Christ's Descent into Hades

The Scriptures testify to the fact that Christ descended into Hades to fill it with Himself, (Eph. 4:10). The gates of death opened to Him for fear; and the porters of hell quaked when they saw Him, (Job 38:17 LXX). Jesus preached the gospel to those who were dead, that they might live, (1 Pet. 4:6). He bound the strong man, and plundered Hades, (Mark 3:27). He destroyed the devil and freed those who through fear of death were subject to bondage, (Heb. 2:14-15). He brought hell’s captives out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains, (Ps. 107:14). God put an end to the agony of death and raised Christ, (Acts 2:24). Christ ascended and led away the captives and gave them gifts, (Ps 68:18; Eph. 4:8-10). He ransomed them from the power of hell, redeemed them from death, and destroyed hell, (Hos. 13:14). He's alive and has the keys of Hades and of Death, (Rev. 1:18).

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared,” (1 Pet. 3:18-20) The descent of Christ into Hades was an event of cosmic significance affecting all people. Many of the Church Fathers, as we will see, speak about the victory of Christ over death, the devastation of hell, and that after Christ’s descent into Hades there was no one left there except for the devil and demons. Even the people that God, according to the author of Genesis claims, “was sorry that He had made,” was literally evangelized (euaggelizó) by Jesus in Hades.

Several Bible stories for the Church Fathers, foretold Jesus' 'harrowing of Hades'. The story of Jonah for example, was according to Jesus, a story of Jesus Himself. So the story came to be understood also by the Church Fathers as typifying Christ’s conquering of hell.

Jerome wrote: "Thou didst swallow up our Jonah, but even in thy belly He still lived. Thou dost carry him as one dead, that the world’s storm might be stilled and our Nineveh saved by His preaching," (Letter 60 to Heliodorus, 2).

For Jerome, Jesus descended into hell “in order to liberate all those who were locked there,” since all of Nineveh was saved. (Interpretation of the Book of Jonah 2, 11. Cited from: S. Hieronymi Presbyteri Opera, pars 1, 6, CCSL 76 -Louvain, 1969-, pp. 399-400) Jerome came to that conclusion from Jonah’s proclamation of salvation in the “belly of Sheol,” (Jon. 2:9).

Apocryphal Literature and Early Christian Poetry

Apocryphal books that did not contradict church doctrine were kept in church tradition. Many ideas contained in them entered liturgical texts and other Christian literature. The Gospel of Nicodemus was one of them.

Its author beautifully composed a conversation that takes place between hell (who is personified as an acting character in the story) and satan. Hell says: “Jesus putteth to flight by the brightness of his majesty all the darkness of death, and hath broken the strong depths of the prisons, and let out the prisoners and loosed them that were bound. And all that were sighing in our torments do rejoice against us, and at their prayers our dominions are vanquished and our realms conquered.” (M.R. James. Trans., “The Gospel of Nicodemus,” in The Apocryphal New Testament -Oxford, 1950-, p. 22-23)

Jesus invaded hell, vanquished the devil and demons, smashed the gates, and broke their locks and bolts.

The theme continued in early Christian poetry, and still is a major theme in the proclamation of the gospel, especially in the eastern churches. The ancient troparion (a type of hymn) is still sung in the Orthodox Church: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life” This hymn reflects a theological idea formed by St Irenaeus of Lyons, that the redemption of Christ, the last Adam, is a “recapitulation” (a backward reproduction) of the life of the first Adam, who personifies all mankind. In order to “restore in himself all people who came from Adam,” Jesus corrects the fall of Adam by becoming the “first-born from the dead,” and thus Christ renews all, “having himself become the first of the living, just as Adam became the first of the dying,” (Against Heresies, 3, 20, 3).

In the Gospel of Peter we find a story about Christ leaving his tomb. A voice from heaven said: “Hast thou preached to them that sleep?” And a response was heard from the cross, “Yea.”

The Shepherd of Hermas claimed that even the apostles and teachers, after falling asleep, preached the gospel to the dead – those who did not “bear the name of the Son of God.”

In the Teachings of Silvanus, we find that Jesus was thought to have “released the children of death” in the underworld. When all the powers saw Jesus, they fled, and so Jesus brought the wretched up from the abyss. Jesus saved those who were in “the strong hand of the underworld,” (103.28-4.14).

“When I vanished away from the cross,” Jesus supposedly said, according to The Gospel of Bartholomew, “then went I down into Hades that I might bring up Adam and all them that were with him” (1-20).

This text reflects a tradition that influenced church hymnography immensely. It’s one of the most common subjects in ecclesiastical poetry (notably in St. Ephrem the Syrian and St. Romanos the Melodist). Christ's descent into hell was a central part of the gospel message. The Apostle's Creed:

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried;

he descended into hell

on the third day he rose again from the dead;

he ascended into heaven

Melito of Sardis, who claimed to follow the practice of John the Apostle (whose home had been in Ephesus, about 50 miles from Sardis), wrote that Jesus was the one that “destroyed death and triumphed over the enemy and trod down Hades and bound the strong one.” Jesus, according to Melito “carried off man to the heights of heaven.” (On Pascha and Fragments, SC, 123, 120, text and trans., ed. Stuart George Hall -Oxford 1979-, pp. 57-99, 100-103)

Jesus is the “peace and hope to the dead in Sheol,” according to the Acts of Thomas. Christ “hurled the evil one from his power,” and called “to the dead and they came alive.” He went into Sheol’s uttermost end, brought out its prisoners, “and trod for them the path [leading] above.”

(A.F.J. Klijn, The Acts of Thomas -Leiden: Brill, 1962-, p. 70)

And the Ode of Solomon states: “Death has been destroyed before my (Jesus’) face, and Sheol has been vanquished by my word.” (Ode 15,8-11 (trans. J.H. Charlesworth).

Early Church Fathers

St Irenaeus of Lyons in his “Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching” asserted that Christ’s descent into Hades “was for the salvation of the dead.”

In his treatise, Irenaeus refers to a passage he attributes to the prophet Isaiah: “And the holy Lord remembered his dead Israel, who had slept in the land of sepulture; and he came down to preach his salvation to them, that he might save them.”

(Against Heresies 3, 20, 4; 4, 27, 2; 5,31,2)

Justin Martyr also ascribed the passage to Jeremiah and blamed the Jews for deleting it from the Old Testament.

Clement of Alexandria in his “Stromateis” pointed out that Christ, according to the Scriptures, “preached the Gospel to those that perished in the flood, or rather had been chained, and to those detained in ward and guard.” And so Jesus drew “to salvation those who became willing.” Hence Clement concluded that “God, being good, and the Lord powerful, saves with a righteousness and equality which extend to all that turn to Him, whether here or elsewhere.” (6,6).

Clement's student, Origen, continued in the same vein, and articulated how “the realm of death is truly destroyed and the captivity that it held is abducted.” (Commentary on Romans 5, 1 (PG 14:1019bc).

Fourth Century Eastern Fathers

St Athanasius said that Jesus “redeemed all of us, or rather the whole race of humans, from death, and brought them up from the grave,” (Festal Letter 10, 10).

The homily “On the Soul, Body, and Passions of Our Lord, ascribed to St. Athanasius, or maybe St. Alexander of Alexandria, described Christ’s harrowing of Hades:

“Christ made Amente (a Coptic word analogous to the Greek Hades) to quake and the power of the Devil he turned backwards. Death heard the voice of the Lord as he cried unto all souls:

“Come forth, O ye who are bound in fetters, O ye who sit in the darkness and shadow of death, on you hath the light risen. I preach unto you life, for I am Christ, the Son of God.”

Then He set free the souls of the saints, and he raised them up with Him. “Now all mankind shall receive salvation through the death of Christ…One died in order that all might rise from the dead. And the Lord died on behalf of everyone, in order that everyone should rise from the dead with Him. For having died, he put man on himself like a garment, and took him with him into the heavens, and man became one with him. He took him as a gift to His Father.”

(Coptic Homilies in the Dialect of Upper Egypt, pp. 273-274)

St Gregory of Nyssa had his theory of 'divine desception.' When Christ descended in hell, the devil thought He was a human being, but this was a divine ‘hook’ disguised under a human ‘bait’ that the devil swallowed. By admitting God into his domain, the devil signed his own death warrant: incapable of enduring God's presence, he was overcome and defeated, and hell was destroyed.

(The Great Catechetical Oration 23-24 & The Homily on the Three-Day Period, pp. 452-454)

In the poem “Christus patiens,” ascribed to be written by St Gregory Nazianzen, Mary, the mother of Jesus, says that Jesus will descend to Hades to take the dead with Him. And so He will “liberate all.” She said, “having seized the [human] race,” Jesus will depart “from Hades with glory.”

St Amphilochius of Iconium claimed that Jesus emptied the tombs by His resurrection. “All ran after Him” and “all were released.” Every captive rejoiced because “the light shone and the darkness faded away,” (Homily 6, Against the Heretics).

St John Chrysostom described how Jesus “broke in pieces” the gates of hell “in order that the whole prison become useless,” and that “the guard of hell’s gates would become powerless.” And concludes therefore, “where there is neither door, nor lock, there whoever enters will not be guarded. So, if Christ breaks in pieces, who else can repair it…This place of Hades, dark and joyless, had been eternally deprived of light; this is why the [gates] are called dark and invisible. They were truly dark until the Sun of righteousness descended [into Hades], illuminated it and made Hades Heaven. For where Christ is, there also is Heaven,” (Homily on the Cemetery and the Cross PG 49:394-395)

The prisoners in hell, were treasures that the devil had robbed, but Jesus brought with him “the entire human race, to the royal treasury.”

(Homily on the Cemetery and the Cross PG 49:395-396)

But he said it best in his Catechetical Homily on Holy Easter:

“Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions. It was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen. O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.”

St. Ephrem in his “Homily on Our Lord”, said that Jesus “went forth out of Sheol and settled in the Kingdom so that he could tread a path from Sheol…to the Kingdom that rewards everyone,” (Des heiligen Ephraem des Syrers Sermo de Domino nostro CSCO 270, Scriptores Siri 116, 1)

Fifth to Seventh Century Eastern Fathers

“For having destroyed hell and opened the impassable gates for the departed spirits, he left the devil there abandoned and lonely,” said St Cyril of Alexandria in his “Paschal Homilies.” (Seventh Paschal Homily 2 PG 77:552a)

“He showed the way to salvation not only to us, but also to the spirits in hell; having descended, he preached to those once disobedient, as Peter says. For it did not befit for love of man to be partial, but the manifestation of [this] gift should have been extended to all nature… Having preached to the spirits in hell and having said “go forth” to the prisoners, and “show yourself” to those in prison on the third day, he resurrected his temple,”

(2nd Festive Letter 8, 52-89)

But the best quote of him must be this one: “Death unwilling to be defeated is defeated; corruption is transformed; unconquerable passion is destroyed…For it not only ceases to claim those who are still to fall [in the future], but also sets free those already captured, being subjected to splendid devastation by the power of our Saviour,”

(Fifth Festive Letter 1, 29-40)

St John Damascene pointed out that since the “Sun of Righteousness,” as he called him, “rose for those upon the earth,” He must also “bring light to those who sit under the earth in darkness and the shadow of death.” His logical conclusion was that since Jesus “brought the message of peace to those upon the earth, and of release to the prisoners, and of sight to the blind, and became to those who believed the Author of everlasting salvation,” then He also had to be the “same to those in Hades: That every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

(An Exact Exposition of Orthodox Faith 3, 29)