purgatory

This hit me as a bit odd as well.The supporting verses for Purgatory, 1 Cor 3:10-15 and 1 Peter 1:3-7 which are then tied to praying for the dead in 2 Maccabees 12:45. I'm actually wondering if the two are even connected. In my brief study of prayers for the dead, it might have been a widely accepted 'custom', rather than a firmly established doctrine of 'gettin' people to heaven' quicker.

The notes in the USCCB Catholic Bible say this about the 1 Corinthians passage:
"The text of 1 Cor 3:15 has sometimes been used to support the notion of purgatory, though it does not envisage this."

1 Peter 1:3-7 commentary
"The new birth is a sign of an imperishable inheritance (1 Pt 1:4), of salvation that is still in the future (to be revealed in the final time, 1 Pt 1:5).

Here is the 2 Macc verses, no commentary
"43He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection in mind; 44for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. 45But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought."

Also, there was mentioned a Daniel J. Harrington, Catholic scholar, agrees that those verses have nothing to do with Purgatory in his book 'Invitation to the Apocrypha'.

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Questions to ask about Purgatory ( from a Lutheran site )
- Read 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.  What will be burned up?  When (vs. 13)? - Read 1 Peter 1:3-7.  When will a Christian be “tested by fire” - Do either 1 Corinthians 3:15 or 1 Peter 3:7 have anything to do with purgatory? - Should the Church use a description of what a Jewish general (from the Apocrypha) did grieving for those who may have died outside the faith to make a doctrine?