{"id":1842,"date":"2026-09-16T19:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/?p=1842"},"modified":"2026-09-16T19:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:43:10","slug":"harrowing-of-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/2026\/09\/16\/harrowing-of-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"Harrowing of Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Most Church Fathers read Ephesians 4:9 as Christ\u2019s descent into Hades (the underworld \/ Sheol \/ the abode of the dead), not merely the Incarnation or burial. The verse<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNow that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>is treated as the necessary counterpart to the ascent in Psalm 68:18 (quoted in 4:8). He who went up first went down to the lowest place, so that the same person fills all things (4:10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"794\" height=\"830\" src=\"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1843\" srcset=\"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image.png 794w, https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-287x300.png 287w, https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-768x803.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 794px) 100vw, 794px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Irenaeus is explicit and polemical. He quotes the verse against Gnostics who claimed \u201cthe lower parts\u201d meant only this world while their \u201cinner man\u201d ascended to a super-celestial realm. Christ \u201cobserved the law of the dead,\u201d tarried until the third day \u201cin the lower parts of the earth,\u201d and then rose in the flesh. Irenaeus links the descent to visiting those \u201cresting from their labours\u201d and to delivering the righteous dead, citing a Jeremiah-like tradition that the Lord remembered His dead and descended to preach salvation to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most Church Fathers read Ephesians 4:9 as Christ\u2019s descent into Hades (the underworld \/ Sheol \/ the abode of the dead), not merely the Incarnation or burial. The verse \u201cNow that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?\u201d is treated as the necessary counterpart [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1844,"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1842\/revisions\/1844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}