Descended into hell?

Question: Please explain why we are going to pray in the new version of the Apostles’ Creed at Mass that Jesus after his death “descended into hell’? In the old version we said that he “descended to the dead.” What would Jesus be doing in hell? 

Steve De Jong, British Columbia, Canada

Answer: Throughout the history of Christianity we have understood hell as the place of the damned. However, before the time of Christ, hell meant both the abode of the damned and the place in which the righteous waited until they were redeemed by Christ’s own death and resurrection. The scriptures call the abode of the dead, into which Christ entered after his death, “hell” — Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek for the reason that those who were there were deprived of the vision of God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the redeemer” (No. 633). It continues: “It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham’s bosom, whom Jesus delivered when he descended into hell. 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” (Ibid.). Thus, the version of the Apostles’ Creed we find in the new translation of the Mass is more in line with the scriptures. But, we have to be sure that we understand “hell” in that Creed as I have just explained it.

The gates of heaven were opened not by Christ’s death alone, but by his death, resurrection and ascension. Heaven cannot exist without Christ; for heaven means the dwelling place of the resurrected Christ.

An Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday (printed in the Catechism in no. 635) speaks of Holy Saturday as the day in which Christ went into hell and sought out all the righteous, declaring salvation to them; among those sought out are Adam and Eve, to whom Christ was both God and son. 

Marriage outside Church


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