Jesus' descent into hell

Harrowing of Hell, from Petites Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry, folio 166 (14th cent.)

It is a Christian belief that between his crucifixion and resurrection Jesus descended into hell, where he preached and brought salvation to souls imprisoned there. Christian tradition states that this was not “hell” as the state of eternal punishment for sin but a realm where all the dead abided.

The tradition of Jesus’ triumphant descent into hell, also called the “harrowing of hell,” became a part of the Church’s theology as affirmed in the Apostles’ Creed, the statement of the fundamental tenets of Christian belief that in its earliest form can be traced back to the second century. The Roman Catholic version of the creed states that Jesus “was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day he arose again from the dead.” I Pet. 3:19 states that Christ “preached unto the spirits in prison.”

In his exegesis on this verse in The Interpreter's Bible, Achibald M. Hunter points out that

Exegetes have differed about the interpretation of every word.... The simplest meaning is that our Lord descended between his passion and resurrection, to preach to certain spirits imprisoned in Hades.... But who were the imprisoned spirits? Just possibly the fallen angels of Gen. 6:1–4. Much more probably Peter meant the spirits of the rebellious generation who perished in the Flood.

Hunter says that the early Christians may also have been concerned about

... the fate of those who had died before the gospel was preached.... Christ went down “in the spirit,” says Peter, into Hades,... in order to offer salvation to sinners who had died without hearing the gospel and getting a chance to repent.... In the apocryphal Gospel According to St. Peter (ca. A.D. 130), among the wonders attending the Crucifixion we read the question, “Hast thou preached to those who have fallen asleep?” To which the answer was heard from the Cross, “Yes.” And in the Middle Ages the harrowing of hell was a common theme in popular poetry and theology.

In a dictation delivered on Easter Sunday, April 6, 1969, through the Messenger Mark L. Prophet, Jesus said he had come to exhort us with the same sermon he had preached to

... the rebellious spirits that in the days of Noah were disobedient unto God.... I preached and repreached and spoke again and again to each soul that I could find there who was in chains of bondage and despair. Many gazed upon me with dullness in their eyes, the dullness of despair, the centuries of timeworn care and fear and doubt. The very light of God seemed to them [to be] put out and I sought to rekindle it then as I do today to rekindle it in you God’s way.

Sources

Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 32, no. 23, June 4, 1989.