‍The early Christians didn't believe in Purgatory. It's a doctrine that arose long after the time of the apostles

  Gary Hoge  ·  October 14, 2026

‍Actually, the essential idea behind Purgatory arose long before the time of the apostles. Some of the ancient Jews believed that it was necessary for a soul to be purified before it could enter heaven. One example comes from a Jewish tradition attributed to the school of Shammai, a Jewish scholar who lived around the time of Christ. Although preserved in later rabbinic writings, the tradition describes a third category of souls who undergo purification before receiving their reward:

‍In the last judgment day there shall be three classes of souls: the righteous shall at once be written down for the life everlasting; the wicked, for Gehenna; but those whose virtues and sins counterbalance one another shall go down to Gehenna and float up and down until they rise purified; for of them it is said: “I will bring the third part into the fire and refine them as silver is refined, and try them as gold is tried” [Zechariah xiii. 9.]; also, “He [the Lord] bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up again” (I Sam. ii. 6).¹

‍I don’t think the Jews used the name “Purgatory,” and their understanding was not identical to the later Catholic doctrine. Nevertheless, the essential idea is similar: some souls undergo purification after death before receiving their final reward.

‍Another belief closely associated with Purgatory—the practice of praying for the dead—appears in the Jewish book of 2 Maccabees, written before the time of Christ. In this book, Judas Maccabeus and his men were recovering the bodies of some men who had fallen in battle. Under their tunics they found sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia,

‍and they turned to supplication, praying that the sin that had been committed might be wholly blotted out. The noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin . . . he also took up a collection, man by man, . . . and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. In doing this he acted very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection. For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore, he made atonement for the dead, so that they might be delivered from their sin (2 Maccabees 12:42-45).

‍The book of 2 Maccabees was accepted as Scripture by the Catholic Church long before the Protestant Reformation, and it remains part of Catholic Bibles today. But even if you reject its canonicity, it still provides historical evidence that some Jews prayed for the dead before the time of Christ.

‍The early Christians also prayed for their dead, and some explicitly taught that souls could undergo purification after death. These beliefs are closely related. After all, if the dead are already enjoying the fullness of heaven, they have no need of our prayers; and if they are eternally condemned, our prayers cannot deliver them. The practice of praying for the dead therefore reflects a belief that our prayers can still benefit at least some of those who have died. While this does not, by itself, establish every aspect of the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory, it is certainly consistent with it.

‍Before we look at the ancient Christian testimony regarding prayer for the dead and Purgatory, I should note that there’s a passage in the New Testament that may be a prayer for the dead. In 2 Timothy, Paul says, 

‍May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain; when he arrived in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me (2 Timothy 1:16-17). 

‍It’s interesting that Paul asks for mercy for Onesiphorus’s household, but not for Onesiphorus himself. He then recalls Onesiphorus’s past kindnesses before praying, “May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day!” (2 Timothy 1:18). Although the passage does not explicitly state that Onesiphorus had died, the way Paul speaks of him suggests that he may have. If so, this would be a New Testament example of prayer for the dead.

‍We also have early Christian testimony to the practice of praying for the dead. One of our earliest witnesses comes from Abercius, a Christian of the late second century:

‍I, Abercius, ordered this to be inscribed; truly I was in my seventy-second year. May everyone who is in accord with this and who understands it pray for Abercius.²

‍The practice continued into the third century. The Christian writer Tertullian described a widow who prayed for her deceased husband and made offerings for him on the anniversaries of his death:

‍Indeed, she prays for his soul, and requests refreshment for him meanwhile, and fellowship (with him) in the first resurrection; and she offers (her sacrifice) on the anniversaries of his falling asleep.³

‍By the fourth century, Christian writers were explicitly describing the purification of souls after death. St. Gregory of Nyssa, for example, taught that a soul still affected by sinful passions could not enjoy union with God until it had been purified:

‍… after his departure out of the body, he gains knowledge of the difference between virtue and vice and finds that he is not able to partake of divinity until he has been purged of the filthy contagion in his soul by the purifying fire.⁴

‍St. Augustine, writing in the early fifth century, was even more explicit about the possibility of temporary punishment after death:

‍Temporal punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by some after death, by some both here and hereafter, but all of them before that last and strictest judgment. But not all who suffer temporal punishments after death will come to eternal punishments, which are to follow after that judgment.⁵

‍Augustine also considered the possibility that some of the faithful might undergo purification by fire before entering heaven:

‍That there should be some fire even after this life is not incredible, and it can be inquired into and either be discovered or left hidden whether some of the faithful may be saved, some more slowly and some more quickly in the greater or lesser degree in which they loved the good things that perish, through a certain purgatorial fire.⁶

‍The historical evidence is clear. Belief in purification after death and the practice of praying for the dead existed long before the Catholic Church formally articulated the doctrine of Purgatory. Both ideas were present in ancient Judaism and continued among the early Christians. They certainly did not arise “long after the time of the apostles.”

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^‍1 Kaufmann Kohler, “Purgatory,” The Jewish Encyclopedia, https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12446-purgatory. See also Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 16b–17a; Tosefta, Sanhedrin 13:3.

^‍2 Abercius, Epitaph of Abercius, late second century. See “Inscription of Abercius,” Catholic Encyclopedia.

^‍3 Tertullian, On Monogamy, 10, early third century. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0406.htm.

^‍4 Gregory of Nyssa, On the Dead (De mortuis non esse dolendum), fourth century, Patrologia Graeca 46. See also “The Historical Doctrine of Purgatory,” https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=6929.

^‍5 Augustine, The City of God, 21.13, early fifth century. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120121.htm.

^‍6 Augustine, Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Charity (Enchiridion), 18.69, c. A.D. 421–422. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1302.htm.