Jesus’ Descent Into Hades
The Apostles’ Creed contains a line that has puzzled Christians for centuries: Jesus “descended into hell.”
That sounds straightforward until we ask what hell means.
Did Jesus go to the place where the wicked are punished? Did He descend to Hades, the realm of the dead? Did He preach to people who had died before Him? Did He release the Old Testament saints and take them to heaven? Or does the language of descending into hell refer to His suffering on the cross rather than something He did afterward?
Christians have given all of those answers.
I believe Jesus really descended into Hades between His death and resurrection. I do not believe He went there to continue suffering for our sins. Beyond that, I’m reluctant to be dogmatic. The Bible gives us several tantalizing passages about what happened between the crucifixion and resurrection, but tantalizing isn’t the same thing as clear.
Key Scriptures
- Luke 23:43 — Jesus tells the thief that they will be together in Paradise that day.
- Acts 2:27–31 — Peter applies Psalm 16 to Christ and says His soul was not left in Hades.
- Ephesians 4:8–10 — Paul says Christ descended and later ascended, “leading captivity captive.”
- 1 Peter 3:18–20 — Christ makes proclamation to the “spirits in prison.”
- 1 Peter 4:6 — Peter says the gospel was preached even to the dead.
- Matthew 12:40 — Jesus compares His coming death with Jonah and says He will be in “the heart of the earth.”
First, What Do We Mean by “Hell”?
This is where a good deal of the confusion begins.
The Bible uses different terms that have sometimes been translated with the single English word hell. Sheol is the Hebrew term commonly associated with the realm of the dead. Its Greek counterpart is generally Hades. Gehenna, on the other hand, is associated with divine judgment and is what people usually mean today when they speak of hell as the place of punishment.
Those aren’t distinctions we can casually erase.
So when someone asks, “Did Jesus go to hell?” my first response is: Which hell are we talking about?
If we mean Hades, I believe He did.
If we mean the place of punishment where Jesus continued suffering for our sins after the cross, I don’t believe He did.
But before getting to my reasons, it’s worth looking at how Christians have answered the question historically.
The Early Church Believed Christ Descended to the Dead
The idea that Jesus descended into Hades certainly wasn’t invented during the Middle Ages.
Irenaeus, writing in the second century, said that the Lord descended “into the regions beneath the earth” and proclaimed His coming there. He specifically associated this with the righteous, prophets and patriarchs who had lived before Christ.
Tertullian was equally explicit. He believed Christ remained in Hades in the condition of a dead man and connected the descent with Christ making the patriarchs and prophets “partakers of Himself.”
These writers didn’t necessarily agree on all the details of the intermediate state. That’s important. We shouldn’t take a later, fully developed doctrine and read every detail of it back into the second or third century.
But we can say something with confidence: the belief that Christ actually descended to the realm of the dead is very old.
The Harrowing of Hell
One of the most famous interpretations eventually became known as the Harrowing of Hell.
Despite the name, the traditional doctrine doesn’t mean that Jesus went to the place of final punishment and was tortured by Satan.
In the traditional Catholic understanding, Christ descended to the realm of the dead and liberated the righteous who had died before His saving work was completed. The current Catholic Catechism describes the dead Christ going to the realm of the dead and opening heaven to the righteous who had gone before Him. It explicitly distinguishes this from Jesus going to suffer among the damned.
The basic picture is usually something like this: before Christ’s resurrection, the righteous dead awaited redemption in the place Jesus calls Abraham’s bosom in <a href=”https://jewandgreek.com/bible/?translation=web&book=LUK&chapter=16&verses=19-31″>Luke 16:19–31</a>. Christ descended to them after His death, announced His victory, and opened the way into the presence of God.
That’s where another interesting passage enters the discussion.
Did Jesus “Lead Captivity Captive”?
Paul writes in <a href=”https://jewandgreek.com/bible/?translation=web&book=EPH&chapter=4&verses=8-10″>Ephesians 4:8–10</a>:
“When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”
Paul then comments that Christ had also descended “into the lower parts of the earth.”
A traditional interpretation puts those statements together. Jesus descended into Hades, liberated the righteous who had been waiting there, and when He ascended, He took those saints with Him into heaven. On that interpretation, they are the “captivity” He led captive.
It’s an attractive interpretation, and it has a long history.
But it isn’t the only possible interpretation.
The expression comes from <a href=”https://jewandgreek.com/bible/?translation=web&book=PSA&chapter=68&verses=18″>Psalm 68:18</a>, where the imagery is that of a victorious king. The captives could therefore represent defeated enemies rather than liberated saints. There is also disagreement over “the lower parts of the earth.” The phrase has historically been understood as Hades, but many interpreters understand it as the earth itself—Christ descended from heaven to earth in the incarnation and subsequently ascended. The grammatical possibilities are real; even the NET notes recognize both the traditional Hades interpretation and the incarnation interpretation.
So could Ephesians 4 describe Jesus bringing the Old Testament saints from Hades into heaven?
Yes.
Does the passage actually say that’s who “captivity” refers to?
No.
That’s one of those places where we need to distinguish a reasonable theological reconstruction from an explicit statement of Scripture.
Christ Proclaimed His Victory in Hades
Another ancient interpretation emphasizes victory more than liberation.
On this view, Jesus entered the realm of the dead as the conquering Christ and proclaimed His victory over Satan, death and the powers of darkness.
This interpretation became particularly important in Lutheran theology. The Formula of Concord deliberately declined to explain exactly how the descent occurred but affirmed Christ’s descent as a victory over hell, death and the devil.
I rather like the restraint there. Believe what Scripture gives us without pretending we’ve been given a documentary of the three days between Good Friday and Easter.
This interpretation is frequently connected with <a href=”https://jewandgreek.com/bible/?translation=web&book=1PE&chapter=3&verses=18-20″>1 Peter 3:18–20</a>, where Peter says Christ went and made proclamation to the “spirits in prison.”
Unfortunately, that raises another question.
Who are they?
Who Were the Spirits in Prison?
First Peter 3 is probably the most difficult passage in the whole discussion.
Christ was put to death in the flesh, made alive in the spirit, and then:
“went and preached to the spirits in prison.”
That sounds remarkably like a descent to the dead.
But several interpretations have been proposed.
The spirits may be dead human beings. They may be the people who rejected Noah’s preaching before the flood. They may be fallen angelic beings associated with the events preceding the flood. Or Peter may be describing Christ preaching through Noah to people who were alive then but are now “spirits in prison.”
Each interpretation solves some problems and creates others.
Then <a href=”https://jewandgreek.com/bible/?translation=web&book=1PE&chapter=4&verses=6″>1 Peter 4:6</a> adds another intriguing statement:
“For to this end the Good News was preached even to the dead…”
Again, it’s tempting to build a detailed account of Christ’s activity in Hades from these passages. But Peter doesn’t stop and explain it for us.
I wish he had.
Jesus Went to Paradise
One of our clearest pieces of evidence comes from something Jesus said while He was still on the cross.
The repentant thief asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom. Jesus answered:
“Assuredly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
That’s <a href=”https://jewandgreek.com/bible/?translation=web&book=LUK&chapter=23&verses=39-43″>Luke 23:39–43</a>.
That tells me something significant. Whatever happened after Jesus died, He expected to be with the thief in Paradise that day.
Some have tried to move the punctuation so that Jesus is saying, “I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise,” leaving the time of their reunion unspecified. Since the original Greek manuscripts didn’t contain our modern punctuation, that’s grammatically possible.
But it seems unnatural. “I tell you today” adds very little. Obviously Jesus was telling him that day.
The more natural reading is the traditional one: “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Peter Says Jesus Was in Hades
We get something even more direct in Peter’s sermon on Pentecost.
Peter quotes <a href=”https://jewandgreek.com/bible/?translation=web&book=PSA&chapter=16&verses=8-11″>Psalm 16:8–11</a> and applies it to Jesus:
“You will not leave my soul in Hades, neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay.”
Peter then explains that David was speaking prophetically about the resurrection of Christ.
The important words for our purposes are “not leave my soul in Hades.”
See <a href=”https://jewandgreek.com/bible/?translation=web&book=ACT&chapter=2&verses=25-31″>Acts 2:25–31</a>.
That is the principal reason I’m comfortable saying Jesus descended into Hades. Peter appears to say so.
But notice what Peter doesn’t tell us.
He doesn’t tell us that Jesus was tortured there.
He doesn’t tell us that demons tormented Him.
He doesn’t tell us exactly whom He encountered.
And he doesn’t tell us precisely what Jesus did while He was there.
We should be careful about filling in Peter’s blanks.
What About “The Heart of the Earth”?
Jesus Himself provided another piece of the puzzle.
Comparing His coming death with Jonah, He said:
“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
That’s <a href=”https://jewandgreek.com/bible/?translation=web&book=MAT&chapter=12&verses=40″>Matthew 12:40</a>.
Some interpret “the heart of the earth” simply as the grave. Others see it as another reference to the realm of the dead.
Either way, it fits comfortably with the idea that Christ genuinely entered the state of death.
The Apostles’ Creed
Interestingly, “He descended into hell” wasn’t part of the earliest form of what became the Apostles’ Creed. The clause appears in creedal history later; Schaff traces it to Eastern creeds in the fourth century and to the Creed of Aquileia around AD 390 in the Latin West.
That doesn’t mean the belief originated then. As we’ve already seen, Irenaeus and Tertullian were talking about Christ descending to Hades considerably earlier.
It does mean we shouldn’t treat the wording of the later Creed as though the apostles themselves sat down and wrote it.
And again, hell can mislead modern readers. The issue historically was Christ’s descent to the dead/Hades, not necessarily what modern English speakers picture when they hear “Jesus went to hell.”
Calvin Took a Very Different Approach
The Reformers didn’t simply accept every traditional explanation.
John Calvin believed the descent clause was important, but he interpreted it differently. For Calvin, Christ’s “descent into hell” primarily described the terrible judgment He endured in bearing our sins. Calvin associated it with Christ experiencing the anguish and judgment due to sinners rather than requiring a literal postmortem journey into a place of punishment.
That interpretation influenced later Reformed theology. The Heidelberg tradition similarly connected the descent language with Christ’s anguish and suffering, while the Westminster Larger Catechism interpreted it as Christ remaining “in the state of the dead” until the third day.
So by the Reformation period we already have substantially different interpretations of the same creedal statement.
That should make us a little cautious when somebody tells us there has always been only one Christian interpretation.
Did Jesus Suffer in Hell?
This is where I part company with the idea that Jesus descended into a place of punishment and continued paying for our sins after His physical death.
Immediately before dying, Jesus said:
“It is finished.”
See <a href=”https://jewandgreek.com/bible/?translation=web&book=JHN&chapter=19&verses=30″>John 19:30</a>.
He also prayed:
“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!”
See <a href=”https://jewandgreek.com/bible/?translation=web&book=LUK&chapter=23&verses=46″>Luke 23:46</a>.
And He told the thief that they would be together in Paradise that day.
Putting those statements together, I see no compelling reason to believe that Jesus left the cross and then entered the place of punishment so that His suffering for sin could continue.
The atoning work was accomplished on the cross.
His descent into Hades was something that followed His death, not an additional installment on the bill.
So What Happened Between the Cross and the Resurrection?
Here’s where I’d like to be able to give you a diagram.
I’m not sure the Bible gives us one.
I believe Jesus truly died. His body was placed in the tomb. He descended into Hades, and He was in Paradise. I believe He rose bodily from the dead on the third day.
Between those points, several things are possible.
Perhaps He proclaimed His victory to the spirits in prison. Perhaps He announced redemption to the righteous dead. Perhaps He liberated the Old Testament saints and subsequently brought them into heaven—the traditional Harrowing of Hell interpretation. Perhaps “He led captivity captive” refers to those saints. Or perhaps that expression refers instead to Christ’s conquest of His enemies.
Some of those possibilities can even overlap.
The problem comes when we take the handful of verses we have and construct an elaborate itinerary, complete with details Scripture never gives us.
I’ve seen too many doctrines become considerably clearer in sermons than they ever were in the Bible.
Did Jesus Go to Hell?
So my answer is yes and no, depending on what we mean by hell.
If we’re asking whether Jesus descended into Hades, the realm of the dead, I believe the biblical evidence says yes. Acts 2 is particularly difficult for me to understand otherwise.
If we’re asking whether Jesus went to the place of punishment to continue suffering for our sins, I don’t believe He did. His saving work was accomplished on the cross.
As for exactly what Jesus did in Hades, Christians have proposed several possibilities for nearly two thousand years. Some of them have substantial biblical and historical support. None of them, in my opinion, gives us enough evidence to turn every detail into doctrine.
And that’s okay.
Christianity stands or falls on the fact that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead, not on our ability to reconstruct everything that happened during the time His body lay in the tomb.
I believe He descended into Hades.
I’m considerably less certain about the itinerary.