CREED: I BELIEVE ... [JESUS] DESCENDED INTO HELL

First of all, this phrase is not found in all versions of the Apostle's Creed, and that may because the passages it is based on are ambiguous, or that the issue it would address was not a great enough issue to “defend”. Or because it was added later, and therefore not counted as “authentic” as versions without it. But for the sake of “So What” I will cover it.

Secondly, my “Catechism” had this notation with the phrase: “Note that the words in the Creed He descended into hell are considered as words of the same meaning as He went into the place of departed spirits.”

The scriptures quoted to support the phrase are as follows:

Matthew 27:52; Eph. 4:9; and Acts 2:31. I Peter 4:6 and 3:18ff are also used.

Matt.27:52 records that “the graves were opened: and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared to many.” That would certainly make room to conclude that something happened “to awake” the spirits of the saints. (Saints obviously being Old Testament persons as per Hebrews 11.)

Ephesians 4:9 (KJV) might imply a descent into an “underground” when it says of Jesus that “he also descended first to the lower parts of the earth”. The NIV says only “What does “he ascended “ mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?”, and the NIV Study Bible footnote comments thusly: “ascended... descended. Although Paul quoted from the psalm to introduce the idea of the “gifts to men,” he takes the opportunity to remind his readers of Christ's coming to earth (his incarnation) and his subsequent resurrection and ascension. This passage probably does not teach, as some think and as some translations suggest, that Christ descended into hell.”

I think I agree that in context this is just stating that Jesus descended from Heaven and came to earth (which may seem like hell to one who has been in heaven, but I don't think that is ever suggested).

Acts 2:31 and it being connected to the Psalm 16:10 is sufficient for me to accept that when Jesus died, his spirit did in fact go to that “place of departed spirits” or as Luke 16:22 calls it, “Abraham's bosom”. What he did there may be explained in 1Peter 4:6 and I Peter 3:18ff., but I am not convinced that there isn't a simpler explanation for these verses than trying to read into them justification for the creedal statement that really isn't dependent on having anything “happen” there other than that up to the resurrection, this is what “happened” to every “righteous” “son of Abraham”.

And this is why the phrase found entrance into the Creed.

It answered the heresy of Docetism, which denied that Jesus had a real body, (which they taught was “material” and that “material” was evil) He only appeared to have a body.

The Creed then, in saying that Jesus “crucified, dead and buried. He descended into hell.” is saying loud and clear, that touching on his humanity, there is nothing that we can experience that he has not “passed through.”

The “so what” factor is that of Jesus we can say that in all things, (except giving in to temptation to do his own will) he “has been there and done that.”

For me, there are other implications.

His descent into the place of departed spirits, was BEFORE the resurrection. That means that things are different now. I think it significant that the New Testament, POST Resurrection statement is that to be “absent from the body is to be present with the Lord”. I don't think pre-resurrection deceased saints could say that.

I think the statements about those who are alive when Jesus returns will not precede those who are asleep, has to do with the fact that Jesus “descended”. I think many of our speculations about “soul sleep” or “what happens until” etc. are answered when I remember that Jesus, before his resurrection, experienced the “final frontier” of human life... i.e. Death. But we still think in terms of dying as though Jesus didn't affect changes when he was resurrected, yet surely the strange passage in Matthew 27:52 hints otherwise. I think we are too bound in “time” to begin to grasp that it doesn't have to continue in a linear way, once we “expire”. Personally, without any scriptural support, and maybe because I have read too much science fiction or fantasy, I picture my death, “The Rapture” if you believe in it, and the marriage supper of the Lamb, taking place all at the same “time” from the participants perspective. It is only for our earth bound minds that we explain them from an earthly perspective, and in a chronological order.

But this is an aside. I can say. I believe that he “descended into hell” but not the place of torment. He died, a fully human death. No aspect of it was short circuited. Because of that, I can accept the next part about the resurrection and take hope and comfort for myself AND declare it confidently to anyone else who is concerned about “What happens when I (or a loved one) dies.

So, “so what?”