“He descended into Hell” …. Or Did He?
Understanding the Apostles' Creed
Introduction:
The Apostle’s Creed, the most ancient of all the church’s creeds, recited by millions of Christians every Sunday, contains these familiar lines:
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried;
He descended into Hell.
This final phrase has been a source of confusion for many Christians, and this post will attempt to explain how best to understand it.
A Vocabulary Lesson:
The vocabulary is essential to tie down in this discussion; much of the confusion is simply due to terminology issues. For starters, most traditional English translations of the Creed translate the line as “He descended into Hell,” but the underlying original Greek word was Hades. What do these terms mean, and how do they relate to other terms the Bible uses?
Hell: is an English word deriving from the old Germanic and Norse languages meaning “underworld,” and for the Norse goddess of the afterlife, “Hel,” who ruled it. This place was conceived of as a gloomy underground cavern or hall.
Hades: is a transliteration[1] of the Greek word for the underworld and was similarly synonymous with the god who ruled it. Hades was the place where the deceased went, and was separated into two primary[2] compartments:
Elysium: Was a pleasant place of happiness where the Greek myths held the righteous went.
Tartarus: Was a deep abyss of the underworld, a dungeon of torture where evildoers went.
Sheol: is a transliteration of a Hebrew word used frequently throughout the Old Testament. It is conceptualized as being an “underworld” of sorts and was where both the righteous (e.g., Jacob and David, Gen. 37:35 & Ps. 6:5) and the evil (his enemies Ps. 55:15) were expected to go. It is often rendered “pit” or “grave” in English translations, and was located under the earth, as seen in the memorable rebellion of Korah against Moses (Num. 16) where Sheol opens and swallows Korah and his fellow rebels.
Gehenna: Was a valley outside of Jerusalem (also known as the Valley of Hinnom), which became a site of child sacrifice in fire in the days of Israel’s apostasy (2 Chron. 28:3 & 33:6). Later it was used as a dump where garbage, animal remains, and all manner of refuse was burned. It began to be used by rabbis as an illustration of eternal punishment, and Jesus used the term frequently in His teaching to denote the same meaning.
It should be noted that the Roman Catholic concepts of Limbo and Purgatory, developed in the Middle Ages, have nothing to do with this discussion, and the hyperlinked articles provide able explanations of those concepts if you are curious.
A Cosmology Lesson:
With these vocabulary terms in mind, we may now turn to cosmology (the study of the layout of the cosmos). First, we should link Sheol and Hades as synonyms – indeed, the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) generally renders Sheol as Hades. This is to be distinguished from Hell, or Gehenna, the lake of fire since in Rev. 20:14, “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.” As seen above, the word Hell was formerly synonymous with Hades, though in common use now, it generally refers to the lake of fire.
The Greek notion of Hades being separated into the pleasant Elysium and tortuous Tartarus seem to have biblical merit. First, in Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk. 16:19-31), the rich man is “in Hades, being in torment,” whereas Lazarus “died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom.” The parable indicates some ability to communicate between compartments, though absolutely no ability to move from one to the other. Second, though the term “Elysium” is never used in Scripture, the Greek paradeisos appears to be a synonym. The term Tartarus is used by St. Peter (2 Pet. 2:4), however.
Some may be uncomfortable with this, arguing that we cannot accept pagan notions of cosmology. In reply, we may state that if Jesus and the Apostles were willing to borrow these terms to describe the cosmos, we may as well. Further, and especially in regard to Sheol, they seem to comport neatly with the more ancient Hebrew notions of the afterlife (and other Mesopotamian and later Norse conceptions). This suggests that there’s a truth all these peoples knew, and without defending the proposition here, it’s the author’s thesis that all these pagan, pre-Christian religions worshipping a group of “gods” were not simply making things up but were actually worshipping demons, fallen angels, which would of course know what the underworld was like. Simply put, we may accept any concept insofar as it comports with Scripture.
So Where Did Jesus Go?
Well, Jesus told us, or more accurately, he told the thief on the cross: “today you will be with me in paradise,” (Lk. 23:43). Some find this difficult to square with the assertion from the Apostle’s Creed, “he descended into Hell.” But if we remember: 1) the Creed actually asserts “he descended into Hades,” and 2) Hades includes a paradise, then it makes sense.
This naturally raises the question of what Jesus did while in Hades. Only one passage of Scripture addresses the question, 1 Peter 3:18-20:
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah…
If we accept this prison as Tartarus, we can envision Jesus preaching across the chasm from beside Abraham to the fallen angels (presumably the disobedient “spirits” in question). Some think Jesus was preaching the Gospel to these demons, offering them repentance, but this seems at odds with the inability of traversing the chasm. However, it seems better understood as Christ proclaiming his victory over these demons, as St. Paul also references in Colossians 2:14-15: “[On the cross] He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in Him.” And of course, Christ informed the faithful of the good news of His victory (1 Pet. 4:6).
So what happened after Jesus’ resurrection, when He left Hades? St. Paul again seems to shed light on this in Ephesians 4:8-11:
Therefore it [Psalm 68:18] says,
When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.
In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets….
Paul appears to be arguing Jesus, after descending into Hades, then rose or ascended, leading a host of captives in his train. The captives are to be understood as the saints, as the Psalm quoted describes Yahweh leading a victorious army in procession.
This is probably best understood as Jesus leading the saints waiting with Abraham directly into the presence of the Father. This makes sense of Paul’s statement in 2 Cor. 5:8, “we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” The wicked apparently remain in Hades until the judgement, where “Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged…” (Rev. 20:13).
A glimpse of this can be seen in the Gospel of St. Matthew 27:51-53:
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
These are some of the victorious ones Jesus leads into Jerusalem with Him. And we as New Testament saints can expect to follow them with Jesus into heaven (as St. Paul also seems to locate “paradise” in the “third heaven[3]” in his visions, cf. 2 Cor. 12).
Jesus’ emergence from Hades victorious with saints following is sometimes called “the Harrowing of Hell.“
Summary:
Did Jesus descend into Hell, or Gehenna, the lake of fire? No; His sacrifice on the cross was sufficient; no additional atonement needed to be made after His death.
Did Jesus descend into Hades? Yes, He descended into the underworld of Hades, into the paradise of righteousness, and proclaimed His victory across the chasm to the prisoners awaiting their sentence.
Finally, how ought we to say the Apostles’ Creed then? We should say, “He descended into Hades.” In the author’s experience, many churches now say the creed this way, which is laudable. If your church does not and deletes the line, that is acceptable since Jesus’ descent is rarely mentioned in the Apostles’ presentation of the Gospel. If your church substitutes the word “grave” or “pit,” that is also acceptable as these are synonyms of Hades and Sheol. If your church uses the word “Hell,” that is also acceptable, but remember that Hell was originally a synonym for Hades. In any case, this is not an issue to divide or argue over; rather, we should be thankful that we are part of a local church which makes a point of regularly confessing our common Christian faith. And of course, we should thank God for what followed Jesus’ descent:
The third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he shall come to judge the living and the dead.
[1] A “transliteration” is when a word from one language is brought over without change into a new language as opposed to a “translation” wherein an equivalent word is used to render the idea in the receiving language. For instance, we transliterate the Greek Christus as Christ, but the translation of “Christ” is “anointed.”
[2] There is a third compartment, the Asphodel Meadows, a middling location where most ordinary people went. However, it’s referenced much less frequently in Greek mythology.
[3] The third heaven is a Hebraism for the heaven where God dwells – the first heaven is the sky, the second heaven the universe beyond the earth, or what we might call “the heavens.”
Thumbnail image credit is Christ's Descent into Hell by Hieronymus Bosch.
If you find value in the posts, you can subscribe or join our community on Telegram.