DESCENT OF CHRIST INTO HELL

The descent of Christ into hell denotes the belief that His soul, separated from His body but remaining united to His Divine Person, passed into the abode of the dead and stayed there as long as His body, likewise remaining united to His Divine Person, reposed in the tomb, that is, until the Resurrection. The English word "hell" in this context corresponds to the Hebrew š^e'ōl (sheol), the Greek Ἅιδηζ (hades), and the Latin inferus, or infernus, and therefore means the abode of souls after death. The ancients thought and spoke of this abode as being in the underworld. Although the notion of the structure of the universe has changed, the ancient terminology persists.

In the New Testament. The apostolic kerygma proclaimed, as did the works and words of Jesus, that His power dominated the metahistorical sphere of the dead (Mt 11.5; Lk 7.22). The oldest documentary witness to the kerygma states "that Christ died…and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day" (1 Cor 15.3–4). The abrupt, archaic formula was within a few years rephrased to affirm that Jesus was raised "from the dead" (1 Thes 1.10 and passim ). Emphasis thus moved from the verifiable fact of burial to the belief in Jesus' continuing but metahistorical life between His death and His Resurrection.

The formula was rooted in the Jerusalem kerygma (Acts 3.15; 4.10; 10.41), in which Old Testament terms and images for the afterlife were early employed to expound what it meant to have returned "from the dead." The Lord's burial, like His death and Resurrection, must be "according to the Scriptures" [1 Cor 15.3–4; see also Acts 2.24–31, where Peter cites Ps 15 (16).8–11 and Ps 17 (18).6 as foretelling Christ's burial and Resurrection].

The baptized believed that Jesus had risen "from the dead," and now a phrase that described a terminus a quo became itself the object of further explication. The believer asked, "Where were the dead? Why did Jesus go to them? Who were they?" To these questions the New Testament didache addressed itself. Like the kerygma, this inquiry worked the mine of the Old Testament. Thus one sees the mysterious Jonah logion developing from Mt 16.4; Lk 11.29 (both from the "Q" source) to Mt 12.39–40 (see jonah, sign of). Popular images and terms describing the afterlife also were taken up into the New Testament; note the "Hades" of Mt 11.23; Lk 10.15 (both from the "Q" source); the parabolic didache on a man's rising from the dead (Lk 16.19–31); the "para dise" logion of Lk 23.43; and the account of the dead rising at Christ's Resurrection in Mt 27.52–53.

Paul in Rom 10.6–9 paraphrased Deuteronomy 30.11–14 and the Septuagint (LXX) reading of Ps 70 (71).20 (cf. Mt 12.40b, which alludes to the latter passage according to the Hebrew reading) to show that rising "from the dead" was equivalent to the LXX's phrase "from the abyss." In Phil 2.10 the implied three-story spatial image is referred to in the statement that "those in heaven and on earth and under the earth" must acknowledge Jesus as Lord (see also Is 45.23; Rom 10.9;14.9–12). Thus Jesus' passage into the abyss of those under the earth was an epiphany of His victory over the realm of death. A like conviction underlies Rv 1.18; Mt 16.18 (and perhaps Col 1.18; Rv 1.5).

The New Testament demurs to identify specifically the dead from whom Jesus rose. Demons can be visualized as living not only in the abyss (Lk 8.31 and Revelation, passim) but also in the air above the earth (Eph 2.2;6.12). In 1 Pt 3.18–20 an Ascension victory over such spirits is described (note "he went," not "he descended"). The dead to whom the gospel was proclaimed, according to 1 Pt 4.6, are deceased Christians who, when alive, had believed in Christ. In Heb 11.39–40; 12.22–23 it is implied that the just of the Old Testament awaited the victory of Jesus for their reward, but no descent to a place of detainment is noted; compare the single reference to Jesus rising "from the dead" in Heb 13.20.

Earlier Fathers. As the 2d century opened, Ignatius of Antioch reaffirmed the apostolic kerygma that Jesus "was really raised from the dead" (Trall. 9). He was the first to identify the dead as the Old Testament Prophets: "when He [Christ] came He raised them from the dead" (Magn. 9.2; cf. Mt 27.52 and the Jeremiah Apocryphon cited by Irenaeus, Haer. 3.20.4; 4.22.1, and Justin, Dial. 72). Where previous age had seen in the descent of Jesus a victorious epiphany, Ignatius saw its soteriological function for the righteous dead. The 2d-century Apocrypha, especially those of Syrian provenance that inherited the interests and methods of Jewish Christian theology, further developed this doctrine. In the West, Justin, Hermas, and Irenaeus (not to mention Marcion) took this soteriological aspect of the descent for granted. The 2d-century Paschal homily of Melito of Sardis also develops the dramatic imagery of the conquering of Hades by Jesus.

Tertullian spoke of the descent clearly, especially in De anima 55, where he understands the descent as the ultimate term of the incarnation. Clement of Alexandria first linked 1 Pt 3.19 with Jesus' descent, and he averred that Christ converted the souls of even the pagan dead at this time. Origen continued this exegesis. In general the early fathers used the theme of the descent to hell to speak of two aspects of salvation in Christ. In temporal terms, Christ came to save all people, even the patriarchs of the Old Testament. In spatial terms, Christ came even to the deepest realm of the earth. This teaching was upheld against the Marcionites and Gnostics.

[j. d. quinn/eds.]

Later Fathers. After the 4th century nearly all the Fathers of both East and West mentioned the descent of Christ into hell. Cyril of Alexandria continued the specific exegesis of Clement and Origen. And Saint Augustine, for instance, asked the rhetorical question: "Who but an unbeliever would deny the fact that Christ descended to the underworld" (Epist. 164).

The descent theme found a lively development in the third part of the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus (ch. 17–27), which comes down in two Latin recensions and was perhaps composed as early as the 5th century (cf. J. Quasten, Patrology 1:116), is called Descensus Christi ad inferos and tells in very dramatic style how Christ after His death entered hell, set free the Old Testament saints, and took them to heaven, whereas He cast Satan into Tartarus. The apocryphal Gospel of Bartholomew also describes the descent of Christ in detail (ibid. 127). These dramatic accounts of Christ trampling the gates of Hell inspired medieval representations of the scene. In English, the tradition came to be known as the "harrowing" of hell by Christ, from the verb whose root means "to raid." Alois Grillmeier has suggested a linear development of Latin and Greek theological interpretation of the descent with the confluence of three distinct motifs. He argued that the descent of Christ took a soteriological and then later christological trajectory. Three ways of conceiving the descent, according to a baptismal motif, a preaching motif, and a battle motif, emerge from the original soteriological focus of the descent teaching. The christological development reflects the questions put to the tradition by the growing precision in doctrinal and theological language concerning the relationship of the humanity and divinity of Christ.

The descent began to appear in the creeds in the 5th century. According to the testimony of Rufinus c. 400, it was mentioned in the recension of the Apostles' Creed being used by the Church of Aquileia (H. Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, 16). An assembly of Semi-Arian bishops included the descent in a formula that they promulgated in 369 at Sirmium in Pannonia. Gradually Churches in other localities, including Rome, inserted it (Enchiridion symbolorum 23, 27–30, 62, 63). The present form of the Apostles' Creed and the so-called Athanasian Creed, composed about the middle of the 5th century and accepted by both East and West, include it (Enchiridion symbolorum 76).

An important development of the descent tradition occurs after the fourth century in the West in conjunction with the development of a theology of hell as the place of eternal punishment for the damned. Among the early fathers, Christ's descent was placed with the horizon of universal salvation of the just who predeceased Christ. Christ descended to the dead or place of the dead, grasped like the shadowy postmortem existence in Sheol or Hades. It was not the Gehenna of fire and brimstone or the punishment of Tartarus. Gradually the moral dimensions coalesce with the more neutral image of the place of the dead in the Latin concept of hell. When Christ was understood to descend to hell, the descent motif becomes allied with the forgiveness of sin of those who had died.

Ecclesiastical Documents. Lateran Council IV in 1215 mentioned the descent (Enchiridion symbolorum 801), as did the profession of faith by Emperor Michael Palaeologus approved by the Second Council of Lyons in 1274 (Enchiridion symbolorum 852). In the meantime the Council of Sens in 1141 had condemned a view of Abelard, who held that the soul of Christ did not descend into hell in its essence, but only produced effects there by its power (Enchiridion symbolorum 738). During these centuries the imagery and theology of the the descent also developed strongly in the Byzantine and Syriac liturgical traditions, each with different accents in the development of the theme.

Teaching of Western Theologians. The fact of Christ's descent into hell is certainly an article of faith. His activity while there is not clearly defined. Thomas Aquinas addressed the descent in Summa theologiae 3,52.1–8. Since by His death and Resurrection Christ gained the victory, not only over death, but also over sin and Satan, His descent must be interpreted in the light of that victory. Before His Passion no one could enter heaven (Summa theologiae 3, 49.5 ad 1). Now the Redeemer brought deliverance to those who before their death were united to His Passion through faith quickened by charity whereby sins are taken away. He did not descend in order to suffer there, or to convert unbelievers or those lacking charity, but to put them to shame for their unbelief and wickedness. To those lost souls His descent brought no deliverance from the debt of punishment. To the just and holy souls of the Patriarchs, those who had died with faith and charity and were now free from all sin and debt of punishment, Christ imparted the fruit of His Passion. He delivered them from the penalty whereby they had hitherto been excluded from the light of glory. He did not lead them at once from the confines of hell, but enlightened them with the light of glory in hell itself (Summa theologiae 3, 52.4 ad 1). He took them to heaven when He ascended (Summa theologiae 3, 57.6). According to the imagery of the day, Christ descended into all the sections of the underworld, insofar as by His power He produced the effects mentioned, but into the Limbo of the Patriarchs His soul itself united to His Divine Person descended and remained till the resurrection on Easter morning.

Contemporary Teaching. The descent of Christ to hell was retrieved in 20th-century theology in conjunction with by a number of exegetical and patristic studies. The outstanding figure is Hans Urs von Balthasar who developed the descent as a trinitarian event in the drama of salvation where the descent is the "deployment of the effects of the Cross in the abyss of deadly perdition." He emphasized the descent of Christ to hell as the "final consequence of the redemptive mission." Herbert Vorgrimler also presented the descent to hell as a decisive juncture for vital theological issues like theological anthropology, questions of the universality of salvation, and soteriological implications of Jesus' descent. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (nos. 631–35) gives brief consideration to the doctrine. It emphasizes that Jesus "did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him."

The Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours for Holy Saturday gives poetic expression to the descent. In the office of readings, for example, the antiphons emphasize rest imagery, a divine Sabbath. The third psalm, Ps 24, has long been associated in the tradition of medieval liturgical drama, where its dialogue, "Lift high your heads, ancient doors," etc., was used to depict Christ at the gates of hell. The second reading is taken from an anonymous Greek homily (Patrologia Graeca, 43, 439, 451, 462–63). It gives vivid narrative development to the descent, drawing on a variety of stock motifs like the silence of earth, the trembling of hell, the rescue of the First Adam, the rousing of the sleepers in hell, the trophy of the cross, and the opening of paradise. The dramatic imagery of epiphany, proclamation, and struggle find ample expression in the paschal liturgies of the Byzantine and Syriac churches where Christ's trampling Death by his death and descent is a consitutive metaphor for proclamation of the resurrection.

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[j. h. rohling/eds.]