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Descensus ad Inferos (Part 6): Other New Testament References

posted by Krista | 4/3/2004 1:54:31 PM | Permalink | Stumble It!

Acts
Acts 2:24-32 (cf. 13:34-37) states of the resurrection: 'But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it' (Acts 2:24). Allusions to Ps 16:8-11 and 116:3 are used to interpret the passage as Christ being delivered from the power of death, as well as from the physical corruption of death.

Hebrews
There is a possible reference to the Descent in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Heb 13:20 describes how God brought Christ "up from the dead." Hebrews also describes the symbolism of Christ's sacrificial death. The Epistle mentions that Christ became the "source of eternal salvation for all who obey him," (5:9) and that after Christ's death "the holy Spirit shows that the way into the sanctuary had not yet been revealed while the outer tabernacle still had its place." (9:8) This could be a reference to Christ's Descent to free all those who had died but could not enter Paradise until He showed them the way.

Revelation
Finally, Revelation 1:18 attributes Christ as saying, "Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and the netherworld." This passage presupposes that the gates to the netherworld have for the first time released a man from the realm of the dead, and emphasizes Christ's unlimited power over death and the underworld as represented by his possession of the keys.

While each of these passages may refer to a Descent, it is not explicitly stated within the NT. As one scholar notes "It is striking that in perhaps the New Testament's closest contact with the development of the theme of the descent to Hades in other early Christian literature, the interest is exclusively in the significance of the death of Christ, not in any activity of Christ in Hades."

Reference

• PDF (66KB): Paper with Footnotes - This essay is adapted from an old undergrad paper for a Historical Jesus Class I wrote a few years ago. (Yes, it could use editing.)