Question: Praying for the dead: where can this be found in the Bible? I don’t want any reference to the Catechism, thanks.
Answer: As you allude to in your question, many of the details regarding the Church’s teaching on purgatory (and the utility and appropriateness of praying for the dead) is part of our sacred tradition, much of which is summarized in works like the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
I do feel compelled to point out that the truths of our faith being legitimately “handed down” via tradition is itself a scriptural concept. For example, in the New Testament, St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians: “Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours” (2 Thessalonians 2:15).
We find a clear scriptural reference on the praiseworthiness of praying for the dead in the Old Testament’s second book of Maccabees. For context, the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees provide a historical narrative of the Jewish people’s fight to maintain their faith and culture in the face of Greek conquerors, and their eventual military liberation by the Maccabees and their leader, Judas. In chapter 12 of 2 Maccabees, we read that some of the Jewish warriors fell in battle, and it was subsequently discovered that they had been wearing pagan amulets in clear violation of the first commandment.
Upon learning this, Judas the Maccabee “then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection in mind; for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought” (2 Maccabees 12:43-45).
You might wonder why this passage isn’t better known, particularly in Protestant or Evangelical circles that highly value the role of sacred Scripture. One reason for this is that the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees – along with other books such as Tobit, Sirach, and Wisdom – are part of what scholars call the “Deuterocanonical books,” sometimes also referred to as the “Septuagint.”
While the early Fathers of the Church discerned that these books should be included in the canon (i.e., the official “table of contents”) of Scripture, in the 16th century Martin Luther disagreed that these works were the inspired word of God. Because of this, Protestant bibles omit the Deuterocanonical books.
Question: I’m confused as to why, if Peter was our first pope, we have only two of his writings in the New Testament. James, another early leader, only has one book included. John has five, but Paul, who never even met Jesus while Jesus was alive here on Earth, has 13 books included. As our first pope, it certainly seems like there ought to be more in Scripture from Peter. (New Middletown, Indiana)
Answer: Perhaps some apostles have more writings in the New Testament than others because – like their successors, today’s bishops – they were human beings with different strengths, talents and particular pastoral concerns. You might as well ask why someone like Bishop Robert Barron, the bishop of a small rural diocese, has written more books than many bishops of much larger archdioceses.
Even though St. Peter was the first pope, his status as the “first among equals” among the apostles doesn’t automatically mean that writing was his personal strong suit. Unlike St. Paul, who was a Pharisee and a scholar, St. Peter had been a humble fisherman before hearing Jesus’ call to follow him.
St. Paul’s ministry also had a different “theme,” as it were, than Peter’s. Paul himself tells us in his letter to Galatians that Peter was an apostle to the Jews, working to bring the Gospel among those who already worshipped the one true God, while Paul saw his mission as directed toward the Gentiles, striving to evangelize the pagan cultures of the first century Roman empire (see Gal 2:7-9). Because of this, St. Paul had to address a greater variety of people. He traveled more widely, and therefore he would have had a more pressing need to communicate via written letters. Naturally, the more letters written, the more were likely to have been preserved and later included in the canon of Scripture.
Many apostles have no extant writings at all, but we might reasonably suppose that most of their teaching was done via oral preaching in the context of the particular local church to which they devoted themselves.
Jenna Marie Cooper, who holds a licentiate in canon law, is a consecrated virgin and a canonist whose column appears weekly at OSV News. Send your questions to [email protected].