By Joel M Stevao
The idea of praying for the dead came from the book of 2 Maccabees 12:44-45. The book of Maccabees is an Apocryphal book, which is not part of the Hebrew canon but was eventually accepted by the Catholic Church at the Council of Trend in 1545. Luther fought against the acceptance of this book by showing that the New Testament disagreed with the doctrines written in the book of Maccabeus, showing that the fathers of the Church in the first century did not regard this book as divinely inspired including Origen, considered one of the greatest Biblical theologians, in addition to Melito, Athanasius, Jerome, and others.
The Jews were the guardians of their holy books and claimed that the prophecies were over 400 years before Christ. His last prophets were Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the Holy Spirit had departed Israel since their death claimed the Jews. They knew exactly which of their books were part of the canon. Maccabees was written at the end of the 19th century BC in this period that there was no divine inspiration anymore. The Old Testament canon was closed.
The evidence that the Canon of the Old Testament does not contain the book of Maccabees, is found in the very fathers of the Church of the first century, who listed the books of the Old Testament in Josephus historian of the first century who also listed the books, Philo of Alexandria, Jew of high education in the first century quoted the Hebrew canon distinguishing the Apocrypha’s books as uninspired and in the words of Jesus himself in Luke 24:44.
“And he said unto them, These are the words which I said unto you, and i was still with you: That all that was written in the law of Moses should be fulfilled in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets and in the Psalms.”
This three-part division of the Hebrew canon was used by the Jews in the first century and is cited as Divine Scripture by Jesus himself. No New Testament writer has quoted any Apocryphal books but almost all have cited books that were part of the Hebrew canon, which is the same canon we have today except the Catholic Church that included the Apocryphal books.
But the book of Maccabees not only contains historical errors but mainly theological errors such as praying for the dead 2 Maccabees 12:43-45. In Hebrews 9:27, he states that the eternal destiny that one can only be made before his death.
The passage in Luke 16:19-31 is quite clear that the rich cannot return to his brethren to warn them to repent and not go where he is. The implication is that if the brethren could spend time in Purgatory then there would be no reason for the rich to want to come back and warn their brethren, they would be saved with prayers to the dead. But that’s not what scripture teaches.
If Jesus, the Apostles, the Jews, and secular writers of the first century never affirmed the inspiration of the Apocrypha books including Maccabees, Luther was correct in his assertion that there was no evidence to accept that Maccabees was a book of Divine inspiration.
Luther fought against the acceptance of this book by quoting the New Testament, the early fathers of the Church, and the Jewish leaders. The Catholic Church responded by canonizing the book of Maccabees and the Apocrypha books in 1545. Luther left the Catholic Church convinced that the Apocryphal books were not part of the canon, were not inspired and contained errors that would imply eternal destiny in people.
There is no basis in scripture for the teaching of Purgatory, nor prayer for the dead, these teachings contradict all the Holy Scriptures in both the Old and the New Testament.
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