# Is "limbo" a real thing for christians/Catholics? Or is it made-up? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 23, 2026, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945 "2026-01-23T01:17:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/81 "2026-01-26T15:05:46Z")
More like, as Western Christendom’s everyday languages kept evolving away from Latin (or even being substituted with Germanic tongues), the Church “froze” Vulgate Latin (Roman dialect) as of a certain date as the standardized common language of business AND the ritual language, lest the multinational organization fragment. This stayed so for centuries but eventually it was the languages of world trade and empire —French, English— that displaced Latin as the “international” standard in the Modern Era so eventually it only remained ritual. And again, this was one of those things that was not part the teachings of Faith, but an organizational SOP. … Purgatory as a place of short-time hell-lite torment seems to be another one of those things that some important Church Fathers wrote their opinion about, and people assumed that must be official because nobody more famous fact checked them right away. (see also: Pope Gregory labeling Mary Magdalene as a prostitute) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/82 "2026-01-26T15:12:28Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > IIRC when the Bible was published in English it was banned. I would have thought that was before your time. 😉 As I understand it, there was more to it than just an objection to the Bible being made available in English. It was a specific translation or translations that were banned because they were supposedly heretical and corrupted. I did a little googling and found this, which is definitely from a Catholic point of view but which as far as I know is not inaccurate—if anyone knows otherwise, fight our ignorance! > [@](#): > > Was translating the Bible into English actually illegal? The answer is no. The law that was passed in 1408 was in reaction to another infamous translator, John Wycliff. Wycliff had produced a translation of the Bible that was corrupt and full of heresy. It was not an accurate rendering of sacred Scripture. > > Both the Church and the secular authorities condemned it and did their best to prevent it from being used to teach false doctrine and morals. Because of the scandal it caused, the Synod of Oxford passed a law in 1408 that prevented any unauthorized translation of the Bible into English and also forbade the reading of such unauthorized translations. > > It is a fact usually ignored by Protestant historians that many English versions of the Scriptures existed before Wycliff, and these were authorized and perfectly legal (see _Where We Got the Bible_ by Henry Graham, chapter 11, “Vernacular Scriptures Before Wycliff”). Also legal would be any future authorized translations. And certainly reading these translations was not only legal but also encouraged. All this law did was to prevent any private individual from publishing his own translation of Scripture without the approval of the Church. > **[Tyndale's Heresy](https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/tyndales-heresy)** > > The new edition of the New International Version (NIV) Bible came out this year. Why is it newsworthy? Because this is the “Inclusive Language Edition,... ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/83 "2026-01-26T15:19:35Z")
IIRC, in England specifically, from 1407 until the Reformation period in the 1530s-1540s, unauthorized English Bible translation was indeed illegal and considered heretical. Maybe it was ok elsewhere (I dunno). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/84 "2026-01-26T15:26:38Z")
I’m curious what these pre-Wycliffe translations were, and what some of the heresies in Wycliffe’s translation were. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/85 "2026-01-26T16:09:19Z")
My thought exactly: “Where can I get a Wycliff translation?” ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/86 "2026-01-26T16:29:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’m curious what these pre-Wycliffe translations were, and what some of the heresies in Wycliffe’s translation were. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > My thought exactly: “Where can I get a Wycliff translation?” My understanding is not that the translation was particularly wrong. It was that it existed. Again, the priests were the keepers of the “secret knowledge” and you had to go to them to get enlightened. The translation meant anyone could read the “secret knowledge” and no longer needed the priests. They were not cool with that. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/87 "2026-01-26T16:33:07Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > My thought exactly: “Where can I get a Wycliff translation?” Oh, that’s not hard, since it’s in the public domain. It’s one of the translations available on [Bible Gateway](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%201&version=WYC), for instance. I’ve heard that it’s been superseded by better scholarship, but this is the first I’ve ever heard of it being heretical. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/88 "2026-01-26T16:35:35Z")
It is an interesting story: > **[John Wycliffe condemned as a heretic | History Today](https://www.historytoday.com/archive/john-wycliffe-condemned-heretic)** ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/89 "2026-01-26T16:41:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It’s one of the translations available on [Bible Gateway](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%201&version=WYC), for instance. I’m not sure how the “Wycliffe Bible” on Bible Galeway relates to the original, but it looks awfully modern for Middle English, and it has a [copyright date of 2001](https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/Wycliffe-Bible-WYC/#copy). Here, for what it’s worth, is the Wikipedia article on Wycliffe’s Bible: > **[Wycliffe's Bible](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wycliffe%27s_Bible)** > > Wycliffe's Bible (also known as the Middle English Bible \[MEB\], Wycliffite Bibles, or Wycliffian Bibles) is a sequence of orthodox Middle English Bible translations from the Latin Vulgate which appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395. > Two different but evolving translation branches have been identified: mostly word-for-word translations classified as Early Version (EV) and the more sense-by-sense recensions classified as Later Version (LV). They are the earliest known literal t... ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/90 "2026-01-26T21:09:59Z")
The first authorized English Bible was called either “the great Bible of 1539” or “Cranmers Bible”. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > As I understand it, there was more to it than just an objection to the Bible being made available in English. It was a specific translation or translations that were banned because they were supposedly heretical and corrupted. Right, There was never a law against translating the Bible to English. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/91 "2026-01-26T21:12:54Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Right, There was never a law against translating the Bible to English. So, which translations were allowed in England in 1500? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/92 "2026-01-26T21:15:31Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > So, which translations were allowed in England in 1500? AFAIK, no printed english versions, altho of course other translated versions did exist. But it wasnt the act of translation that banned them, it was the “bad/wrong” translations. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/93 "2026-01-26T21:20:35Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > the priests were the keepers of the “secret knowledge” and you had to go to them to get enlightened. In the olden (pre-Gutenberg) days, books (including Bibles) were rare and expensive. And the clergy were among the few who were educated enough to be able to read them. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/94 "2026-01-26T22:03:11Z")
Although, Gutenberg wasn’t as big a change as you might think. He didn’t invent the printing press; he invented the movable type printing press. You could still print a book; it’s just that you had to carve each page. Which was only practical if you were going to print a LOT of copies of that book. So printed Bibles might have been workable pre-Gutenberg; what he enabled was printed everything else. ---
**Author:** ![Nightaudit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nightaudit/32/17181_2.png) [@Nightaudit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightaudit)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2026, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/95 "2026-02-19T01:07:48Z")
How much do you think the church could fleece from the faithful if they changed that to aborted baby and ran the same scam today? ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2026, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945/96 "2026-02-19T22:04:27Z")
**Moderating:** @Nightaudit, I know you were replying to an existing post, but that one was on topic in examples of “saving” unbaptized and pagan children bound for Limbo, even if there were concerns of legitimacy. Your post is not suited to the thread, and we have plenty of other threads in various forums about questionable fund-raising practices and abortion, so no more of it here. Unless, of course, you have other examples that tie into the specific utilization of Limbo as an article of faith. _This is just a guidance, not a warning._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-limbo-a-real-thing-for-christians-catholics-or-is-it-made-up/1026945.md?page=4)