In his book, Not By Faith Alone, Roman Catholic apologist Robert Sungenis wrote that:
The Church also holds as dogma that the souls of most Old Testament
saints were released from “Sheol” (Hebrew: שׁאול) or “Hades” (Greek: αδης) when Christ visited this realm
immediately after his death, in accord with the statement in the Apostles Creed
“he descended into hell.” The descent into Sheol or Hades corresponds to other
Scriptures which refer to the conscious abode of the dead, both righteous and
unrighteous, before the resurrection of Christ, e.g., “he went and preached to
the spirits in prison” (1Pt 3:19); “the gospel was preached even to those who
are now dead” (1Pt 4:6); “the heart of the earth” (Mt 12:40); “Abraham’s bosom”
(Lk 16:22-26); “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God...and live” (Jn
5:25); “the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life” (Mt
27:52-53); “he also descended to the lower, earthly regions” (Ep 4:9); “you and
your sons will be with me” (1Sm 28:19); “consign to the earth below...with
those who go down to the pit” (Ez 32:18ff); “he leads down to Hades” (Tb 13:2);
“the dominion of Hades” (Ws 1:14; 2:1; 16:13). These interpretations were
upheld at the Council of Rome (745 AD; Denz. 587); the Council of Toledo (625
AD; Denz. 485). See Catholic Catechism, Sections 631-635. (Robert A. Sungenis, Not
By Faith Alone: The Biblical Evidence for the Catholic Doctrine of
Justification [Goleta, Calif.: Queenship Publishing, 1997], 68 n. 66,
emphasis in bold added. The same footnote appears in the second [2009] edition
on p. 64 n. 90)
However, Sungenis
has, in recent years, rejected this and opted for a belief that the Old Testament
saints went immediately to heaven at death. In his commentary on Luke 23:43,
Sungenis wrote:
“this day you shall be with me in paradise”: σημερον μετ εμου εση τν τω παραδεισω, which is only in Luke, and his Greek is
without any textual variants. The adverb σημερον is literally “today,” which assures the man that his suffering on the
cross will not linger for days but will end on this very day. Second, and more
importantly, after death he will be in “paradise” with Jesus, a word that
appears only 3× in the NT (Lk 23:43; 2Co 12:4; Ap 2:7), which tell us it is the
“third heaven” (2Co 12:2), the abode of God, the angels, and all saints in
their souls, and some saints in their bodies and souls (Enoch, Elijah, Moses).
[NB: the “first” heaven is the earth’s atmosphere and the “second” heaven is
the rest of the universe]. “Paradise” first appears as a term of quality (e.g.,
the Garden of Eden (Gn 2:8 – 3:24). The LXX translated the Hebrew of Gn 2:8 , גן בעדן as παραδεισον (“paradeison”), which originates from Persian. That paradise refers
to heaven is confirmed when Jesus says in vr. 46: “Father, into your hands I
commend my spirit. And saying this, he gave up the ghost,” words almost
identical to Stephen’s in Ac 7:58 “And they stoned Stephen, invoking and
saying: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” of which Ac 7:55 assures us it was
heaven: “But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up steadfastly to
heaven, saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And
he said: Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the
right hand of God.” The fact that Jesus says “today” also means there was no
intermediate place that he and the malefactor, in their human souls, went prior
to going to heaven, which also means that the popular teaching of “hades” or
“Abraham’s bosom” being such a place is not correct. (See exegesis of 1Pt 3:19
in Volume III of this commentary series). (Robert A. Sungenis, Commentary on
the Catholic Douay-Rheims New Testament from the Original Greek and Latin,
4 vols. [State Line, Pa.: Catholic Apologetics International Publishing, Inc.,
2024], 2:372 n. 720)
In his commentary on 1 Pet 3:19, we read:
“coming he preached to those spirits that were in prison”: τοις εν φυλακη πορευθεις εκηρυξεν, which, because of the aorist participle
(πορευθεις) is better
arranged and translated as: “he, having gone to the spirits in prison,
proclaimed to them.” This means Christ went to this “prison” in his vivificated
or “enlivened” body, not just his soul, for the body could not be left behind
once reunited with his soul. Jesus is a glorified body at his “enlivening” and
his first act of glorification is to visit and proclaim his vivification to
these spirits. This sequence follows the Apostles’ Creed: “he suffered under
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; on the
third day he rose again from the dead” (cf. Ep 4:9). Lateran Council IV says,
however: “He descended in soul” (Denz. ¶429) but this is not a defined dogma.
The descent into hell takes place before the official resurrection; and the
Apostles’ Creed has interpreted the word “prison” as “hell” (see 2Pt 2:4-9). A
question arises as to the identity of the “spirits in prison.” A fair amount of
traditional Catholic interpretation understands them as all the already saved
souls from the OT (Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, et al) and/or as those
who repented at the coming of the Flood but were not allowed in the ark since
its doors had been closed. These saved souls are said to occupy “Abraham’s
bosom,” or the limbus patrum, until after the resurrection of Christ. In this
scenario, Jesus descends into their “prison” and there “proclaims” (εκηρυξεν) his victory of the cross and
resurrection to these already saved souls, after which they are released to
heaven. Although such an interpretation is possible, it has its difficulties.
As Augustine notes: 1. The question which you have proposed to me from the
epistle of the Apostle Peter is one which, as I think you are aware, is wont to
perplex me most seriously....After having said that Christ was put to death in
the flesh, and quickened in the spirit, the apostle immediately went on to say:
in which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison....This,
therefore, is felt by me to be difficult. If the Lord when He died preached in
hell to spirits in prison, why were those who continued unbelieving while the
ark was a preparing the only ones counted worthy of this favor, namely, the
Lord’s descending into hell? For in the ages between the time of Noah and the
passion of Christ, there died many thousands of so many nations whom He might
have found in hell….I speak only of those many thousands of men who, ignorant
of God and devoted to the worship of devils or of idols, had passed out of this
life from the time of Noah to the passion of Christ. How was it that Christ,
finding these in hell, did not preach to them, but preached only to those who
were unbelieving in the days of Noah when the ark was a preparing? Or if he
preached to all, why has Peter mentioned only these, and passed over the
innumerable multitude of others?” (Letter 164, to Evodius, 1-2, 414 AD). All in
all, the traditional interpretation does not fulfill the context. The better
alternative is the “prison” refers to the incarceration of the unsaved. First,
since εκηρυξεν is without a
direct object, it must then be determined by the context, which does not
contain any reference to the saved, only the unsaved. Second, except for
Purgatory (which is a wholly different kind of interlude for venial sin before
the soul is released to heaven), Scripture does not speak of a hell-like place
for saved souls (NB: “hell”: αδης, used only in Mt 11:23; 16:18; Lk 10:15; 16:23; Ac 2:27, 31; 1Co
15:55; Ap 1:18; 6:8; 20:13-14, two of which can refer to the “grave” (Ac 2:27,
31; 1Co 15:55, and the rest refer to eternal hell; while “prison” (φυλακη: used 45× in the NT, all for an earthly
prison, except for Ap 20:7: “Satan shall be loosed out of prison”). Third, as
Sodom and Gomorrah are mentioned in Peter’s context because they serve as types
of the final judgment (2Pt 2:6; Jd 1:5f), he also refers to the Flood of Noah’s
day (Mt 24:36f; Lk 17:26f. Accordingly, Peter uses Noah as an example of a κηρυκα, a “proclaimer,” in this case of judgment
(cf. 2Pt 2:5; Hb 11:7) just as he does Jesus. Here, for neither Noah nor Jesus,
does Peter use the usual Greek word for “preaching the gospel” (ευαγγελιζω) but εκηρυξεν (“to proclaim a message”). Some claim κηρυσσω is, “without a qualifier in the NT refers
to good news; and there is not instance in the NT where it implies bad news”
(Willmering citing Holzmeister, 300, CCHS, p. 394). But not only is κηρυσσω used negatively (e.g., 2Co 11:4; Ph
1:15), such words are not defined by the type of message but only that they
bring a message, whether the message is good, bad, or indifferent, as noted,
for example, in the indifference of κηρυσσω in Rm 2:21; 2Co 4:5; Ap 5:2, cf. LAS, BAGD, THR). Historically
speaking, Noah preached judgment against the people of his day who did not
repent and perished in their unbelief (2Co 2:16; Mk 16:15-16). The obvious
contrast, then, is between Noah and his family who were saved from the flood
over against the “spirits in prison” who were not saved. Since this is the
picture Peter uses for Noah, he is using the same image for Jesus, namely, as
the same “proclaimer” of the same judgment to the prisoners in hell that Noah
had once proclaimed to those outside the ark. Accordingly, Peter records no
cases of repentance or salvation for these prisoners; rather, he speaks of them
only as “those who at that time had been disobedient” (vr. 20: απειθησασιν ποτε) to serve as an example of what will happen
to all wicked people sent to hell. Hence Peter’s only point is, once Christ was
“enlivened,” he purposely went to hell to make a proclamation to these
prisoners, which, in context, means he proclaimed their judgment has been
finalized and secured by his death and resurrection. Analogously, these
prisoners on ‘death row,’ as it were, have received notice that there will be
no commutation of their sentence. Because Christ has completed his passion, he
informs them their sentence is eternal. As Christ descends to them, he exalts
over them and for proof he is requiring them to see his eternal triumph in
vivid detail by appearing to them in his vivified body. Since the prior context
(vrs. 13-17) dealt with the tormentors of Christians, thus in vrs. 18- 22 Peter
assures his brethren that, whereas the unsaved have exalted over Christians,
Christians will exalt over them because of the death and resurrection of
Christ. (Robert A. Sungenis, Commentary on the Catholic Douay-Rheims New
Testament from the Original Greek and Latin, 4 vols. [State Line, Pa.:
Catholic Apologetics International Publishing, Inc., 2021], 4:222-24 n. 66)
So here, we have
a few options:
·
Sungenis,
an informed Roman Catholic, is rejecting a de fide dogma (and therefore,
is guilty of mortal sin)
· Sungenis, an informed Roman Catholic, is
rejecting a doctrine that is either fidei proxima, and therefore, is
guilty of mortal sin.
· Roman Catholicism has no official position
on the state of the dead of the Old Testament saints, in spite of various
affirmation of various conciliar statements.
Either way, the naïve
Roman Catholic claim that Rome can provide dogmatic clarity is false, unless
you can to claim that one leading Catholic apologist is guilty of mortal sin (I
stress his being informed as that is one of the prerequisites of committing
mortal sin).
