Did Jesus Go To Hell Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday?

Was Jesus in hell preaching to the lost during this time frame, nearly 2000 years ago?   That is what the tradition English version of the Apostles Creed[1] suggests:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN.

The Latin: descendit ad inferna would suggest the same, as well as the Greek version.  There have been a number of views[2] suggested by this affirmation:

1. To some, the descent into hell represents the physical agony of death upon the Cross.  

2. To others, the word hell means Hades or Sheol, the collective abode of the dead, divided into Paradise or Abraham's Bosom--the state of God-fearing souls—and Gehenna, the state of ungodly souls. Thus the descent into hell may suggest that the Son of God carried the sins of the world to hell; or the Son of God carried Good News of deliverance to the godly dead such as Lazarus the beggar and the repentant thief.

3. Yet another view comes from a third-century Syrian Creed that speaks of Jesus, "who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and departed in peace, in order to preach to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the saints concerning the end of the world and the resurrection of the dead."

4. Finally, some denominations consider it optional or refuse to include it at all. The problem with this phrase begins with what it connotes.

Biblical evidence offered by some is rooted in two texts of Scripture.  They are:

 1 Peter 3:18–19 (ESV) — “8 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.”

 1 Peter 4:4–6 (ESV) — “4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.”

Some questions that must be answered integrally within this letter are:

1. How does chapter 4, verses 4 to 6 relate to chapter 3 verses 18 and 19, if indeed they do at all?

2. Does 3:19 and 4:6 assert that Christ went into Hell and preached there prior to Easter Sunday?

The study continues ………………..

 

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[1] http://www.creeds.net/ancient/apostles.htm

[2] http://www.creeds.net/ancient/descendit.htm