The Apostles Creed - Back to Exegesis

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The Apostles Creed - Back to Exegesis

Forum: Theological Expressions
Re:

Lord Jesus went to Hell. (frankie lee)
Date: 2001, Jul 12
From: Christopher Yip CKHY

Frank,
Let's start with the basic. Which hell are we talking about? The bible uses 4 words to describe the place for the dead. They are:
1. Sheol: 65 times in OT. This is NOT hell but is found in the heart of earth. Translated "grave", it is the general name for the TEMPORARY place of the departed until the resurrection. This is the abyss.
2. Hades: 11 times in NT. It is actually the same as Sheol but more specifically came to denote the place for the departed UNSAVED, as noted in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. All in Hades "will not live again" until they are raised from the dead (Revelation 20:5)
3. Tartaros: Used only once. Found in 2 Peter 2:4 in reference to judgement on the wicked fallen angels. This is the place for bound demons or fallen angels. This is the abyss (Luke 8:31 "deep" - Greek "abyssos").
4. Gehenna: Used 12 times in NT. This is HELL. It is, as some say, either the black hole or white dwarf stars. Will not go into this. But this is BEYOND earth. This is the place eternally for the unsaved.
E W Bullinger in his lexicon: Tartaros is not Sheol or Hades or Gehenna. Not the abode of men in any condition. It is used only here, and here only of "angels that sinned" (Jude 6). It denotes the bounds or verge of this material world. The extremity of this lower air - of which Satan is the prince (Ephesians 2:2) and of which Scripture speaks as having "the rulers of the darkeness of this world" and "wicked spirits in aerial regions."
We are very familiar with Sheol, Hades and Gehenna but often not many know about tartaros. That is the place for bound angels, that is the place some of the demonic angels begged Jesus not to send them to. So let's not worry about tartaros. Now, for all purposes, Sheol (OT) and Hades (NT) are the same and refer to the place INSIDE earth; Gehenna, on the other hand, is the final destination of the unsaved and is OUTSIDE earth.
The loose use of "hell" causes confusion. When we say "hell", are we in fact talking about gehenna or sheol/hades? It's best, for this discussion, to be more precise by avoiding the word "hell" in preference for either "hades" or "gehenna". I am not trying to pull a fast one here because even the Apostles' Creed does not actually say "he descended into HELL" but rather "he descended into HADES". The original AC (Apostles' Creed) was in Greek and the earliest Greek form found with this phrase was in AD360 in some Arian creeds (eis hadou or eis haden) and it was hades that was used, not gehenna. Following this period, later versions were all in Latin. The next earliest version was in AD390 called the Formula Aquileiensis and the phrase was translated as "descendit ad inferna". As a matter of fact, the Received Text of the AC was "He descended into Hades" but when the language was modernised, Hades became Hell. This is wrong. Philip Schaff comments, "The translation "descended into hell" is unfortunate and misleading. We do not know whether Christ was in hell; but we do know from his own lips that he was in paradise between his death and resurrection. The term Hades is much more comprehensive than Hell (Gehenna), which is confined to the state and place of the lost." (History of the Christian Church, Vol 2, Chap 12, Sec 140)
So, Jesus did not descend into hell-gehenna, but to hell-hades, according to later versions of the Apostles' Creed. Let's see if we figure out what the Apostles' Creed means by "he descended into hades".
First, as I have hinted, the phrase "he descended into Hades" was not found in the early versions of the Creed. It was first found in Arian Creeds about A. D. 360; then in the Creed of Aquileja, about A. D. 390; then in the Creed of Venantius Fortunatus, 590, in the Sacramentarium Gallicanum, 650, and in the ultimate text of the Apostles' Creed in Pirminius, 750 (See Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom).
So what was the earliest form of the Creed? In fact, the earliest Apostles' Creed was very simple and did not have "he descended into hades" (first found in AD360), predicate "Catholic" for church (first found in AD650), "communion of saints" (after AD650), and "the life everlasting" (Rufinus omits this while Augustin has it, date uncertain). This was how the Apostles' Creed most probably looked like in its earliest known form:
I BELIEVE in God almighty And in Christ Jesus, his only Son, our Lord Who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried And the third day rose from the dead Who ascended into heaven And sitteth on the right hand of the Father Whence he cometh to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit The holy church The remission of sins The resurrection of the flesh
This is important because if we know what was the original word of the Creed, we get an idea what the composer of this Creed originally intended to say. From this, we see that the thought expressed by the early AC was that Jesus really died ("was buried"). He did not swoon or faint or pretend to die. He was dead. In other words, the earliest form of the Apostles' Creed meant to say that Jesus died and was buried, nothing about His visit to Hades.
Notice also that the earliest form of the AC did not even say that he was "dead", just "crucified" and was "buried." Hold that thought - the AC declared that Jesus was crucified and buried, in other words, Jesus really died.
The addition of the article of the descent came about probably around AD360 but it is not unbiblical. It is based upon Peter's teaching in Acts 2:31 ("he was not LEFT in Hades (hadou not gehenna)," consequently he WAS there); 1Pet 3:19; 4:6; and Paul's words in Eph 4:8-10 (Now this, "He ascended"; what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?). 1 Pet 3 and Eph 4 are two of the three texts I mentioned in my earlier post, besides the parable of the rich man in Lk 16. So, around AD360, the phrase "he descended into Hades" was added by putting the two ideas that 1) Jesus was not left in Hades and that 2) He first descended into the lower parts of the earth together and viola - "He descended into Hades"! This represents a departure from the original idea that Jesus really died as expressed in the earlier version of the AC.
From this survey, we can see that the Apostles' Creed brings us back to the same scriptures over which we have been discussing. By the Creed itself, we cannot determine for sure what the original composer of the Creed tried to say. Hence, Frank, your thesis that the Apostles' Creed is saying what you said cannot be substantiated. You are putting ideas and words into the Creed.
On the other hand, from the textual evidence, it would be reasonable to conclude that the Apostles' Creed was merely emphasising the fact that Christ actually died and hence his appearance afterwards was a real resurrection from the dead. That was the original intent. What about the addition of the descent article? What did the author mean? What was the author's thinking on this matter? The answer, Frank, is simply we don't know. This is because all the chap did was to put two unrelated verses together to produce the phrase. For me, judging from the original intention of the earlier version of the Creed, I would naturally conclude that it was more likely a simple rephrase of the same basic idea but this time, making it sound more biblical.
So, Frank, in effect, the Apostles' Creed itself cannot tell us what it means by the phrase "he descended into hades". It could mean as you have said - Jesus went into Hades and depopulated the saved section (Abraham's bosom) BUT it could also simply mean He really died. You cannot simply assume your thesis is what the Apostles' Creed's phrase originally means. All we can say is that the phrase in the Apostles' Creed means whatever we understand 1 Pet 3 and Eph 4 to mean. That would bring us back to the exegeses of the two verses. I have already provided Buntin's article, so, no need to repeat here.
Christopher