Did Jesus Descend into Hell on Holy Saturday? Answers from the Catholic Catechism and Bible about Jesus' Descent after Death
Answers from the Catholic Catechism about
What
In the Apostle's Creed it says of Jesus: “He Descended into Hell” - "was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell and rose again.”
The catechism explains Jesus’ descent into hell as when He “sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection” (CCC 632).
Jesus died, and His soul "descended there as Savior” (CCC 632) and announced the good news to the souls abiding there (1 Peter 3:19).
The bible uses the term hell: Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek, to name to the realm of the dead, where both the righteous and the unrighteous abided and yet not having the beatific vision of God.
In Luke 16:22-26, Jesus explains the righteous' realm is “Abraham’s bosom.”
“It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham’s bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell” (CCC 633). The Harrowing of Hell is commemorated in the liturgical calendar on Holy Saturday.
In the Catholic Encyclopedia, the story first appears clearly in the Gospel of Nicodemus in the section called the Acts of Pilate, which also appears separately at earlier dates within the Acts of Peter and Paul. St. Paul teaches (Ephesians 4:9) that before ascending into Heaven Christ "also descended first into the lower parts of the earth," and St. Peter still more clearly teaches that "being put to death indeed, in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit," Christ went and "preached to those souls that were in prison, which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noah" (1 Peter 3:18-20).
The bible uses the term hell: Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek, to name to the realm of the dead, where both the righteous and the unrighteous abided and yet not having the beatific vision of God.
In Luke 16:22-26, Jesus explains the righteous' realm is “Abraham’s bosom.”
“It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham’s bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell” (CCC 633). The Harrowing of Hell is commemorated in the liturgical calendar on Holy Saturday.
In the Catholic Encyclopedia, the story first appears clearly in the Gospel of Nicodemus in the section called the Acts of Pilate, which also appears separately at earlier dates within the Acts of Peter and Paul. St. Paul teaches (Ephesians 4:9) that before ascending into Heaven Christ "also descended first into the lower parts of the earth," and St. Peter still more clearly teaches that "being put to death indeed, in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit," Christ went and "preached to those souls that were in prison, which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noah" (1 Peter 3:18-20).
As a subject in Christian art, is also known as the Anastasis (Greek for "resurrection"). The Old Testament view of the afterlife was that all people when they died, whether righteous or unrighteous, went to Sheol, a dark, still place. Several works from the Second Temple period elaborate the concept of Sheol, dividing it into sections based on the righteousness or unrighteousness of those who have died. The New Testament maintains a distinction between Sheol, the common "place of the dead", and the eternal destiny of those condemned at the Final Judgment, variously described as Gehenna, "the outer darkness," or a lake of eternal fire.
It is principally on the strength of these Scriptural texts, harmonized with the general doctrine of the Fall and Redemption of mankind, that Catholic tradition has defended the existence of the limbus patrum as a temporary state or place of happiness distinct from Purgatory.
It is principally on the strength of these Scriptural texts, harmonized with the general doctrine of the Fall and Redemption of mankind, that Catholic tradition has defended the existence of the limbus patrum as a temporary state or place of happiness distinct from Purgatory.
As a result of the Fall, Heaven was closed against men. Actual possession of the beatific vision was postponed, even for those already purified from sin, until the Redemption should have been historically completed by Christ's visible ascendancy into Heaven.
Consequently, the just who had lived under the Old Dispensation, and who, either at death or after a course of purgatorial discipline, had attained the perfect holiness required for entrance into glory, were obliged to await the coming of the Incarnate Son of God and the full accomplishment of His visible earthly mission. Meanwhile they were "in prison," as St. Peter says; but, as Christ's own words to the penitent thief and in the parable of Lazarus clearly imply, their condition was one of happiness, notwithstanding the postponement of the higher bliss to which they looked forward. And this, substantially, is all that Catholic tradition teaches regarding the limbus patrum.
Sources: The Catholic Encyclopedia and the Catechism of the Catholic Church
Image: MASTER of the Osservanza (active 1430-1450 in Siena) The Descent into Limbo c. 1445 Tempera and gold on wood, 38 x 47 cm Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts
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