This short phrase has come up three times in the last two weeks in discussions of theology: once at a theology study, once with my wife, and once in an X (formerly Twitter) exchange. There is a lot of confusion about it. Let me try to help with a simple, logical approach to examining the truthfulness of this phrase from the Apostle’s Creed.
Words. They are tricky things.
The first thing that must be addressed is the meaning of the words involved because they don’t mean what you think they mean.
Today, it’s normative to think of hell as the eternal place of damnation where all unbelievers are sent upon final judgment (or even at the time of death). But this isn’t accurate. Rather, the term the Bible uses for this place is “the lake of fire” (see Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14-15). Eventually, all unbelievers will be cast into “the lake of fire” along with the devil. The lake of fire is not the same as hell. How do we know that the lake of fire isn’t also hell? There are several reasons, but one of them is because even hell (Hades) will be thrown into the lake of fire (this is very good news) at the end of the age.
“Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:14-15 ESV)
So what is hell then? Hell is simply the abode of the dead. It’s an Old English word, derived from “hel” or “helle,” and simply refers to the place you go when you die.
In Greek literature, the name for this place is “Hades” (Ἀΐδης). In the Old Testament, Hades is frequently used to translate the Hebrew word שְׁאוֹל (Sheol). In other Greek literature, Hades is also commonly spoken of as the abode of the dead (for example, in Homer’s Odyssey, book 11, lines 21-22).
The relationship between Hades and Sheol can be seen fairly clearly in the Hebrew and Greek versions of Gen. 37:35 (the first occurrence of the Hebrew word) where the word “Sheol” is translated as Ἀΐδης (Hades) in the LXX. Moreover, the translators of the KJV frequently translated שְׁאוֹל (Sheol) as “hell.”
In summary, Hades, hell, and Sheol all refer to the same place and are merely the Greek, English, and Hebrew terms for the abode of the dead.
Who goes to Sheol/Hades/Hell?
If we come to the Biblical text with a misunderstanding about the meaning of these words, things become confusing very quickly. When we think of hell as the place of eternal punishment for those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s book of life, some weird things begin to happen.
For example, we quickly realize that some of the people who go into Sheol/Hell/Hades are not the people we expected. Jacob (Israel) is described as going to Sheol (Gen. 37:35, 38; 44:29), as is David (2 Sam. 22:5) and Job (Job 14:13). Very quickly, we learn that both the good and the evil “go to hell.” The Biblical authors and subjects anticipated a post-death existence in Sheol/Hades/Hell.
Who went to hell? Almost everyone (a few notable exceptions include Elijah and Enoch) was subject to the captivity of hell.
But the saints of God anticipated more. They anticipated and hoped for a future rescue out of Sheol. Like a bat out of hell, they were looking forward to a time when their hellbound captivity would end.
This beautiful hope is described in passages like Psalm 49:15 and Hosea 13:14.
“Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; death shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall rule over them in the morning. Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell. // But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah” (Psalm 49:14-15 ESV)
The sons of Korah anticipated a ransom from Sheol.
Who will Ransom the Captives?
The obvious next question concerns the details of this supposed hope. Who and when will death be defeated and souls rescued from Sheol?
(I bet you know where this is going.)
Generally, rescue missions involve breaking into the house of the enemy to retrieve the prize. This is exactly what Christ did. He “descended into hell” to collect the reward for His suffering.
When Peter addresses the crowd in Acts 2, he says something that both his original audience and we would find shocking. He says that God did not abandon Christ “to Hades [hell].” For Peter’s original audience, this would mean the anticipated rescue had come (at least for one man). But for us, it also means that Christ was in hell! To be abandoned to a place would necessitate actually being in that place. But while Christ was in hell, He was not abandoned to hell. His stay was short. He defeated it and rescued its captives! Christ is not only the firstfruits of the resurrection and New Creation, but He’s also the first man outta hell, leading a host of captives with Him (Eph. 4:8) upon his exodus.
Joe Rigney captures this imagery well when he writes, “Following his death for sin, then, Jesus journeys to Hades, to the City of Death, and rips its gates off the hinges. He liberates Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, John the Baptist, and the rest of the Old Testament faithful, ransoming them from the power of Sheol (Psalm 49:15; 86:13; 89:48)”1
This creates some interesting implications. One of those implications came up recently in an X interaction I had. The poster asked, “Did Christ die for people in hell?” If we wrongly understand “hell,” we’ll wrongly answer this question. But if we rightly understand hell as the place where Old Testament saints were held until Christ’s effective death was accomplished, we understand that Christ did, in fact, die for some people in hell.
Now What?
While Old Testament saints waited in Sheol for their redemption, for New Testament saints that event exists in the past. The gates of Hades have been ripped from their hinges, and Jesus holds the keys (Rev. 1:18). As a result, when New Covenant believers die, they go immediately to be with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8) and wait for their resurrection and the final destruction of Hades itself (Rev. 20:13).
- Rigney, J. (2015, April 4). He Descended into Hell? Desiring God. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/he-descended-into-hell ↩︎