which some remission of sin is possible — precisely what the Church teaches concerning Purgatory.

Additional Scripture

"Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing." — S. Matthew 5:26

"There shall not enter into it any thing defiled, or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie." — Apocalypse 21:27

"For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation." — Ecclesiasticus 2:5