Friday, March 18, 2022

The Descent of Jesus into Hades being an Example of an Unanimously Held Belief in Early Christianity

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)

 

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