Did Jesus go to hell between His death and resurrection? (Dispensational Caucus)

Answer: There is a great deal of confusion in regards to this question. This concept comes primarily from the Apostles' Creed, which states, “He descended into hell.” There are also a few Scriptures which, depending on how they are translated, describe Jesus going to “hell.” In studying this issue, it is important to first understand what the Bible teaches about the realm of the dead.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the word used to describe the realm of the dead is sheol. It simply means the “place of the dead” or the “place of departed souls/spirits.” The New Testament Greek equivalent of sheol is hades which also refers to “the place of the dead.” Other Scriptures in the New Testament indicate that sheol/hades is a temporary place, where souls are kept as they await the final resurrection and judgment. Revelation 20:11-15 gives a clear distinction between the two. Hell (the lake of fire) is the permanent and final place of judgment for the lost. Hades is a temporary place. So, no, Jesus did not go to hell because hell is a future realm, only put into effect after the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15).

Sheol/hades is a realm with two divisions (Matthew 11:23, 16:18; Luke 10:15, 16:23; Acts 2:27-31), the abodes of the saved and the lost. The abode of the saved was called “paradise” and “Abraham's bosom.” The abodes of the saved and the lost are separated by a “great chasm” (Luke 16:26). When Jesus ascended to heaven, He took the occupants of paradise (believers) with Him (Ephesians 4:8-10). The lost side of sheol/hades has remained unchanged. All unbelieving dead go there awaiting their final judgment in the future. Did Jesus go to sheol/hades? Yes, according to Ephesians 4:8-10 and 1 Peter 3:18-20.

Some of the confusion has arisen from such passages as Psalm 16:10-11 as translated in the King James Version, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption....Thou wilt show me the path of life.” “Hell” is not a correct translation of this verse. A correct reading would be “the grave” or “sheol.” Jesus said to the thief beside Him, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Jesus’ body was in the tomb; His soul/spirit went to the “paradise” side of sheol/hades. He then removed all the righteous dead from paradise and took them with Him to heaven. Unfortunately, in many translations of the Bible, translators are not consistent, or correct, in how they translate the Hebrew and Greek words for “sheol,” “hades,” and “hell.”

Some have the viewpoint that Jesus went to “hell” or the suffering side of sheol/hades in order to further be punished for our sins. This idea is completely unbiblical. It was the death of Jesus on the cross and His suffering in our place that sufficiently provided for our redemption. It was His shed blood that effected our own cleansing from sin (1 John 1:7-9). As He hung there on the cross, He took the sin burden of the whole human race upon Himself. He became sin for us: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). This imputation of sin helps us understand Christ's struggle in the garden of Gethsemane with the cup of sin which would be poured out upon Him on the cross.

When Jesus cried upon the cross, “Oh, Father, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), it was then that He was separated from the Father because of the sin poured out upon Him. As He gave up His spirit, He said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). His suffering in our place was completed. His soul/spirit went to the paradise side of hades. Jesus did not go to hell. Jesus’ suffering ended the moment He died. The payment for sin was paid. He then awaited the resurrection of His body and His return to glory in His ascension. Did Jesus go to hell? No. Did Jesus go to sheol/hades? Yes.

I studied away from my notes and found some other amplifying perspectives.

Here’s one from Chafer’s Systematic Theology on Hades:

...Like all otherwise unknown truths, the doctrine of a future state depends wholly on what is declared in the Sacred Text. It is usually asserted that the word Sheol of the Old Testament finds its equivalent in Hades, but Dr. E. W. Bullinger objects to such a conclusion in the following note:

“This [Gen. 37:35] being the first occurrence of the word Sheol, the R.V. gives a note in the margin, ‘Heb. Sheol, the name of the abode of the dead, answering to the Greek Hades, Acts 2:27.’
This note is altogether wrong.
(1) It is interpretation and not translation.
(2) It prejudges the word from the outset, fixing upon it the word ‘abode,’ which has a technical meaning applicable only to the living: thus anticipating the conclusion, which cannot be arrived at until we have obtained all the evidence, and have it before us.
(3) Sheol has nothing in it ‘answering to the Greek Hades.’ Hades must have the same meaning as Sheol; and must answer to that. It must have the meaning which the Holy Spirit puts upon it, and not the meaning which the heathen put on it” (A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament, 6th ed., revised, p. 368). A study of these words is at once required.

1. OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING. Having cited the use of Sheol in sixty-five passages and pointed out that it is usually translated grave, sometimes pit, and sometimes hell, Dr. Bullinger declares:

On a careful examination of the above list, a few facts stand out very clearly.

(i.) It will be observed that in a majority of cases Sheol is rendered “the grave.” To be exact, 54 per cent.: while “hell” is 41% per cent.; and “pit” only 4% per cent. The grave, therefore, stands out on the face of the above list as the best and commonest rendering.

(ii.) With regard to the word “pit,” it will be observed that in each of the three cases where it occurs (Num. 16:30, 33; and job 17:16), the grave is so evidently meant, that we may at once substitute that word, and banish “pit” from our consideration as a rendering of Sheol.

(iii.) As to the rendering “hell,” it does not represent Sheol, because both by Dictionary definition and by colloquial usage “hell” means the place of future punishment. Sheol has no such meaning, but denotes the present state of death. “The grave” is, therefore, a far more suitable translation, because it visibly suggests to us what is invisible to the mind, viz., the state of death. It must, necessarily, be misleading to the English reader to see the former put to represent the latter.

(iv.) The student will find that “THE grave,” taken literally as well as figuratively, will meet all the requirements of the Hebrew Sheol: not that Sheol means so much specifically A grave, as generically THE grave. Holy Scripture is all-sufficient to explain the word Sheol to us.

(v.) If we enquire of it in the above list of the occurrences of the word Sheol, it will teach
(a) That as to direction it is down.
(b) That as to place it is in the earth.
(c) That as to nature it is put for the state of death. Not the act of dying, for which we have no English word, but the state or duration of death. The Germans are more fortunate, having the word sterbend for the act of dying.

Sheol therefore means the state of death; or the state of the dead, of which the grave is a tangible evidence. It has to do only with the dead. It may sometimes be personified and represented as speaking, as other inanimate things are. It may be represented by a coined word, Grave-dom, as meaning the dominion or power of the grave.

(d) As to relation it stands in contrast with the state of the living, see Deut. 30:15, 19, and I Sam. 2:6-8. It is never once connected with the living, except by contrast.

(e) As to association, it is used in connection with mourning (Gen. 37:34-35), sorrow (Gen. 42:38; 2 Sam. 22:6; Ps. 18:5; 116:3), fright and terror (Num. 16:27, 34), weeping (Isa. 38:3, 10, 15, 20), silence (Ps. 31:17; 6:5; Eccles. 9:10), no knowledge (Eccles. 9: 5-6, 10), punishment (Num. 16: 2 7, 34; 1 Kings 2:6, 9; job 24:19; Ps. 9:17, RN., RE-turned, as before their resurrection).

(f) And, finally, as to duration, the dominion of Sheol or the grave will continue until, and end only with, resurrection, which is the only exit from it (see Hos. 13:14, etc.; and compare Ps. 16:10 with Acts 2:27, 31; 13:35).—Ibid., pp. 368-69

2. NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING. Here three words are present: Gehenna used eight times,
Hades eleven times,
Tartaros once.

(a) Gehenna is a place of future punishment.
(b) To quote Bullinger again, this time on Hades:

“If now the eleven occurrences of Hades in the New Testament be carefully examined, the following conclusions will be reached:
(a) Hades is invariably connected with death; but never with life: always with dead people; but never with the living. All in Hades will ‘NOT LIVE AGAIN,’ until they are raised from the dead (Rev. 20:5). If they do not ‘live again’ until after they are raised, it is perfectly clear that they cannot be alive now. Otherwise we do away with the doctrine of resurrection altogether.

(b) That the English word ‘hell’ by no means represents the Greek Hades; as we have seen that it does not give a correct idea of its Hebrew equivalent, Sheol.

(c) That Hades can mean only and exactly what Sheol means, viz., the place where ‘corruption’ is seen (Acts 2:31; compare 13:34-37); and from which, resurrection is the only exit” (Ibid., p. 369).
So also on (c) Tartaras: “Tartaroj; is not Sheol or Hades. . . . where all men go in death. Nor is it where the wicked are to be consumed and destroyed, which is Gehenna . . . Not the abode of men in any condition. It is used only here, and here only of ‘the angels that sinned,’ (see Jude 6). It denotes the bounds or verge of this material world. The extremity of this lower air—of which Satan is ‘the prince’ (Eph. 2:2) and of which Scripture speaks as having ‘the rulers of the darkness of this world’ and ‘wicked spirits in aerial regions.’ Tartaroj is not only the bounds of this material creation, but is so called from its coldness” (Ibid., p. 370).

Here are some other dispensational studies with a different perspective.

All agree the word ‘hell’ is loosely applied in a colloquial sense, to all aspects of the underworld and to the Lake of Fire. This adds confusion as sometimes specific conditions of Hades or future torment, may reference a specific portion, not characteristic of others in the same group.

From R B Thieme, Jr, 2 doctrines labeled Doctrine of Hades 1 and Doctrine of Hades 2 describe the topic. The first is about 19 pages, from which I will post a few paragraphs here. The second begins with studies of mythology which were known from classical ages prior to the writing of the New Testament books. It is a good study to appreciate the language used at the time of the New Testament descriptions insofar as the language used borrows on classical understanding of Hades.

Strictly speaking, the Lake of Fire, or TOPHIT GEHENNAH doesn’t refer to Hades, but the Torments, which is a component in Hades is a preclude to a future place of punishment.

Our Lord Christ Jesus descended into Tartarus, or the prison of fallen angels from Genesis 6, and preached to them there as recorded in 1Pet 3:9-17

From the notes:

B. The Resurrection of the Soul of Jesus Christ from Hades.
1. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, two categories of divine power were used.
a. The omnipotence of God the Father sent His human spirit in heaven back to His body in the grave. Thus the Father became an agent in the resurrection, Acts 2:24; Rom 6:4; Eph 1:20; Col 2:12; 1 Thes 1:10; 1 Pet 1:21.
b. The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit sent His soul from Hades back to His body in the grave. Thus the Holy Spirit became an agent in the resurrection, Rom 1:4, 8:11; 1 Pet 3:16.
2. The principle is that the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is now available to every Church Age believer as a member of the royal family of God. Eph 1:19-20, “And what is the surpassing greatness of His power to us who have believed for the working of His superior power, which [superior power] He [God the Father] put into operation [made operational] by means of Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in heavenly places.”
3. The same omnipotence of God will raise the Church Age believer at the Rapture of the Church. 1 Cor 6:14, “Now God has not only raised the Lord, but He will also raise us through His power.”
a. If our soul and spirit are already in heaven, God the Father will provide our resurrection body.
b. If we are alive as a part of the Rapture generation on earth, God the Holy Spirit will provide our resurrection body.

C. Scriptural Documentation for Sheol or Hades.
1. Eph 4:9, “(Now this doctrine that ascended, what does it imply, except that He also went down into the lower regions [Sheol or Hades] of the earth?”
2. Job 11:7, “Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? It is as high as the heavens; what can you do? Deeper than Sheol; what can you know?” In other words, Sheol is used here for the location of all Old Testament believers.
3. Isa 14:9, “Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come.”
4. 1 Sam 2:6, “The Lord kills; the Lord makes alive. He brings down to Sheol and He raises up.”

D. The Four Compartments of Sheol or Hades.
1. Paradise is where the Old Testament believers resided after death before the resurrection of our Lord.
2. Torments is where all unbelievers reside, Lk 16:23.
3. Tartarus is where certain fallen angels, called BENI HA ELOHIM in Gen 6, reside.
4. The Abyss contains demons who transgress the boundaries of the human race.
a. The Abyss is the location of the demon king, Satan’s right hand man, called Abaddon. He will have quite a future in the Tribulation. Abaddon is mentioned once in the New Testament and nine times in the Old Testament. In Rev 9, he breaks out of this jail with the help of Satan who has now been cast out of heaven and can never return there again.
b. Demons who indwelt a man asked our Lord not to send them to the Abyss.

I will attempt to post these notes as separate threads later,.....about 30 pages of them, as they are comprehensive and very doctrinal.

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