The period between Good Friday and Easter is often forgotten, yet it has a special impact on the story of Christianity. What is the Harrowing of Hell? What is this doctrine that has been affirmed in various forms across Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and some Protestant traditions?

The Harrowing of Hell is a doctrine that is often overshadowed by both the death and resurrection of Christ, which is unfortunate. A basic understanding of Christ’s ministry in the underworld only serves to magnify his death and resurrection. The doctrine is drawn from several New Testament passages and confessed in the Apostles’ Creed, “He descended to hades.”

A Lutheran Confession, The Formula of Concord, states in Article IX,

For it is sufficient that we know that Christ descended into hell, destroyed hell for all believers, and delivered them from the power of death and of the devil, from eternal condemnation and the jaws of hell.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church further clarifies in paragraphs 636-637,

By the expression “He descended into hell,” the Apostles’ Creed confesses that Jesus did really die and through his death for us conquered death and the devil “who has the power of death” (Heb 2:14). In his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven’s gates for the just who had gone before him.

Article III of the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles simply says,

As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it to be believed, that he went down into Hell.

It becomes necessary to define what “hell” means in both the creed and the doctrine. In the Apostles’ Creed, “hell” is translated from the Greek hades and means “the place of the dead” or “the abode of the departed.” Before Christ’s coming, hell did not always refer to a place of punishment. Many times, it referenced the realm of the dead, where the damned awaited judgment and the righteous awaited resurrection and eternal life.

Therefore, while there are different views on the doctrine, generally, the Harrowing of Hell is the triumphant descent of Christ into the place of the dead to claim victory and take captive the forces of evil, and deliver believers past and present from the devil, death, and hell.

That Greedy Leviathan!

“The divine was hidden by the veil of our nature, in order that, as in the case of greedy fish, the hook of the divinity might be swallowed with the bait of the flesh, and thus when life came to dwell in death and light shone in the darkness, that which is understood as the opposite of light and life might be utterly destroyed.”–St. Gregory of Nyssa

Oh, that greedy Leviathan, that gluttonous monster feasting on the souls of men! Not one of us could escape his maw. Each image of God a collection piece in his pantry. Satan the devourer. Satan the glutton. Satan the drowner of our souls. With a gulp, we were brought within his jaws down to the lowest hell as a man in the belly of the whale.

So God himself came in the image of God. The fisherman made himself bait for us. That seven-headed dragon, that sea monster, deceived by his arrogance and unending hunger, envied the Christ for his collection of doomed souls. The Christ would be the prize of his collection. He must have the Christ-soul. In his hunger, he did not question why this Christ offered his flesh and blood as a meal so willingly.

There is no hope in the belly of the whale, or we think there shouldn’t be. Yet, Jonah cries from the stomach of Leviathan, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.” Sheol is the Hebrew equivalent of hades. “But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

Jesus is the true Jonah, the prophet who would rob that greedy fish,

An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth…behold, something greater than Jonah is here. –Matthew 12:39-41

If Good Friday is the prophet sacrificing himself to save his fellow sailors, and Easter is his vomitous resurrection upon the Mediterranean shores, then the Harrowing of Hell is Jonah’s victorious prayer in the belly of the whale.

Leviathan bit off more than he could chew. In death, Jesus plundered death. He saved all who believe in him from hell and took captive Satan and his forces. And if Christ has saved us from death and hell and has claimed a prisoner of every Satanic force, we have no need to fear the forces of hell.

Think on our Christ. Very God of very God yet born of a virgin. God in the flesh. And in his deepest of loves, he offers himself to the poisonous bite of that sea serpent. And as Christ opens his eyes, Satan flinches. Next to Satan stands death. Now he bows as a footstool to the King of kings. And the iron chains that once enslaved the images of God now snap around every demonic neck.

Hell itself cannot handle the presence of Christ. The grave vomits up Christ, but not Christ alone. The chains hold fast every demon to that accursed ground, but every believer emerges with Christ, an army of the dead-no-longer. “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Son of man, can these bones live?”

Yes. Yes. Yes! These bones do live again!

The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.–Matthew 27:52-53

Death, who sought to swallow the God of the universe, is now swallowed up in victory! Death, where is your sting? Oh, grave, where is your victory? Christ has robbed your victory. And those souls whom you held fast have been stolen from your hellish collection.

This is the significance of Holy Saturday, that there is no darkness into which Christ has not gone to save our souls. There is no prison he cannot open and no enemy he has not already put under his feet. Because he descended, the dead in Christ are not lost. Because he rose, the grave is no longer a mouth that devours but a door to eternal life for “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.”

And because Christ has conquered death, we do not sorrow as those who have no hope. Our Lord owns the keys of death and hell. He who conquered hell will not leave our souls in hell. “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his (Romans 6:5).”

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saintsandsociety.substack.com