Did Jesus Go to Hell Before His Resurrection?

by Rob Lundberg

Introduction.

Our beliefs are passed down from so many avenues, from reciting creeds to memorizing catechisms. So let’s say we are sitting in a Bible study with believers from diverse backgrounds. We are all coming under the Scripture’s authority, when a leader in the group references, Jesus’ going to hell before His resurrection. Many of us, because of our backgrounds, might think nothing of it. We have recited it, and heard it taught elsewhere.  But is it true?

In this posting I want to address this question, referring to a phrase found in the Apostle’s Creed. Let me say that creeds are only declarational statements of belief, and in some denominations a test for affiliation or membership. But while this phrase is found in the Creed, let me posit in the front end of this that it is not what is really taught from Scripture.  The statement I am referring to is about Jesus which states that He,

“Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell:”

Now I agree with everything up to and including the phrase, “dead and buried.” The question at hand is, did Jesus really descend into hell before His resurrection?  Let’s look at the real issue behind this and see what we find.

Setting up the issue

The Scripture passages that are often appealed to are 1 Peter 3:19-20 and Ephesians 4:8. Let me put those passages before us.

1 Peter 3:19-20 (NASB), 19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits {now} in prison, 20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through {the} water. 

Ephesians 4:8-10 (NASB), 8 Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.”  9 (Now this {expression,} “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

If we look at these passages, we do not see the word, “hell” found anywhere in them. So what is the problem? The problem is that the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:9 states that Jesus “descended into the lower parts of the earth.”  However, the Apostle Creed states that after Jesus died, He “descended into hell.”

At the same time, it is interesting to note that in Scripture, where Jesus was dying, He committed His spirit into the hands of His Father (Luke 23:46).  Let us not also forget that He told one of the thieves being crucified with Him that he would be with Him in Paradise (Luke 23:43), which is in the “third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2, 4). So the question still stands, where did Jesus go after He died?  Did He go to Heaven or to Hell?

There are two views that are prevalent among scholarship that will help us answer this question. Let’s look at them.

There are essentially two views as to where Jesus went the three days His body was in the grave before His resurrection.  One view is that He went to Hades (hell), and the other is that He went to Heaven. Let’s look at the first view, the Hades view.

The Hades View.

This position claims that Jesus’ spirit went into the spirit world, while His body was in the grave. It is here that it is believed that He spoke to the “spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:19, 20) who were in a temporary holding place until He would come and “lead captivity captive,” that is take them to heaven.

According to this view, there are two “compartments” in Hell.  One is Hades (or Sheol), one for the saved and the other for the lost.  They are separated by a “great gulf” mentioned in Luke 16:26, which no person could pass.”  The second is spoken of in the Old Testament as well as the Lukan passage; and it was for the Old Testament and pre-Calvary cross saints, called “Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:23).  When Christ, as the first fruits of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20), ascended to Heaven, He led these Old Testament saints into Heaven with Him for the first time.

Now this sounds pretty simple doesn’t it. The question is what is “Hades” and what are the two compartments? I do not believe this is the case. It is true that the account (not a parable) in Luke about Lazarus going to Abraham’s bosom, but it Abraham’s bosom is not referred to as Hades.

The rich man mentioned, in the same account, looked and “saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom (Luke 16:23). Bearing this thought in mind, let me now give ten reasons why I believe this next view, The Heaven View, is the most plausible and most biblical.