Question
Did Jesus go to hell between His death and resurrection?
Analysis
The passage everything turns on
1 Peter 3:18-20: Christ 'was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit' (BSB, 1 Peter 3:18); the next verse says 'in whom He also went and preached to the spirits in prison' (BSB, 1 Peter 3:19), of those 'who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah' (BSB, 1 Peter 3:20). Paired with 1 Peter 4:6 ('the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead', BSB), this is the text behind the whole discussion, and it is widely acknowledged as one of the hardest passages in the New Testament.
Its difficulties are concrete: who the 'spirits in prison' are (fallen angels, or the human dead of Noah's generation), when the proclamation happened (between death and resurrection, or through Noah's own preaching beforehand, or at the ascension), and whether 'proclaimed' means announcing victory or offering salvation.
The main views, attributed
| View | Position | Held by |
|---|---|---|
| Descent to the dead, in triumph | Jesus truly entered the realm of the dead (Hades/Sheol), not the place of punishment, and proclaimed his victory there. The Creed's 'descended to the dead' is affirmed in this sense. | Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches ('the harrowing of hell'); many Lutherans and Anglicans |
| The descent means he really died and was buried | 'Descended to the dead' is a way of confessing the reality of his death, he entered the state of death as all humans do. No separate journey or preaching mission is implied. | Many Reformed and evangelical teachers; some argue the Creed's clause should be understood this way or omitted |
| He suffered hell's penalty on the cross | The 'descent' language refers to the anguish Christ bore in his passion, the abandonment of Matthew 27:46, rather than to a post-mortem location. | Calvin and much of the Reformed tradition following him |
| 1 Peter 3 refers to Noah's era, not to Holy Saturday | The preaching was done through the pre-incarnate Christ by Noah to that generation, so the passage says nothing about where Jesus was between death and resurrection. | Various evangelical commentators |
What every view holds in common
That Jesus genuinely died and was buried (1 Corinthians 15:3-4); that he was not abandoned to Hades and did not see corruption (Acts 2:31); that he was bodily raised on the third day; that He holds 'the keys of Death and of Hades' (BSB, Revelation 1:18); and that he was not under the Father's punishment in a place of torment after the cross, since his last words were 'It is finished' (BSB, John 19:30) and 'Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit' (BSB, Luke 23:46).
Contested / interpretive points
- The clause's history in the Creed is itself contested. 'He descended into hell' is not present in the earliest forms of the Apostles' Creed and appears in the Western text later than the rest; how much weight it should carry is disputed, and some Protestant churches omit or reword it.
- Luke 23:43 and any descent must be reconciled, since 'today you will be with Me in Paradise' locates Jesus with the repentant criminal in paradise on the day of his death. Views differ on whether paradise is a compartment of Hades for the righteous dead or a distinct reality.
- Ephesians 4:9 ('the lower parts of the earth', BSB) is read by some as the descent to Hades and by others as the incarnation itself, descending to the earth rather than beneath it. The Greek construction permits both.
- 1 Peter 3:19 'spirits in prison' is genuinely unresolved; the fallen-angels reading connects it to Genesis 6:1-4 and 2 Peter 2:4, while the human-dead reading connects it to 1 Peter 4:6.
- This entry takes no position. The one thing that can be stated flatly is the translation point: 'hell' in the Creed does not mean Gehenna, and no passage places Jesus there.