The Descensus ad Inferos—the idea of the postmortem descent of Christ into the underworld—has been an ubiquitous doctrine in Christianity from early centuries.¹ᵃ

It’s also been a point of contention for centuries, mostly centering on what exactly Christ did there. It’s commonly thought that he delivered some sort of message to the souls of the dead, and/or rescued (some of) them—or even that his mission had some broader sort of cosmic effect in “defeating death.” But who exactly was the recipient of these actions, what this message was, and what its effects were, are all hotly debated.¹ᵇ

For the most part, however, I won’t be addressing these particular issues in this post. Instead, I’d like to look at just a single issue: where is the place that he went? And to answer this, I’ll only be focusing on the earliest forms of this tradition: in the canonical New Testament itself. (In an upcoming post, I’ll be getting into the other questions, as well as looking at how the cosmology behind this tradition—as it’s been understood in orthodox thought—problematizes Catholic dogma here.)

Although there are several other New Testament verses that have been thought to contain certain hints toward the idea of his postmorterm “mission,” there are really only two main texts of importance. The first of these is a sort of enigmatic off-hand comment that we find in the epistle to the Ephesians:

“When [Christ] ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) (4:8-10)

Yet I won’t focus on these verses, because—although there’s been at least one recent article defending the traditional interpretation that this indeed refers to Christ’s descent to the underworld²—the most common interpretation is that this actually refers (rather uniquely) to some aspect of Jesus’ incarnation itself, whether his “descent” to earthly form or his death.

The second New Testament text of importance is found in the first epistle of Peter.³ᵃ In the third chapter of this, we read that

[Christ] was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. (3:18-20)

For those racking their brains trying to remember where exactly in the story of Noah there was anything mentioned about “imprisoned spirits,” rest easy: this is actually a reference to Jewish traditions that don’t appear in the Bible itself. These traditions are known best from the book of Enoch (hereafter “1 Enoch”), in which certain rebellious angels commit various crimes on earth, after which (non-fallen) archangels are sent to warn Noah of the imminent deluge, and also commanded to imprison the rebel angels (cf. 1 Enoch 10, esp. vv. 11-15).

Although there’s no doubt that this tradition is the referent here,³ᵇ there’s been much more confusion as to what sort of “proclamation” was made to them.

In effect, what has happened is that, in the early interpretive tradition—the tradition that would decisively shape orthodox doctrine—the “imprisoned spirits from the days of Noah” aspect of these verses has been cast aside, and they have been conflated with other verses and traditions (yet also used to interpret these); and consequently, the “mission” that the risen Christ went on has been construed as broader than it originally was. As the Catholic Catechism suggests,

Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him (§633)

With 1 Peter 3:18-20 used as proof for the idea that Jesus actually went on some otherworldly/underworld mission—which, again, was used to interpret other verses and traditions (like Eph 4:8-10), and back around again—these “imprisoned spirits” were no longer the fallen angels; this “proclamation” was no longer ambiguous, but was the “Good News” of salvation, brought to the righteous dead; and the place Jesus went to do this was unambiguously “into the lower parts of the earth.”

That being said, the fact that 1 Peter 3 clearly utilizes tradition from the book of Enoch could be a point in favor of the idea that the mission of Christ was indeed a descent. In 1 Enoch 10:4, the archangel Raphael is commanded to imprison the leader of the rebel angels in what amounts to a pit, in the “wilderness (of Doudael).” In v. 12, Michael is commanded to bind another leader and others in the “valleys of the earth.”

But as we go further into the book of Enoch, things get complicated.⁴ᵃ As Enoch is taken on a tour of the universe, we struggle to work out its precise cosmology. (The most detailed study of this so far has been Bautsch’s A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17-19.)

In 18:10 Enoch is taken beyond a certain set of mountains,⁴ᵇ to “the edge of the great earth; there the heavens come to an end,” where rebellious angels are punished. Some of the text here is obscure, though we do find mention of a “great chasm,” similar to how 7th century BCE Greek poet Hesiod described Tartarus. In 18:12, Enoch is taken to a similar place of punishment, “where there was neither firmament of heaven above, nor firmly founded earth beneath it.” (Dalton suggests a “notable flexibility in the presentation of hell” in 1 Enoch. Much more on this has been covered in my posts here.)

Beyond the book of Enoch, however, the epistle of Jude and the second epistle of Peter—though these are both very different from the first epistle of Peter—speak of the rebellious angels imprisoned in “deepest darkness” (and specifically Tartarus, in the latter).

In light of all these traditions, it could be argued that the most likely location for the imprisoned spirits in 1 Peter 3 is indeed some sort of pit or abyss. Yet the text itself is characterized by a certain ambiguity not shared by the other ones—though “ambiguity” is relative in this case, as it’s far from clear what the exact cosmology/geography of the others is, too.

With a few other considerations in mind, it remains a possibility that the imprisoned spirits in 1 Peter 3 were not located in the underworld, or on earth at all, but rather in the heavens. This view was in fact strongly supported by William Dalton, whose monograph Christ’s Proclamation to the Spirits: A Study of 1 Peter 3:18-4:6 was the premiere academic book on the subject in the 20th century (at least in English).⁵

Dalton argued this from several angles, though not all of them persuasive.⁶ To add a few points of my own here:

Although this point shouldn’t be pressed too far, it’s interesting that 1 Pet 3:18 starts by mentioning Christ “made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation…” Being “in the spirit” is an idea used to suggest a means of revelation and/or transportation in related traditions; and although we could certainly imagine a trip to the ends of the earth (and to the abyss) being one of the places that one might go using this language, in several other places in the New Testament being “in the spirit” is specifically associated with a journey to the heavens: Revelation 4:2; 21:10; and cf. also the ambiguity of 2 Cor 12:2-4.

Further, in a Jewish apocalyptic text from the 2nd or 3rd century CE called 3 Baruch, the Biblical personage Baruch is taken on a tour of seven heavens and shown what they contain. In (what’s most likely) the third of these heavens,⁷ he sees a dragon “who eats the bodies of those who pass through life wickedly.” In his commentary on this, Alexander Kulik writes that

in some Jewish sources the place of “eternal recompense” for the wicked is located in heaven. This is most probably the case of the “prison house” for heavenly powers in [1 Enoch] 18-19. In [2 Enoch] 10 it is even the same third heaven as in . . . 3 Baruch. Two lowest heavens of a total of three, or seven in different versions of the Testament of Levi, are also connected with punishment: “In it [the lowest heaven] are all the spirits of those dispatched to achieve the punishment of mankind” (T. Levi 3:3). Souls are tortured in the fourth and fifth heavens in Gnostic Apoc. Paul 20-22 or inside the Great Dragon surrounding the world (Pistis Sophia 3.126). According to one of the opinions presented in b. Tamid 32b [in the Talmud], Hell may be found above the firmament (3 Baruch: Greek-Slavonic Apocalypse of Baruch, 164⁸)

So it was certainly within the realm of possibility that early Jews and Christians conceived of the realm(s) of punishment being in the heavens.

Finally, in light of these things, the line from the text of Ephesians quoted at the beginning of this post could take on a different meaning: “He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.”

Although we should be careful not to discount an idiomatic interpretation of “all the heavens,” elsewhere we also see the collocation between Jesus’ ascent and his triumph over certain angelic/demonic powers, with a sort of emphasis on spatial dimensions: Ephesians 1:20-21’s “God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” is easily connected with 1 Pet 3:21-22, verses which directly follow the original lines under discussion here: “…through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone⁹ into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.”

(There’s another collocation of ascent and the disarming of angelic/demon powers, on a certain interpretation of Mark 13:25-26.)

At the end of the day, lacking any other compelling evidence, perhaps it’s safest to think that the journey of 1 Peter 3 is indeed downward. (And if so, I hope you’ll forgive me for the title of my post falling under the rule of Betteridge’s Law of Headlines.)

If anything, though, a greater attention to the cosmic geography of texts like 1 Enoch will show just how complicated things are; and it may even demonstrate that the distinction between “heaven” and “earth” can be remarkably blurred here, to where our traditional language is inadequate to convey the complicated cosmologies and realities that these texts tried to convey.

At most, however, perhaps we have yet another reason to think that the descensus ad inferos is on its way out—or maybe on its way up.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Notes

[1a] See now J.H. Charlesworth, “Exploring the Origins of the descensus ad inferos“

[1b] Cf. the Descensus Controversy; and in more recent times, among Catholics there’s been controversy over the views of prominent Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar on this. (Cf. Pitstick, Light in Darkness: Hans Urs Von Balthasar and the Catholic Doctrine of Christ’s Descent into Hell.)

Further, there’s the question of what the realm that Christ went to was like. In its (mostly) traditional understanding, both Jewish Sheol and Greek Hades could be neutral places—or places that housed both the righteous and unrighteous (even if subdivided into different areas). The Catholic Catechism reiterates this, and that “Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him” (§633).

[2] Bales, “The Descent of Christ in Ephesians 4:9.”

[3a] I focus on 3:18-20 here, at the expense of 4:6, which is often discussed as an instance of a postmortem ministry. However, I think that careful attention to the syntax of 4:6—in conjunction with some intertextual considerations—can easily demonstrate that this text has nothing to do with any postmortem mission.

[3b] Mason, “Watchers Traditions in the Catholic Epistles” (77), traces this back to Spitta’s Christi Predigt an die Geister (1 Petr. 3,19ff.), published in 1890.

[4a] Part of this is due to the fact that what we refer to as the “book of Enoch” was actually a few different compositions—sometimes from different times and perspectives—that were gradually combined into one single book.

[4b] Cf. Bautsch’s A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17-19, 107f.

[5] In this he followed Reicke, The Disobedient Spirits and Christian Baptism, etc. Also finding this persuasive are Elliott, 1 Peter (654-55); Kelly, Epistles of Peter and Jude (155-56); Trumbower, Rescue for the Dead: The Posthumous Salvation of Non-Christians in Early Christianity (46). The former two were cited by Mason, who himself follows Achtemeier that “such ambiguity prevents us . . . from coming to any firm conclusion about the prison’s location” (78).

[6] I’m not exactly on board with some of his suggestions about the lack of separation between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. Alas, though, I don’t have access to crucial parts of his monograph.

[7] See Kulik, 3 Baruch, 156, 178f.

[8] While Kulik may be somewhat misleading with regard to 1 Enoch here, to this we could also add Plutarch’s On the Delays of the Divine Vengeance.

[9] 3:19 and 3:22 share the use of the word πορευθεὶς.