In our world there is a certain series of concepts that occur in various sciences. It is from this that their interpretation becomes ambiguous, and people often use such words based on inaccurate knowledge. Therefore, in this article we will try to understand what a limb is, what the origin of this word is, and how its essence and meaning evolved along with the development of religion, mythology and science.
When did the limb appear?
It is impossible to pinpoint the “date of birth” of the word. Presumably, it has been used by people since Christ died on the cross, and concepts such as heaven and hell became the foundation of all foundations for people. The very meaning of the word "limb" in those distant times, when the Christian religion was just beginning to exist, was interpreted as a kind of transitional stage, shared by heaven and hell. In those days, people believed that the souls of those philosophers, seers and preachers who lived before Jesus lived in the limb. In particular, the heroes of the Old Testament were seen in this theological world, and later they began to believe that the souls of unbaptized infants also got there.
Ancient definitions of the term
Over the years, the question of what a limb began to worry the Roman church, so they tried to bring extreme clarity to the essence of this term. The papal authorities agreed with the ancient idea that this place is a haven for people who for some reason could not be honored to behold the gentlemen in paradise. Nevertheless, their sins are so insignificant that sending them to hell also did not make sense. According to the Roman Catholic Church, “God loves each child of his own, and wishes everyone good and salvation,” therefore he sends only the most notorious sinners to hell, yet the rest are in limb.
Belonging to this term
It is worth noting that the question of what a limb was for centuries exclusively interested in the Catholic Church. In the Orthodox religion, this concept is not mentioned at all, because according to its canons the world is divided only into heaven and hell. However, limb-like worlds occur in other religions, in particular in Shintoism. According to Japanese canons, a limb is a transitional stage that every person goes through after death. In it, he can enjoy peace and beauty, and can be in constant torment - everything depends on his life, his soul, his attitude to himself. Shinto also assumes that such a thing as time does not exist in the limb, so a person is there until he realizes his essence and role in this world.
Analogies and modern meaning
Due to the fact that in ancient times, people were most interested in the question of what a limb was, countless works of art and myths began to appear about what kind of place it was and how it looked. Among such stories, one cannot ignore Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, which was completely built on biblical canons, but embellished and supplemented with fictional stories, heroes and events. According to this author, the first circle of hell is called a limb, where a person begins to see his sins, his life, his mistakes. This concept is a kind of departure from religious treatises, because according to the church, God wants every soul to be saved and repose. That is why the limb in theology is portrayed as a neutral space, and Dante made it the first step on the stairs of eternal torment and torment.
At the moment, about what the limb means, there are not so many disputes. The Vatican accepted the dogma that this space is a haven for unbaptized infants, as well as for the righteous and philosophers who died before Christ was born and ascended. In Orthodoxy (more precisely, in the stories of representatives of the Orthodox faith), this concept can be identified with the “tunnel” through which one must go in order to be in paradise.