*Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this series are not intended as an official statement of CBTS or a uniform position of its faculty. This material is offered in the spirit of faith seeking understanding and to encourage further theological reflection. To read more installments in this series, click here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Those who, like a good number in church history, believe that Christ’s disembodied soul descended to the netherworld at his death, have various proof texts for their position. We have already encountered such texts in earlier blog posts, so we’ll move through these rather quickly.
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
(Matthew 12:38–41)
Here is Jesus’ actual point in the context of Matthew 12? The Lord’s disobedient servant Jonah spent three days in the stomach of the great fish, virtually swallowed by death, only to have his inevitable death spit him out again (in response to his prayer from fish’s belly) so that he would preach judgment to the far-off Gentiles. Jesus, the obedient servant of the Lord, would be truly swallowed by death. Though he prayed to his Father from the cross, he would yield up his spirit without any last-minute deliverance. His body would be placed in the grave (often viewed in the Old Testament as the bowels of the earth), only to burst forth in bodily resurrection on the third day. He would rise, ascend to heaven, and pour out the Holy Spirit for the salvation of all nations. And still, his own people would close their eyes to such a miraculous and well-attested sign as his resurrection. As for the Son of Man’s “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth,” Francis Turretin explains:
The “heart of the earth” in the style of the Hebrews means nothing else than what is within the earth…. Thus “to be in the heart of the earth” (Mt. 12:40) means nothing else than to be within the earth whether that be nearer or more remote from its surface. In this way is intimated the state of Christ’s body in the sepulcher (which was in the earth, in which it rested until the third day).[1]
Indeed, this text is not a strong proof text for a descent to the netherworld.
24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25 For David says concerning him,
“‘I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
my flesh also will dwell in hope.
27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One see corruption.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.
(Acts 2:24–32)
Though Sheol in Hebrew (translated by Hades in Greek) may sometimes refer to the place of torment for the departed spirits of the wicked, it often refers more generally to death and the grave. God had promised not to leave Jesus in Hades—that is, not to leave his human nature in the state of physical death, and thus not to leave his flesh to decay. Again, we have already dealt with Acts 2:27 and 31, along with its quotation of Psalm 16:9–10, in earlier blog posts.
6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
(Romans 10:6–7)
Paul’s word choice here reflects the Old Testament, which often uses the imagery of the pit/the deep/the abyss for the fate of the dead. Somewhat like the Hebrew word sheol, this wording often refers to death and the grave in general rather than to a holding place for departed spirits.
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth [NASB: “the lower parts of the earth”]? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
(Ephesians 4:7–10)
Commentator S. M. Baugh is helpful here.
The meaning of (“the nether regions of the earth”; cf. esp. Psa 63:9; Isa 44:23; John 3:13; 6:41, 51, 58) has drawn significant discussion over the centuries, with three prominent understandings of its meaning. It refers to: (1) Christ’s descent into hell; (2) the earth itself; or (3) Christ’s death. The first view was popular in the early church in conjunction with their view of 1 Pet 3:19 (“he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison”), but it is hard to defend this interpretation today (see Barth, 433; Hoehner, 533–35).”[2]
The advantage of the third view is that “the nether regions of the earth,” namely the grave (Sheol), expresses the purpose of the Son of God’s descent and includes the idea of the cross and the death of Christ that has concerned Paul as paving the way for his exaltation to the highest place over all creation by freeing his people from sin (e.g., 1:7, 20–22; 2:1–7, 16; 5:2). So, “by ‘the lower parts of the earth’ he means ‘death’” (Chrysostom, 195).[3]
This phrase “the lower parts of the earth” and its meaning are roughly equivalent to Jesus’ wording and meaning in Matthew 12:40 when he mentions “the heart of the earth.”
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
(1 Peter 3:18–22)
What is Peter saying? Christ’s suffering in the flesh led to resurrection in the Holy Spirit. This same Spirit of Christ preached to the disobedient in Noah’s day. Peter has already spoken of the Holy Spirit speaking through the Old Testament prophets, calling him the Spirit of Christ (1 Peter 1:11). Here Peter says that Christ in the person of his Holy Spirit preached to those who are now imprisoned spirits. By calling them “the spirits in prison,” Peter is referring to their current condition. This foreshadows a theme he’ll touch on again in chapter 4 of the dead being kept for judgment. Who are these spirits, and why were they imprisoned? Their identity and the reason for their imprisonment is clarified by saying that they were once disobedient when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah. In 2 Peter 2:5, Peter himself calls Noah “a herald (κήρυκα, ‘preacher’) of righteousness.” 1 Peter 3:19–20 is referring to those who did not obey the Spirit as he preached through Noah. Indeed, the patience of God’s Spirit only waited for one hundred and twenty years (cf. Genesis 6:3). Those who listened to Christ’s Spirit in the days of Noah were saved through the waters of divine judgment within the ark. Peter will present a similar contrast at the beginning of Chapter 4 between those who have believed the gospel and those who do not, and the salvation or judgment of each group.
In the next (and final) post, I will present biblical arguments against a descent of Christ into the netherworld.
[1] Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Volume 2, translated by George Musgrave Giger, edited by James T. Dennison, Jr. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1994), 359.
[2] S. M. Baugh, Ephesians, Evangelical Exegetical Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2016), 327.
[3] Ibid., 328.
