Commenting on Eph 4:9, Todd A. Scacewater (Assistant Professor at Dallas International University, U.S.A) noted that it was the unanimous belief of Early Christians that Jesus descended into Hades and brought captive believers therefrom (cf. 1 Pet 3:19-20), wrote:
Ephesians 4:9-10 as a Descent to
Hades
There are three interpretations of
the descent. Throughout the early Fathers and up until the Reformation, the
descent in Eph 4:9 was unanimously understood as Christ’s descent
to Hades. In this view, της γης in Eph 4:9 is interpreted as a partitive
genitive (“the lower parts of the earth itself”). In Irenaeus’ Demonstration
of the Apostolic Preaching, he cites a text supposedly from Jeremiah: “And
the Lord the Holy One of Israel, remembered his dead, which aforetime fell
asleep in the dust of the earth; and he went down unto them, to bring the
tidings of his salvation, to deliver them” (Dem. 78). Irenaeus interprets
the clause “he went down,” which is known to us yet attributed to Jeremiah, as Jesus’s
descent into hell. He considers Christ’s descent to be “the salvation of them
that had passed away” (Dem. 78). This same “Jeremiah” text was also
cited by Justin (Dial. 72), but not in connection with the descent to
hell. It is also cited by Irenaeus in Adv. Haer. 4.22 as from Jeremiah,
but in 3.20 as from Isaiah. This popular passage is an enigma, but importantly,
in Adv. Haer. 4.22 Irenaeus connects this enigmatic quotation to Eph 4:9
and says te descent was “to behold with His eyes the state of those who were resting
from their labours.” Thus, the “Lord and Holy One of Israel” from the “Jeremiah”
passage is equated with Christ in Eph 4:9. In Adv. Haer. 5.31, he again
quotes Eph 4:9, saying he descended to the place “where the dead were,”
comparing the descent with Jonah’s three days in the fish. In none of these
passages does Irenaeus argue that the descent of Eph 4:9 is Christ’s descent to
Hades; he simply assumes it is true, which suggests it was already part of traditional
teaching, at least for his community.
Origen explicitly interprets the “lowest
parts of the earth” in Eph 4:9 as Hades (Comm. John 19.140. Gen. Hom.
15.5; Hom. Lev. 9.5). To counter any objection to his interpretation, he
cites Phil 2:10 to say that not only knees in heaven and on earth would bow to
him in the future but also those under the earth during his descent t the
underworld; “some will fall down to him earlier and others later” (Comm.
John. 19.141). He reinforces both of these interpretations (of Eph 4:9 and
Phil 2:10) in his sixth homily on Luke (Fathers of the Church 94:27). Prior to
Christ’s death and resurrection, all who died were held in Hades (Hom. Exod.
6.6). He took his people with him to prepare a place for them in the kingdom of
the heavens, but those who do not belong to him bowed the knee to him in Hades.
Augustine used Ps 16:10 as a
prophetic proof text that Christ would not be left in hell (which implies he
would descend there) (Civ. 17.4). Shortly after this reference, in commenting
on the Lord’s ascension into the heavens and subsequent judgment of the earth
in 1 Sam 2:10, he says this order of ascension followed by judgment follows the
creed and then quotes Eph 4:9-10 (Ibid.). Jonah’s three days in the belly of
the sea monster also signified that Christ would return from the depths of hell
on the third day (Civ. 18.30). Christ delivered the OT saints from hell,
although their holding place was not torturous, as was the place of the damned
(Civ. 20.15).
Acts of Thomas seems to allude to
Eph 4:9-10 when it says, “And Thou didst descend to Sheol, and go to its
uttermost end; and didst open its gates, and bring out its prisoners, and didst
tread for them the path (leading) above by the nature of Thy Godhead” (W.
Wright, Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, 2:155) Later, the author more explicitly
speaks of Christ descending to the dead and making them alive through his
ascension, rescuing them from the underworld:
Thou didst descend to Sheol with
mighty power, and the dead saw Three and became alive, and the lord of death
was not able to bear (it); and Thou didst ascent with great glory, and didst
take up with Thee all who sought refuge with Three, and didst tread the path
for them (leading) up on high, and in Thy footsteps all Thy redeemed followed;
and Thou didst bring them into Th fold, and mingle them with Thy sheep. (Ibid.,
288)
Maximus the Confessor (d. AD 662)
alluded to Eph 4:9 in Ad Thal. 22, saying that Christ “event descended
into the lower regions of the earth where the tyranny of sin compelled humanity.”
Since in this context he is speaking of Christ’s incarnation and because these
lower regions are where sin tyrannizes humanity, he may understand the descent
to be to earth. However, in another passage, Maximus interpreters Eph 4:9 as
Christ’s descent to Hades: “He even descended willingly into the heart of the
earth, where the Evil One had swallowed us through death, and drew us up by his
resurrection, leading our whole captive nature up to heaven” (Ad Thal.
64). The reference to our “captive” nature alludes to Eph 4:8, “He took captive
captives.”
In sum, the early Fathers unanimously
believed that Christ descended into Hades (or hell) during the three days
between his crucifixion and resurrection (even outside the Fathers, the interpretation
is evident, e.g, in Mart. Isa. 4:20-21). They connected Eph 4:9 with
this descent, although it is unknowable whether they derived the descent
directly from 4:9 as a proof text or whether they were taught about the descent
and read it into Eph 4:9. Since so many other texts are cited to support the
descent to Hades, Eph 4:9 is probably one only supporting text among many.
The belief that Christ brought captive believers out of Hades when he was resurrected
found support in Eph 4:8, “he took captive captives,” and this became the
standard interpretation of the captivity clause in the ancient church. (Todd A.
Scacewater, The Divine Builder in Psalm 68: Jewish and Pauline Tradition [Library
of New Testament Studies 631; London: T&T Clark, 2020, 2022], 136-38,
emphasis added)
Although the descent to Hades
view (i.e., descensus ad inferos as it is traditionally called) has
fallen out of favor with modern interpreters, for several reasons it is
still the best interpretation of Eph 4:9-10. The strongest evidence for the descensus
interpretation is the use of the κατωτερος word group in the Hellenistic
world of Paul’s day and in the Septuagint. In the
magical papyri, PGM LXX combines the term “descend” (καταβαινω) with “down below” (κατω), the same combination of roots
used by Paul in Eph 4:9. The text is a charm to protect against the fear of Hekate,
a god associated with the crossroads to the underworld. The charm includes an
initiation rite that would occur in an underground chamber. “I have been
initiated, and I went down (καταβαινω)
into the [underground] chamber of the Dactyls, and I saw the other things down
below (κατω) . . . Say it at the crossroad,
and turn around and flee, because it is at those places that she appears.” H.
Betz dates the text to the late third or early fourth century, so it is much
later than Ephesians, but there is no indication that the magical papyri was
influenced by Ephesians, so the completely independent use of the similar phrase
does provide evidence of how it would be understood in ancient Asia Minor and
Egypt (on the dating, see Hans Dieter Betz, “Fragments from a Catabasis Ritual
in a Greek Magical Papyrus,” History of Religions 19 [1980]; 287). (Ibid.,
143, emphasis added)
