Christ humbled Himself even unto death, and continued under the power of death for a time. The reality of Christ’s death has never been disputed among Christians. Some modern rationalists, unwilling to admit a miraculous resurrection, endeavoured to show that death was not in his case actually consummated, but that He was deposited in an unconscious state in the tomb. In answer to the arguments of rationalists, certain Christian writers have taken the trouble to demonstrate, from the facts stated in the account of the crucifixion, that it was not a swoon, but actual death which occurred. We are raised above such question by believing the inspiration of the New Testament. In the apostolic writings the death of Christ is so often asserted and assumed that the fact cannot be doubted by any who admit the infallible authority of those writings.
Under the clause, “He continued under the power of death for a time,” is intended to be expressed all that is meant by ancient creeds which asserted “He descended into hell.” Such at least is the view presented in our standards in accordance with the teachings of the majority of the Reformed theologians.
That the sufferings of Christ ceased the moment He expired on the cross, is plain from John xix. 30, where it is recorded, “When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished (Τετέλεσται): and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” This is universally admitted. As, however, such passages as Psalms xviii. 5, and cxvi. 3, “The sorrows of death” (Hebrew Sheol in Psalm xviii. 5), were understood to mean extreme suffering, many of the Reformed understood the descensus ad inferos to refer to the extreme agony of our Lord in the garden and upon the cross, under the hiding of his Father’s face. But, in the first place, the literal meaning of those passages is, “The bands (not the sorrows) of Sheol, or (as it is in Psalms cxvi. 3), of death.” The allusion in both cases is the familiar one to a net. The idea is that the Psalmist felt himself so entangled that death appeared inevitable. This is something very different from what is meant by “descending into Hell or Sheol.” And in the second place, the position which the clause in question holds in the creed forbids this interpretation. It follows the clause referring to the death and burial of Christ. It is the natural exegesis of the words immediately preceding it. “He was crucified, dead, and buried, he descended into Sheol,” i.e., he passed into the invisible state. But it would be utterly incongruous to say, “He was dead, buried, and suffered extreme agony,” when it is admitted that his sufferings ended upon the cross.
In the larger Westminster Catechism,1 it is said, “Christ’s humiliation after his death consisted in his being buried, and continuing in the state of the dead, and under the power of death till the third day, which hath been otherwise expressed in these words, He descended into hell.” That this is the correct view of Christ’s descensus ad inferos may be argued, —
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From the original and proper meaning of the Greek word ᾅδης, and the corresponding English word hell. Both mean the unseen world. The one signifies what is unseen, the other what is covered and thus hidden from view. Both are used as the rendering for the Hebrew word שְׁאוֹל. (probably from שָׁאַל to ask, or demand), the state or place of the dead; the orcus rapax of the Latins. All the dead, the righteous and the wicked, alike go into the invisible world, or, in this sense, “descend into hell.” Hence to be buried, to go down to the grave, to descend into hell, are in Scriptural language equivalent forms of expression. In Genesis xxxvii. 35, Jacob says אֵרֵד שְׁאוֹלָה, which the Septuagint renders καταβήσομαι εἰς ᾅδου; the Vulgate, Descendam in infernum; the English, “I will go down into the grave.” Thus also in Psalm xxx. 4, David says, העְֶלֶיִתָ מִו־שְׁאוֹל נַפְשִׁי, which the Septuagint renders, ἐξ ᾅδου τὴν ψυχήν μου; the Vulgate, “Eduxisti ab inferno animam meam;” and so Luther, “Du hast meine Seele aus der Hölle geführet;” while the English version is, “Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave,” which is explained in the following clause, “Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.” In Scriptural language, therefore, to descend into Hades or Hell, means nothing more than to descend to the grave, to pass from the visible into the invisible world, as happens to all men when they die and are buried.
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This view is confirmed by the fact that these words were not in the creed originally. They were introduced in the fourth century, and then not as a separate or distinct article, but as merely explanatory. “He was dead and buried,” i.e., he descended into hell. That the two clauses were at first considered equivalent is obvious, because some copies of the creed had the one form, some the other, and some both, though all were intended to say the same thing.
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The passages of Scripture which are adduced to prove that Christ descended into hell in a sense peculiar to Himself, do not teach that doctrine. In Psalm xvi. 10, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption,” merely expresses the confidence of the speaker that God would not leave him under the power of death. ‘Thou wilt not deliver me to the power of Sheol, nor suffer me to see corruption.’ This is the precise sense ascribed to the passage by St. Peter in Acts ii. 27-31, and by St. Paul in Acts xiii. 34, 35. In both cases the Psalm is quoted to prove the resurrection of Christ. David was left in the state of the dead; his body did see corruption. Christ was delivered from the grave before corruption had time to affect his sacred person. My soul(נַפְשִׁי), may be taken here, as so often elsewhere, for the personal pronoun, as in the passage quoted above. Psalm xxx. 4: “Thou hast brought up my soul (me) from the grave.” See Psalm iii. 2, “Many there be which say of my soul (me), there is no help for him in God.” Psalm vii. 8, “Lest he tear my soul (me) like a lion.” Psalm xi. 1, “How say ye to my soul (to me) Flee as a bird to your mountain.” Psalm xxxv. 7, “A pit which without cause they have digged for my soul (for me).” But even if the words “my soul” be taken in their strict sense, the meaning is still the same. The souls of men at death pass into the invisible world, they are hidden from the view and companionship of men. This condition was to continue in the case of Christ only for a few days. He was to be recalled to life. His soul was to be reunited to his body, as it was before.