Abraham's Breast - Abraham's Breast

...But the original idea of ​​purgatory was present among the Jewish people from early times, who believed that the souls of the dead visit their former bodies or places or people that they especially loved for one year after death. This intermediate state was called by various names, such as "Abraham's bosom," "The Garden of Eden," and "Above Gehenna," and the early Christian church fathers, using the New Testament's Book of Revelation, Chapter 6, and First Epistle of Peter, Chapter 3, eventually developed it into the doctrine of purgatory.
[The theme of hell in art and literature]
In the West, hell only became a subject of visual art after the Middle Ages, and there are few notable works on the theme of hell among the remains of the pre-Christian pagan era.

*Some of the terminology that refers to "Abraham's bosom" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…しかし煉獄の原初的思想は，早くからユダヤ民族の間にあり，彼らは死者の魂は死後1年間，もとの肉体や，それがとくに愛した場所や人を訪れると信じていた。この中有の状態は，〈アブラハムの胸〉〈エデンの園〉〈ゲヘナの上〉など，いろいろな名称でよばれていたのを，キリスト教の初代教父たちが，新約聖書の《ヨハネの黙示録》6章や，《ペテロの第1の手紙》3章などを援用して，ついに煉獄の教理にまで仕上げたものである。
［美術と文学における地獄の主題］
　西洋で地獄が造形芸術の対象となるのは中世以後で，キリスト教以前の多神教時代の遺品には地獄を主題とした見るべき作品はほとんどない。…

※「アブラハムの胸」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報