Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 151:602 (Apr 1994)
Article: The Ascent and Descent of Christ in Ephesians 4:9-10
Author: W. Hall Harris III

---

BSac 151:602 (Apr 94) p. 198

The Ascent and Descent of Christ in Ephesians 4:9-10

W. Hall Harris III

[W. Hall Harris III is Professor of New Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.]

The “Descensus ad Inferos”

As early as the middle of the 15th century A.D., Reginald Pecock, bishop of Saint Asaph and later of Chichester, rejected the doctrine of the descent to hell (he also denied apostolic authorship of the Apostles’ Creed).1 Whether Pecock was correct in rejecting the doctrine of the Descensus (at least with regard to Eph 4:9–10) is the subject of the present study.

The belief that Christ spent the triduum (the interval between His death on the cross and His resurrection) in the underworld was common in Christian teaching from the earliest times. Such a belief may have been in the background of a number of New Testament passages, as A. T. Hanson sought to prove.2 The doctrine first appeared in credal form in the “Fourth Formula of Sirmium,” A.D. 359. (Interestingly the only scriptural reference given is Job 38:17.) The Lord “died, and descended to the underworld (εἰς τὰ καταχθόνια κατελθόντα), and regulated things there, Whom the gatekeepers of hell saw and shuddered.”3 But the tradition of Christ’s descent to the underworld between His death and resurrection is far older. It found frequent mention among the postapostolic fathers. Ignatius apparently alluded to the

BSac 151:602 (Apr 94) p. 199

doctrine (Letter to the Magnesians 9)4 as did Polycarp (Letter to the Philippians 1).5 Irenaeus made repeated mention of the Descensus (Against All Heresies 4.27.2; 5.31.1; 5.33.1). Among the earliest to elaborate the doctrine is Tertullian, who stated, “Nor did he ascend into the heights of heaven before descending into the lower parts of the earth (in inferiora terrarum), that he might there make the patriarchs and prophets partakers of himself” (On the Soul 55). A reference to the Descensus occurs seven or eight times in the Homilies of Aphraates (ca. A.D. 337-345), twice in the third-century Acts of Thomas,6 at least once by Ephraim the Syrian (died A.D. 373) in On Our Lord, and in the Edessene document contained in the Doctrine of Addai, which was quote...

visitor : : uid: ()