What does Scripture say about prayer for the departed?

³⁷ But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ³⁸ Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”

²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. ²⁶ Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

⁷ For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. ⁸ For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹ For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

³⁹ And upon the day following, as the use had been, Judas and his company came to take up the bodies of them that were slain, and to bury them with their kinsmen in their fathers' graves. ⁴⁰ Now under the coats of every one that was slain they found things consecrated to the idols of the Jamnites, which is forbidden the Jews by the law. Then every man saw that this was the cause wherefore they were slain. ⁴¹ All men therefore praising the Lord, the righteous Judge, who had opened the things that were hid, ⁴² betook themselves unto prayer, and besought him that the sin committed might wholly be put out of remembrance. Besides, that noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, forsomuch as they saw before their eyes the things that came to pass for the sins of those that were slain. ⁴³ And when he had made a gathering throughout the company to the sum of two thousand drachms of silver, he sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin offering, doing therein very well and honestly, in that he was mindful of the resurrection: ⁴⁴ for if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. ⁴⁵ And also in that he perceived that there was great favour laid up for those that died godly, it was an holy and good thought. Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin.

¹⁶ May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain, ¹⁷ but when he was in Rome, he sought me diligently and found me ¹⁸ (the Lord grant to him to find the Lord’s mercy in that day); and in how many things he served at Ephesus, you know very well.

¹⁹ Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the house of Onesiphorus.

³² Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age, or in that which is to come.

¹² But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, ¹³ each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is. ¹⁴ If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.

¹³ For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁸ Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit, ¹⁹ in whom he also went and preached to the spirits in prison, ²⁰ who before were disobedient when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ship was being built. In it, few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.

⁶ For to this end the Good News was preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed as men in the flesh, but live as to God in the spirit.

²⁷ Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,

²² The beggar died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom. ²⁴ He cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue! For I am in anguish in this flame.’ ²⁵ “But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But here he is now comforted and you are in anguish. ²⁶ Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, and that no one may cross over from there to us.’

⁸ We are courageous, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. ⁹ Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to him. ¹⁰ For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.