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The Harrowing of Hell is a doctrine in Christian theology referenced in the Apostles' Creed, which states that Jesus "descended into hell." It has been termed the most controversial in the Apostle's Creed.^[1]

Contents 1 Terminology 2 Biblical sources 2.1 Early Christian Teaching 3 Conceptions of the afterlife 4 Interpretations of the doctrine 4.1 Roman Catholic 4.2 Eastern Orthodox 4.3 Protestant 4.4 Latter-day Saints (Mormon) 5 In literature 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

The original Greek wording in the Apostles' Creed is κατελθόντα εἰς τὰ κατώτατα, ("katelthonta eis ta katôtata"), and in Latin descendit ad inferos. The Greek τὰ κατώτατα ("the lowest") and the Latin inferos ("those below") may also be translated as "underworld," "netherworld," or as "abode of the dead." Thus, sometimes this phrase is translated as "descended to the dead." The first use of the English "harrowing" in this context is in homilies of Aelfric, c. AD 1000. The term "Harrowing of Hell" may also refer not merely to the idea that Christ descended into Hell, as in the Creed, but to the rich tradition that developed later, asserting that he triumphed over inferos, releasing Hell's captives, particularly Adam, Eve, and the righteous men and women whose stories are recorded in the Septuagint.

The doctrine is inferred from a particular interpretation of the following verses.

• Acts 2:27 and 2:31 declare in effect that Hades ("place of the dead") could not hold the crucified Christ.

• Two passages of 1 Peter principally have been used as a basis for the ancient doctrine.

• 1 Peter 3:19-20 says that Jesus "went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah...."^[2]

• 1 Peter 4:6 says that the gospel was "proclaimed even to the dead..." (NRSV). ("εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ νεκροῖς εὐηγγελίσθη. . . ")

A reference in 2 Corinthians 2:14 has been interpreted^{[citation needed]} by some to include the harrowing of Hell: "But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him"^[3]

• The Epistle to the Ephesians 4:8-10 has also been understood by others to suggest a Harrowing of Hell doctrine:

This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men." (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe). (NRSV)

διὸ λέγει, ἀναβὰς εἰς ὕψος ᾐχμαλώτευσεν αἰχμαλωσίαν, ἔδωκεν δόματα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις. τὸ δὲ ἀνέβη τί ἐστιν εἰ μὴ ὅτι καὶ κατέβη εἰς τὰ κατώτερα [μέρη] τῆς γῆς; ὁ καταβὰς αὐτός ἐστιν καὶ ὁ ἀναβὰς ὑπεράνω πάντων τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἵνα πληρώσῃ τὰ πάντα.

This is a truncated paraphrase adapting Psalm 68:18, with a changed point of view: "When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you received gifts from men, even from the rebellious—that you, O LORD God, might dwell there." (NIV) The parenthetical verses 9–10 of Ephesians are widely read as an exegetical gloss on the text. The word for "lower parts" (the comparative form: τὰ κατώτερα) is similar to the word used for "hell" in the Greek version of the Apostles Creed (the superlative form: τὰ κατώτατα, English: "lowest [places]"). Noted New Testament theologian Frank Stagg identifies three views of this passage from Ephesian:^[4]

• Jesus' burial, or
• His descent into the underworld or hell, or
• His Incarnation as an act of deep humility.^{[citation needed]}

• Zachariah 9:11 refers to prisoners in a waterless pit. "As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water." The verses' reference to captives has been presented as a reflection of Yahweh's captives of the enemy in Psalm 68:18–19: "God's chariots were myriad, thousands upon thousands; from Sinai the Lord entered the holy place. You went up to its lofty height; you took captives, received slaves as tribute. No rebels can live in the presence of God."
• Isaiah 24:21-22 also refers to spirits in prison, reminiscent of Peter's account of a visitation to spirits in prison: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited."

The Harrowing of Hell was taught by theologians of the early church: St. Melito of Sardis (died ca 180) Homily on the Passion; Tertullian (A Treatise on the Soul, 55), Hippolytus (Treatise on Christ and Anti-Christ) and Origen (Against Celsus, 2:43). and, later, St. Ambrose (died 397) all wrote of the Harrowing of Hell.

The Gospel of Matthew relates that immediately after Christ died, the earth shook, the veil in the Temple was torn in two, and many people rose from the dead and walked about in Jerusalem testifying. According to the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, the Harrowing of Hell was foreshadowed by Christ's raising of Lazarus from the dead prior to his own crucifixion. The hymns proper to the weekend suggest that John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus in Hell by prophesying to those held there that Christ would soon release them, just as he prepared the way for Jesus on earth.-->

In the Acts of Pilate—usually incorporated with the widely-read medieval Gospel of Nicodemus—texts built around an original that might have been as old as the 3rd century A.D. with many improvements and embroidered interpolations, chapters 17 to 27 are called the Decensus Christi ad Inferos. They contain a dramatic dialogue between Hades and prince Satan, and the entry of the King of Glory, imagined as from within Tartarus (see link below). The richest, most circumstantial accounts of the Harrowing of Hell are found in medieval dramatic literature, such as the four great cycles of English mystery plays which each devote a separate scene to depict it, or in passing references in Dante's Inferno. The subject is found also in the Cornish mystery plays and the York and Wakefield cycles: see Mystery play. These medieval versions of the story do not derive from the bare suggestion made in the Epistle ascribed to Peter, but come from the Gospel of Nicodemus.

The Old Testament affirms that Job and other righteous men went to Sheol when they died, as did David and the other psalmists. No Hebrew figure ever descended into Sheol and returned, although an apparition of the recently deceased Samuel briefly appeared to Saul when summoned by the witch of Endor. Parts of the New Testament can be read as drawing a distinction between Sheol, the common "place of the dead" in Hebrew [sh°'ôl], and Gehenna, the lake of eternal fire where the evil dead are tormented. English accounts are not always mindful of this distinction, and the two destinations may both be rendered Hell.

The Hellenistic views of heroic descent into the Underworld and successful return follow traditions that are far older than the mystery religions popular at the time of Christ. The Epic of Gilgamesh includes such a scene, and it appears also in the Odyssey. Writing shortly before the birth of Jesus, Vergil included it in the Aeneid. What little we know of the worship in mystery religions such as the Eleusinian Mysteries and Mithraism suggests that a ritual death and rebirth of the initiate was an important part of their liturgy. Again, this has earlier parallels, in particular with the worship of Osiris. The ancient homily on The Lord's Descent into Hell may mirror these traditions by referring to baptism as a symbolic death and rebirth. (cf. Colossians 2:9-15) Or, these traditions of Mithraism may be drawn from early Christian homilies.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic church, "He descended into hell" affirms that Jesus did really die, and through his substitutionary death he conquered death and the devil. In his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven's gates for the just who had gone before him [1].

According to the topology of the Underworld developed by Catholic thinkers in the middle ages, Sheol consists of different areas, or levels:

• Infernus: the place of torment for the unrighteous damned and the demons. This is the place one most often thinks of when one hears the word "Hell.";
• Purgatory: where the saved souls go to be purged of the temporal effects of their sins in preparation for Heaven; it is not actual part of Hell, but not Heaven either
• the Limbo of the Infants (Limbus Infantium): a place of perfect, natural subjective happiness to which those who died before Baptism (and so are denied the Beatific Vision) but who have not committed personal sins (so don't warrant punishment) go. The existence of the Limbo of the Infants is not a matter of dogma, but a theological conclusion that derives from and preserves understanding of both the justice and mercy of God (note that current Roman Catholic theology teaches that unbaptised infants still receive the sacrament of baptism through the Baptism of Desire^{[citation needed]}, and that the concept of Limbo is not part of the doctrine);
• the Limbo of the Patriarchs (Limbus Patrum): where the righteous who lived before Jesus came to earth went. It is this part of "Hell" that Christ descended into. This doctrine no longer exists in Catholic theology.

Early church father Ambrose believed that if Christ could not have suffered in Hell, then Christ could not have suffered on the Cross. For St. John Chrysostom, the harrowing of Hell was a paradox that was an essential part of the Christian mystery of faith: "Hell took a body, and discovered God; it took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see" (from John Chrysostom's Paschal homily). Much later, St. Thomas Aquinas explained the doctrine, saying that "when Christ descended into hell, by the power of his Passion he delivered the saints from this penalty whereby they were excluded from the life of glory...."

There is an ancient homily on the subject, of unknown authorship, usually entitled The Lord's Descent into Hell that is the second reading at Matins on Holy Saturday in the Roman Catholic Church.

The Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, in his innovative book Mysterium Paschale (especially pp. 148-188 in 1990 English edition), explores the theological meaning of Holy Saturday, where the Son Jesus Christ dies and descends to the dead, to be resurrected by God the Father, thus revealing that God can endure and conquer godlessness, abandonment, and death. God, in Jesus Christ, goes as far from God as one can go (Hell), and still is God, the Son Himself—even there—living utterly for the Father.

The typical Eastern Orthodox icon of the Resurrection of Jesus shows Jesus standing on the broken and flattened gates of Hell (also called the Doors of Death, which have fallen to form the pattern of a cross), holding the hands of Adam and Eve and pulling them up out of Hell, and surrounded by various righteous figures from the Old Testament (Abraham, David, etc.); the bottom of the icon shows Hell as a place of darkness and death, often with various bones strewn about, and one figure still tied up in chains who is generally identified as Death or the Devil.

John Chrysostom's homily also addresses the Harrowing of Hell, and is typically read as the chief homily at Pascha, the Eastern Orthodox celebration of Easter. In the Orthodox liturgical practice, the chief "liturgical color" goes from purple on Good Friday to white on Holy Saturday in celebration of the harrowing of Hell then taking place, and in anticipation of Christ's imminent resurrection.

The historical mainstream Protestant position is that if Christ had descended into Hell (place of eternal suffering), he would have had to bear God's Curse. Protestant Christians typically agree with John Calvin. He expressed his concern that many Christians "have never earnestly considered what it is or means that we have been redeemed from God's judgment. Yet this is our wisdom: duly to feel how much our salvation cost the Son of God." Calvin's conclusion is that "Christ's descent into hell was necessary for Christians' atonement, because Christ did in fact endure the penalty for the sins of the redeemed. ^[5]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon church) teaches that after his death on the cross, Jesus Christ visited the spirits in Paradise to organize the faithful dead to carry the message of the gospel to prison to those who had not had the opportunity to receive it while alive.

Mormons believe that after His death, the Savior visited the righteous dead and organized them to preach the Gospel to the wicked and to the ignorant, the vast multitudes who had never heard the Gospel. Thus Christ's mission to the spirit world prepared the way for the deceased from all history and throughout the world to accept Christ's teachings and be baptized into his church. Mormon doctrine teaches that from that day forward, the righteous dead have continued to preach the gospel to the spirits in spirit prison, thus affording an opportunity to all who have died throughout history to choose to accept the gospel. A vision of the event of Christ's gospel and the nature of the work done in the Spirit world is recorded in Section 138 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

Latter-day Saint theology, therefore, does not suggest a one-time event in which Christ descends to souls in limbo and binds Satan. He instead visited Paradise to organize an ongoing process that will continue until everyone in Spirit Prison has had the opportunity to either accept or reject Christ and his atonement.

• In Stephen Lawhead's novel Byzantium, a young Irish monk is asked to explain Jesus' life to a group of Vikings, who are particularly impressed with Jesus' "Helreið."
• In I.L. Peretz's short story Neilah in Gehenna, a Jewish hazzan descends to Hell and uses his unique voice to bring about the repentance and liberation of the souls imprisoned there.
• In Dante's Inferno the Harrowing of Hell is mentioned in Canto IV.

1. ^ http://www.creeds.net/ancient/descendit.htm
2. ^ New Revised Standard Version. In the original Greek: "ἐν ᾧ καὶ τοῖς ἐν φυλακῇ πνεύμασιν πορευθεὶς ἐκήρυξεν, ἀπειθήσασίν ποτε ὅτε ἀπεξεδέχετο ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ μακροθυμία ἐν ἡμέραις Νῶε. . . ."
3. ^ NRSV "τῶ δὲ θεῶ χάρις τῶ πάντοτε θριαμβεύοντι ἡμᾶς ἐν τῶ χριστῶ καὶ τὴν ὀσμὴν τῆς γνώσεως αὐτοῦ φανεροῦντι δι᾽ ἡμῶν ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ."
4. ^ Stagg, Frank. New Testament Theology. Nashville: Broadman, p. 311.
5. ^ http://www.reformed.org/master/index.html?mainframe=/documents/Christ_in_hell/index.html

• Christian mythology
• Jesus as myth

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Harrowing of Hell
• Doctrines and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Covenant 138) Vision of Christ's ministry to the dead.
• Encyclopedia Britannica: Harrowing of Hell
• Gospel of Nicodemus: Descensus Christ ad inferos (English)
• Le Harrowing of Hell dans les Cycles de York, Towneley et Chester, by Alexandra Costache-Babcinschi (E-Book, French)
• Lord's Descent into Hell, The
• Russian Orthodox iconography of the Harrowing of Hell
• Savior's Visit to the Spirit World, by Elder Spencer J. Condie
• Summa Theologica: Christ's descent into hell