The Patristic’s View
For the early church fathers, the question of Christ’s descent into Hell was not whether or not it happened, the question was “what did it accomplish?”. Some of the earliest writings we have are poems written in the early to mid-second century. One, referred to as the “Easter troparion”, which is still used in Orthodox services today, “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life”.
This trope is a paraphrase of Paul’s words in 1 Cor 15:20-23, telling us that Christ’s death is a victory over death and his resurrection brings life to everyone. Another ancient 2nd century liturgical poem, written by St Melito of Sardis, tells us that:
The Lord, when he had clothed himself with manArose from the dead and uttered this cry:“...I am the one that destroyed deathAnd triumphed over the enemyAnd trod down HadesAnd bound the strong oneI carried off man to the heights of heaven; I am the one,” says the ChristCome then, all you families of men who areCompounded with sins, And receive forgiveness of sins.
This poem was read on Good Friday’s after the Old Testament reading. It shows first that the descent was already a part of the liturgy of the early church and that the results were a destruction of Hell, a binding of Satan and a forgiveness and rescue of everyone there.
While the destruction of Hell and the victory over death is a common theme in most of the writing of the early church fathers, who Christ preached to is less consistently agreed upon. Tertullian, for example, makes a case that others will later pick up, that Jesus descended only to “Abraham’s Bosom”, to save only the Old Testament prophets and righteous, and not into the lower part of hell.
For hell, in my view, is one place, and Abraham’s bosom is another. For it also says that a great gulf divides those regions and forbids a crossing from either side. Indeed, the rich man would never have raised his eyes, and from afar, except to look up from a level far below through the towering depths of that unmeasured interval. From this it is apparent to anyone who has ever heard of the Elysian fields that a certain place is set apart that is known as the bosom of Abraham, to receive the souls of his children, even from the nations... and so it is that region that I affirm to be the bosom of Abraham, higher than hell even if it is not heavenly.
This view is not shared by many of the early writers, but will gain favor later in the West. Marcion of Sinope had a much different view of who was saved by Jesus’ descent. He taught that Christ left the prophets and patriarchs in Abraham’s Bosom and saved only the unrighteous. Marcion was eventually excommunicated for his many heresies, but in doing so, the church also began the process of canonizing scripture in order to curb the rise of future heresies. Irenaeus of Lyons wrote a treatise specifically against the heresy of Marcion in which he states that Christ’s decent was to reach everyone:
It was for this reason, too, that the Lord descended into the regions beneath the earth, preaching his advent there also, and [declaring] the remission of sins received by those who believe in Him. Now all those believed in him who had hope towards Him, that is, those who proclaimed his advent, and submitted to his dispensations...”
This idea is also supported by Clement of Alexandria:
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| Clement of Alexandria |
If indeed the Lord descended to Hades for no other purpose than to preach the good news in his descent, then he preached either to all or to the Hebrews alone. If then, it was to all, then all who have believed will be saved, even if they are from the nations and happen to have made their confession already there, since the chastisements of God are salvific and pedagogic, leading to conversion and preferring the repentance of the sinner to his death.
While seemingly leaving room for the possibility that Jesus only preached to the Jews, Clement does, in fact, argue that his message was for everyone.
For God is not only the Lord of the Jews, but of all men... So I think it is demonstrated that God, being good, and the Lord powerful, saves with a righteousness and equality which extend to all that turn to Him, whether here or elsewhere.
According to Clement and Irenaeus, those who were saved were those who believed, but this does not mean that Hell was then emptied after Christ left. Hell then became a place for those who, though they had heard the good news, had not followed Jesus out.
Tomorrow- Christ's Descent Described in Liturgy. Fitting for Easter, I think. (Click here to go there)
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