The Biblical Underworld about Purgatory

Abstract

»He punishes us; then he shows us mercy. He sends us down to the world of the dead, then he brings us up from the grave« (Tob 13:2). The Old and New Testament theology of Sheol (hereinafter šeᵓôl) follows the logical sequence of human life and death. Man enters šeᵓôl as he has built himself during his lifetime. In other words, in šeᵓôl the basic human determination and nature does not change. It cannot happen in šeᵓôl that a righteous person turns into a wicked and a wicked person becomes a righteous. However, the key characteristic of šeᵓôl is not the immutability of the basic position but the impossibility of expressing praise to God. This virtue characterizes the life of a righteous person who glorifies God with his righteousness. Therefore, the righteous man by his nature does not belong to that place because the one who praised and blessed God during his life cannot stop glorifying him even in šeᵓôl. The wicked man, however, who does not glorify God during his lifetime is suited to the postmortem environment of šeᵓôl in which God’s name is not invoked. Thus we come to the conclusion that šeᵓôl belongs exclusively to sinners, or to those who do not praise God. The theology of šeᵓôl reached its peak in the teaching that šeᵓôl is not the eternal abode of the righteous. The righteous indeed descends to šeᵓôl but his soul does neither rot there nor does he become a part of the impersonal contents of šeᵓôl. Since it cannot remain in šeᵓôl, the justified soul after freeing itself from its habits that led it to sin during its life and having risen in holiness, rises to the heights and it is God himself who delivers it and who rewards it with a happy eternity. Therefore, for the dominant biblical theology it is not questionable that the righteous will see the face of God but what privileges one over the other is the time of stay in the place of the dead, i.e. šeᵓôl. The elaborate Christian theology calls that time of souls’ stay in the place of the dead the purgatory.