Intriguingly, the rich man can see Lazarus and converse with Abraham (in theory he is also capable of conversing with Lazarus, although even in hell the rich man continues to ignore Lazarus and speaks only with Abraham). When they both die, Lazarus is taken by angels to the “bosom of Abraham,” while the rich man is tormented by the fires of hell. In that story, as we recall, the poor but righteous Lazarus wishes nothing more than to eat from the table scraps of the rich man who ignores him. The question is: what happened to all the prophets and patriarchs after they died but before Christ’s sacrifice on the cross? The answer is that before the sacrifice on the cross made salvation possible, the souls that would be saved went to a special subsection of hell referred to as the bosom of Abraham after the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19–31. No human soul had ever reached salvation. With Rachel, whom he worked so hard to win Īnd you should know, before these souls were taken, He took from us the shade of our first parent,Īnd of obedient Moses, who made the laws Who wore the sign of victory as his crown. Or with another’s help, and go to bliss?”Īnd he, who understood my hidden question, The teachings of unerring Christian doctrine),ĭid any ever leave here, through his merit, I began (wishing to have confirmed by him Tell me, my teacher, tell me, O my master,” In the same canto (Inferno IV,) Dante raises two related doctrinal questions, that of the limbus patrum, Limbo of the Fathers, and that of the Harrowing of Hell: In the last article we looked at the insight Dante offers on the idea of the Limbo of Unbaptized Infants. Image: Anastasis, 14th century fresco from he Church of the Holy Savior in Khora, Istanbul
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