Jesus descended to hell?

  • Thread starter Thread starter sckcd
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

sckcd

Guest
I am reading “Outlines of the Catholic Church” which I just got tonight 🙂 and have a question. What’s this about Jesus descending into hell?? Not that I am an expert, but this is news to me. Why did He go there? Where does it say this? I am assuming He did this since He paid for the sins of the world, is that right?
 
sckcd said:
I am reading “Outlines of the Catholic Church” which I just got tonight 🙂 and have a question. What’s this about Jesus descending into hell?? Not that I am an expert, but this is news to me. Why did He go there? Where does it say this? I am assuming He did this since He paid for the sins of the world, is that right?
Click to expand...
It’s also in the bible:

NJB Acts 2:27 for you will not abandon me to Hades or allow your holy one to see corruption.

Your confusion probably relates to the fact that some don’t distinguish between Hades (Hell, KJV) and Gehenna. (KJV Acts 2:27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.)

Everyone who dies goes to the biblical Hell (Hades) until they are resurrected, just like Jesus did.
 
Hell, as we call the place that Jesus descended, was called Sheol in the Old Testament. It seems to be the place where all the souls descended prior to Christ opening the Gates of Heaven.

In the parable of Lazarus, the beggar, the place seems to be called “The Bosom of Abraham”. These are the souls in prison that Christ preached to (I believe you’ll find that in one of Peter’s Epistles, which is where Catholics got this from) prior to His Resurrection.

Hell is not the same place as the fires of Gehenna, however, where the fires are never quenched and the souls of the damned are sent.

The people that Jesus preached to in “Hell” (Sheol) would be those who died prior to Christ’s death and never had a chance to accept His Message.
 
sckcd said:
I am reading “Outlines of the Catholic Church” which I just got tonight 🙂 and have a question. What’s this about Jesus descending into hell?? Not that I am an expert, but this is news to me. Why did He go there? Where does it say this? I am assuming He did this since He paid for the sins of the world, is that right?
Click to expand...
Before Christ opened up heaven for us, all the righteous dead people went to a place or state of being that the Hebrews called Sheol. It is part of hell, but it is different and separated from the hell of the damned where unrepentant sinners suffer eternally. In this place where the Hebrews called Sheol or Abraham’s Bosom (or Limbo in our Latin tradition), the righteous were in natural paradise and at the same time endured purgation to cleanse venial sin and stain of repented grave sin to prepare for reception into heaven. The reason why the righteous were not yet permitted into Heaven was because their sins were not yet fully paid or expiated by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. When Christ died on the cross he paid for all the sins of past, present, and future. So, he went down to the part of hell where the righteous Old Testament Saints were waiting for him. He preached to them about the fact of his divinity, Sonship of God, and what he did here on earth for them and others. Then he resurrected in his body to teach his apostles and then ascended into heaven and opened it up for all the righteous Old Testament Saints to come in as well as for the future Christian Saints. But, right now, anyone who dies in faith goes to heaven through purgatory, they no longer have to go to hell to wait, since Jesus broke the chains of death. Then at the Second Coming of Christ, all the Saints in heaven will resurrect in their bodies. Their bodies will be perfect, incorruptible, holy, and glorified and will be ascended into heaven just like Jesus and Mary was. The souls of the damned will also be resurrected in their bodies which will be imperfect, corruptible, unholy, and undignified and will suffer in hell for all eternity. They will wish they had never existed, but the amount of suffering will vary depending on the gravity of their sins. Likewise, in heaven the amount of pleasure of the Saints will vary depending on the amount of their practice of virtue. But, even the lowest in heaven will be content, happy, loved, and feel like a king in a paradise island and pampered like a royal baby.
 
You might also check out 1 Peter 3:18-20 & 1 Peter 4:6. Peter gives a partial account here of what Christ did after His Great Sacrafice on the Cross.

Thanks,
Derek
 
NotWorthy said:
In the parable of Lazarus, the beggar, the place seems to be called “The Bosom of Abraham”.
Click to expand...
Interesting Jewish history on this point. We read the following from 4th Maccabbes 13:16-18
[16] Therefore let us put on the full armor of self-control, which is divine reason.
[17] For if we so die, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will welcome us, and all the fathers will praise us."
[18] Those who were left behind said to each of the brothers who were being dragged away, “Do not put us to shame, brother, or betray the brothers who have died before us.”

The Jews had the expectation that if they died in God`s friendship, they would go to the place in Sheol where Abraham, Isaac & Jacob would be to greet them. In the parable of Lazarus & the rich man Jesus reiterates this same concept.

Cheers,
Derek
 
sckcd said:
I have never heard that everyone goes to hell first. Sorry, I don’t buy that.
Click to expand...
Jesus didn’t really die. If death is the opposite of life, then Jesus didn’t die, he simply went somewhere. He was transformed. When the bible says he was DEAD for three days, it doesn’t mean he was inactive or actually dead in the sense of asleep in the grave, he was ALIVE in hell speaking and acting for god.

So Jesus was always alive somewhere. Where? He went to see every human that has ever existed and has been waiting in hell for thousands of years. These dead humans are called spirits and 1 Peter 3: 18-20 it says that dead humans were the ones that were disobedient to God in the days of Noah.

So all the people that have ever lived on earth were alive in Noah’s day and when these humans died they were called “spirits” and sent to prison. When Jesus died he visited these spirits and preached the gospel to them.

Peter explained that these dead sprits in prison “… they think it strange, that you run not with them into the same confusion of riotousness, speaking evil of you. 5 Who shall render account to him, who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to the dead”

Jesus took some of these spirits that have been speaking evil of christians to heaven.

So before Jesus was resurrected to heaven, he had been to heaven once before (during this 3 day period) to take the people called “disobedient spirits” to Abraham.

Then when he resurrected himself (in his body) after being alive in heaven with Abraham and alive in hell he was finally, after 3 days, made alive again (meaning he was transformed from being alive in other places to being alive in the flesh).
 
Many translations of the Apostles Creed say ‘he descended to the dead’ rather than ‘he descended into hell’, to avoid the potential confusion.

Jesus is God. Hell of the damned is by definition a place from which God is absent, ergo Jesus could not possibly have gone there - it would’ve ceased to be hell of the damned if He had been present there.

Where He DID go was to what has been referred to as ‘Abraham’s bosom’ - a limbo state where those souls who were awaiting His saving passion were, since they could not enter heaven beforehand.

And as has been pointed out, Peter clarifies things when in his epistle he speaks of Jesus preaching to the dead.
 
Cashue said:
Jesus didn’t really die. If death is the opposite of life, then Jesus didn’t die, he simply went somewhere. He was transformed. When the bible says he was DEAD for three days, it doesn’t mean he was inactive or actually dead in the sense of asleep in the grave, he was ALIVE in hell speaking and acting for god.

…Then when he resurrected himself (in his body) after being alive in heaven with Abraham and alive in hell he was finally, after 3 days, made alive again (meaning he was transformed from being alive in other places to being alive in the flesh).
Click to expand...
You may want to make this clarification a little earlier. Jesus’ body did die. So, from a physical perspective, Jesus died. His soul, however, did not perish just as our souls do not perish.

At His Resurrection, His Soul was reunited with His resurrected Body. This is what happens to the saints in heaven during the final Resurrection.
 
NotWorthy said:
You may want to make this clarification a little earlier. Jesus’ body did die. So, from a physical perspective, Jesus died. His soul, however, did not perish just as our souls do not perish.

At His Resurrection, His Soul was reunited with His resurrected Body. This is what happens to the saints in heaven during the final Resurrection.
Click to expand...
Yes exactly! You put is so much better than me, thank you. Yes, Jesus was dead but not in the sense that lots of non-believers think of dead,(he was not unconscious, not “asleep” and not inactive in any way) he was simply transformed from the “physical perspective” into another dimension. His body died, but HE didn’t (only his body). I think of it like clothing, you burn the clothes but you still live on. Jesus’ body perished but he remained conscious and active travelling to different location for the 3 days he was “dead” and then being reunited with his body (rather like you put your clothes back on after a swim).

Thanks for explaining it more fully.
 
In Latin, the Apostles’ Creed says, “descendit in infernis”–that is, “descended to the lower regions.”

1 Peter 3:19 speaks of Christ “preaching to the spirits in prison”–that is those who had died before He did.

This is one thing ICEL got right when they rended it, “He descended to the dead”.
 
The Office of Readings for Holy Saturday presents this beautiful reading by an unknown author of the 4th Century:
Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.
Click to expand...
He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all”. Christ answered him: “And with your spirit”. He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light”.
Click to expand...
I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.
Click to expand...
See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.
Click to expand...
I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.
Click to expand...
Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.
Click to expand...
 
You are right…Jesus went to Hell to save the righteous souls . He could only do this after He died for our sins… You see, it wasn’t until His death that the poor souls in Hell could be saved.
 
My Priest has started classes to cover the Catechism again for us older people. And in our classes several words terms have comeup like this one.

He’s answer was the change in our wording has come about from finding that the inturpritation of the wording from the original Hebrew Lanuage into Latin was not always correct. And they are now going through Like this one and redefining the tranlations.

That’s why in our prayers now we say Decended to the Dead.Not Hell.

Olso referr to The Holy Spirit not Ghost. etc.
 
My Priest has started classes to cover the Catechism again for us older people. And in our classes several words terms have comeup like this one.

He’s answer was the change in our wording has come about from finding that the inturpritation of the wording from the original Hebrew Lanuage into Latin was not always correct. And they are now going through Like this one and redefining the tranlations.

That’s why in our prayers now we say Decended to the Dead.Not Hell.

Olso referr to The Holy Spirit not Ghost. etc.

References in the Bible to Hell are in the Old Testiment . For until Christ came to earth to Die for Us and Fogive us our sins there was no mention of Pergatory.
That’s in the New Testiment.
 
Have had a couple of responders say that we have now changed our Creed to descended to the dead vice descended to hell because of translations errors. But the new changes to the Mass are doing exactly the opposite. Going from descended to the dead to descended into hell. To my best knowledge the reason we are making these changes is to be more correctly aligned to the Latin.
see: usccb.org/romanmissal/examples.shtml
 
And why did Jesus tell the thief that he would join him in paradise on that day if he was to be ministering to the souls in Hell according to Peter? I never understood this
 
The KJV, Dan Parker?

That is the least reliable of all english transliterations. No reputable biblical scholars use it today.😉
 
The “hell” that Jesus was in [from the Greek, “hades”] is nothing but the grave where all the dead end up.

Acts 2:27 is better translated “Because thou wilt not leave my soul IN THE GRAVE [rather than “in hell”]….” Also, Acts 2:31 is better rendered, “He [David] seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left IN THE GRAVE [hades], neither his flesh did see corruption.” The Greek “hades” translated “hell” simply means “the grave” or a place of burial in the ground.

In I Cor. 15:3-4, we read: “… that Christ died… And that he was buried” – buried in “hades,” the grave, according to David – “and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”

What happened to Jesus also happened to the rich man and to Lazarus in Jesus’ parable. Jesus said of the rich man: “…The rich man also died, and was buried” (Luke 16:22). And during that state of being buried, Jesus said: “And in hell [Greek, hades] he lifted up his eyes….”

Where was the rich man when he lifted up his eyes? Just like Jesus, he was in a placed called “hades” – he was in the grave. Jesus, too, lifted up His eyes – when He was resurrected – in the grave. The rich man likewise lifted up his eyes from the grave during his resurrection. As Jesus said of the resurrection: “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming” – the hour of the resurrection – “in which all THAT ARE IN THE GRAVES shall hear his voice” (John 5:28).

All the dead end up in their graves [hades] – in their respective places of burial – to await the resurrection. “Hades” simply means “the grave.” It is equivalent to the Hebrew “sheol” found in the OT. The Psalms say this of death and the grave: “What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave [Hebrew, “sheol”]?” (Psalm 89:48).

Jesus died. Jesus was buried. Jesus was in the grave. For three days and three nights He laid in the grave until that time when He opened His eyes at His resurrection. Jesus did not go anywhere during those three days and three nights that He was in the grave. How could He? He was dead and buried. “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, on that very day his thoughts perish” (Psalm 146:4). That’s what happens at the moment of death. Our thoughts perish. We stop knowing anything. “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything…” (Eccl. 9:5).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top