Editing Limbo (section)

==Limbo of the Patriarchs==
{{See also|Sheol|Harrowing of Hell}}
[[File:5part-icon-Hell.jpg|thumb|The [[Old Testament]] righteous follow Christ from [[Hades in Christianity|Hades]] to [[Heaven (Christianity)|heaven]] (Russian icon).]]
The "Limbo of the Patriarchs" or "Limbo of the Fathers" (Latin {{lang|la|limbus patrum}}) is seen as the temporary state of those who, despite the sins they may have committed, died in the friendship of God but could not enter heaven until redemption by [[Jesus Christ]] made it possible. The term ''Limbo of the Fathers'' was a medieval name for the part of the underworld ([[Christian views on Hades|Hades]]) where the patriarchs of the Old Testament were believed to be kept until Christ's soul descended into it by his death<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/summa/4052.htm#2|title=SUMMA THEOLOGIAE: Christ's descent into hell (Tertia Pars, Q. 52)|website=www.newadvent.org|access-date=2020-01-15}}</ref> through crucifixion and freed them. 

The [[Catechism of the Catholic Church]] describes Christ's descent into Hell as meaning primarily that "the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ's descent into Hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead." It adds: "But he descended there as Saviour, proclaiming the [[Good News (Christianity)|Good News]] to the spirits imprisoned there." It does not use the word ''Limbo''.<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1R.HTM Catechism of the Catholic Church, 633]</ref>

This concept of Limbo affirms that admittance to heaven is possible only through the intervention of Jesus Christ, but does not portray [[Moses]], etc. as being punished eternally in Hell. The concept of Limbo of the Patriarchs is not spelled out in Scripture, but is seen by some{{who|date=September 2021}} as implicit in various references:

* [[Luke 16]]:22 speaks of the "[[bosom of Abraham]]", which both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, following early Christian writers, understand as a temporary state of souls awaiting entrance into heaven. The end of that state is set either at the [[Resurrection of the Dead]], the most common interpretation in the [[Eastern Christianity|East]], or at the [[Harrowing of Hell]], the most common interpretation in the [[Western Christianity|West]], but adopted also by some in the East.<ref>See [http://orthodoxeurope.org/page/11/1/5.aspx Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev: ''Christ the Conqueror of Hell'']</ref>
* Jesus told the [[Saint Dismas|Good Thief]] that the two of them would be together "this day" in [[Paradise]] ([[Luke 23]]:43; see also [[Matthew 27]]:38); but on the Sunday of his [[resurrection]] he said that he had "not yet [[Ascension of Jesus|ascended to the Father]]" ([[John 20:17]]). At least one Medieval devotional source<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3auKFLqCKxEC&q=%22with+me+in+paradise%22+limbo+today&pg=PA100 |author=Anne Clark Bartlett |author2=Thomas Howard Bestul |title=Cultures of Piety: Medieval English Devotional Literature in Translation |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1999 |isbn= 0-8014-8455-3 |page=100 }}</ref> and a course of Catholic religious instruction dating to or before the early 1900s<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2PkLrlvWctoC&pg=PA248|author=François Xavier Schouppe |title=Abridged course of religious instruction, apologetic, dogmatic, and moral: for the use of Catholic colleges and schools |page=248 |publisher=Burns & Oates |year=2010 |isbn=9781445555904 }}</ref> posit the view that the [[Harrowing of Hell|descent of Jesus Christ to the abode of the dead]], his presence among them, turned it into a paradise. It is also possible that the intended text was not "I say to you, This day you will be with me in paradise", but "I say to you this day, You will be with me in paradise". [[Timothy Radcliffe]] explained the "today" as a reference to the "Today of eternity".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qkLUB6c4h1UC&q=Radcliffe+%22with+me+in+paradise%22&pg=PA25 |author=Timothy Radcliffe |title=Seven Last Words |publisher=Burns & Oates |year=2004 |isbn= 0-86012-397-9 |page=25}}</ref>
* Jesus is also described as preaching to "the [[spirits in prison]]" ([[1 Peter 3:19]]). [[Medieval drama]] sometimes portrayed Christ leading a dramatic assault – the [[Harrowing of Hell]] – during the three days between the [[Crucifixion]] and the resurrection. In this assault, Jesus freed the souls of the just and escorted them triumphantly into heaven. This imagery is still used in the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]'s [[Holy Saturday]] [[liturgy]] (between [[Good Friday]] and [[Easter|Pascha]]) and in Eastern Orthodox [[icons]] of the [[Resurrection of Jesus]].
* The doctrine expressed by the term ''Limbo of the Fathers'' was taught, for instance, by [[Clement of Alexandria]] ({{c.|150|215}}), who maintained: "It is not right that these should be condemned without trial, and that those alone who lived after the coming [of Christ] should have the advantage of the divine righteousness."<ref>[http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/clement-stromata-book6.html Stromata, book VI, chapter VI]</ref>

According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, unlike Purgatory and Hell, in the Limbo of Patriarchs there was not the penalty of sense (the affliction by fire in which the soul burns after death and also the body after the [[resurrection of the flesh]]), but solely the penalty of harm,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://valde.com.br/en/blog/detail/let-us-have-compassion-on-the-poor-souls|title=Penalty of harm and penalty of fire|archive-url=https://archive.today/20250404143028/https://valde.com.br/en/blog/detail/let-us-have-compassion-on-the-poor-souls|archive-date=April 4, 2025 |url-status=live}} </ref> which is the privation of the [[beatific vision]] of God.<ref>''Commentus in Libros Quattuor Sententiarum'', d. 22, q. 2, a. 1</ref> However, the souls in Limbo of Patriarchs enjoyed the natural knowledge of God and experienced great joy because of the future glory that awaited them in Paradise.<ref>''[[Summa Theologiae]]'' III, 52,5,ad1.</ref>