The Harrowing of Hell

Descensus ad Inferos

Descent into Hades

His act liberates even those deepest in "hell".

during the "three days" he was dead, he goes into the underworld to rescue and redeem and save souls trapped there

This is the primordial initiatory mysteries of the hero/savior descending into the underwrodl to save the beloved princess. That one must die and enter into the underworld for a time to be reborn and return to the realm of the living..

What makes the Harrowing of Hell unique among all these descents is that Christ does not merely survive the underworld or return from it. He conquers it. He does not escape death; he defeats it from within. He enters the strong man's house, binds the strong man, and plunders his goods. The gates of Hades do not hold him — they shatter. The chains do not bind him — they break. And he does not return alone. He brings with him all those who were held captive — Adam and Eve, the patriarchs, the prophets, the righteous dead of every age.

The Harrowing of Hell (Latin: Descensus Christi ad Inferos; Greek: Ἡ εἰς ᾍδου κάθοδος τοῦ Χριστοῦ — "the descent of Christ into Hades") is the name given to the event between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection: the period of Holy Saturday, the silent day, when the body of Jesus lay in the tomb and his spirit descended into the realm of the dead. In triumphant descent, Christ brought salvation to the souls held captive there since the beginning of the world.

The English word harrow comes from the Old English hergian — to harry, to despoil, to plunder. It first appears in this context in the homilies of Ælfric of Eynsham, c. 1000 AD. The Harrowing of Hell does not merely mean that Jesus descended into Hell, as the Creed states. It means that he conquered it — broke its gates, plundered its captives, and led them out. He entered the strong man's house, bound the strong man, and carried away his goods.

The Realm of the Dead

The Old Testament understanding of the afterlife was that all people when they died — righteous and unrighteous alike — went to Sheol (שְׁאוֹל), a dark, still, silent place beneath the earth. Not a place of punishment, but a place of waiting — a shadow-realm where the dead existed in a diminished state, cut off from the living and from God. Several texts from the Second Temple period elaborate this concept, dividing Sheol into sections based on the righteousness or unrighteousness of those who had died.

The New Testament maintains a distinction between Sheol — the common place of the dead — and the eternal destiny of those condemned at the Final Judgment, variously described as Gehenna (גֵּיהִנֹּם), "the outer darkness," or a lake of eternal fire.

The Greek wording in the Apostles' Creed is κατελθόντα εἰς τὰ κατώτατα (katelthonta eis ta katōtata), and in Latin descendit ad inferos. The Greek τὰ κατώτατα (ta katōtata, "the lowest") and the Latin inferos ("those below") may also be translated as "underworld," "netherworld," or "abode of the dead." Some theologians use the term Limbo to distinguish this realm from the Hell of the eternally damned. In classical mythology, this is Hades — the underworld inhabited by departed souls, ruled by Pluto. The New Testament sometimes uses the term Hades to refer to the neutral abode or state of the dead, the place where the dead awaited the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

The Scriptural Foundation

Christ's descent into the world of the dead is affirmed in the Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed (Quicumque vult), which state that he "descended into the underworld" (descendit ad inferos), though neither Creed mentions that he liberated the dead. The liberation is drawn from the New Testament itself.

The Harrowing of Hell is mentioned or suggested by several passages:

• Matthew 12:40 — "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth."
• Matthew 27:50-54 — "And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, 'Truly this was the Son of God!'"
• Acts 2:24 — "But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power."
• Acts 2:31 — "Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, 'He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.'"
• Ephesians 4:8-9 — "When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people. In saying, 'he ascended', what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?"
• Colossians 1:18 — "He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything."
• 1 Peter 3:18-19 — "For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison..."
• 1 Peter 4:6 — "For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does."

Hans Urs von Balthasar draws a further parallel with Mark 3:24-27:

"If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered."

Balthasar reads the cosmic signs at the moment of Christ's death — the earthquake, the darkness, the torn veil, the raising of the dead — as a "visionary and imaginistic" description of Jesus vanquishing death itself. The dead who rise from their tombs and walk through Jerusalem are the first sign of the Harrowing: even before Easter morning, the power of death is already broken.

— Hans Urs von Balthasar, Mysterium Paschale: The Mystery of Easter (2000)

The Gospel of Nicodemus

The fullest narrative of the Harrowing appears not in the canonical Gospels but in the Gospel of Nicodemus (c. 4th century), in the section known as the Acts of Pilate. Here the descent is told as a drama — voices in the darkness, the shattering of gates, the confrontation between Christ and Satan, and the liberation of the captive dead.

The story first appears clearly in this text, though elements of it circulate earlier in the Acts of Peter and Paul. The descent into Hell was subsequently taken up by the Old English poets — the poem Christ and Satan, associated with the names of Cædmon and Cynewulf — and it is Ælfric of Eynsham, c. 1000 AD, who first uses the word harrowing. The Middle English dramatic literature — the great mystery play cycles of York, Chester, Wakefield, and Coventry — contains the fullest and most dramatic development of the subject, staging the breaking of Hell's gates as a scene of triumphant cosmic theater.

The Anastasis Icon

As a subject in Christian art, the Harrowing of Hell is known as the Anastasis (Greek: Ἀνάστασις, "Resurrection"). It is considered a creation of Byzantine culture and first appeared in the West in the early eighth century.

The traditional Orthodox icon of the Resurrection does not depict Christ emerging from the tomb. Instead, it reveals what Orthodox theology understands as the spiritual reality of what his death and resurrection accomplished. Christ is shown vested in white and gold — the robes of divine majesty — standing on the brazen gates of Hades, which are broken and have fallen in the form of a cross. This illustrates the belief that by his death on the cross, Jesus "trampled down death by death" (the Paschal troparion: Christos anesti ek nekron, thanato thanaton patesas — "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death").

He is holding Adam and Eve and pulling them up out of Hades. Traditionally, he grasps them not by the hands but by the wrists — a detail of profound theological significance. Mankind could not pull itself out of its fallen state. Salvation comes only by the work (energia) of God. The grip is not a handshake between equals; it is a rescue.

Surrounding Christ are the righteous figures of the Old Testament — Abraham, David, Moses, the prophets — all those who waited in Sheol for the Deliverer. The bottom of the icon depicts Hades as a chasm of darkness, strewn with broken locks, shattered chains, and twisted hinges. One or two figures are often shown bound in chains in the abyss below — personifications of Death and the Devil, conquered and bound.

Dante and the Virtuous Pagans

In Dante's Inferno, the Harrowing of Hell is mentioned in Canto IV by the pilgrim's guide Virgil. Virgil was in Limbo — the first circle of Hell — because he lived before the coming of Christ and was never exposed to Christianity. He describes Christ in veiled, generic terms as a "mighty one" who descended and rescued the Hebrew forefathers of the faith — Adam, Abel, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, and others — but left Virgil and the other virtuous pagans behind in that same circle.

The passage is one of the most poignant in the Commedia. Virgil witnessed the Harrowing but did not fully understand its significance. He saw the rescue but was not among the rescued. He stands as the figure of natural wisdom and classical virtue brought to its limit — able to guide Dante through Hell and Purgatory, but unable to enter Paradise.

Orpheus and the Descent

Although the Orpheus legend has its origin in pagan antiquity, the medieval romance of Sir Orfeo has often been interpreted as drawing parallels between the Greek hero and Jesus freeing souls from Hell. The reading of Orpheus's descent into the Underworld and return as an allegory for Christ's descent appears as early as the Ovide Moralisé (1340). The pattern is the same: the beloved is imprisoned in the realm of death, and the hero must descend, confront the lord of the underworld, and bring the beloved back to the land of the living. In the pagan version, Orpheus ultimately fails — he turns back and loses Eurydice forever. In the Christian version, Christ does not turn back. He breaks the gates. He does not negotiate with Death; he conquers it.

Within the Royal Art

The Harrowing of Hell is the supreme archetype of the descent — the Nigredo carried to its ultimate depth and transformed from within.

Every initiatory tradition knows this pattern. The hero must descend into the underworld. Inanna descends through the seven gates, stripped of her garments and her power, and hangs dead on a hook in the Great Below. Orpheus descends for Eurydice. Odysseus sails to the land of the dead to consult Tiresias. Aeneas enters the underworld through the cave at Cumae. Persephone is taken below and the world above falls into winter. The Exiled Prince, in the deepest stage of his arc, must enter the abyss — the Nigredo, the dark night, the belly of the whale — and there, in the place where all seems lost, find the turning point.

This is the meaning of Holy Saturday: the day of absolute silence, when God lies in the tomb and the world holds its breath. It is the Nigredo perfected — the moment when the Work appears to have failed completely, when the Stone lies inert, when the fire has gone out and only ashes remain. And it is precisely in that darkness, in that silence, in that apparent nothingness, that the greatest act of the entire drama is accomplished. Not on the cross. Not at the empty tomb. But in the invisible depths, where no human eye can see — there, Christ breaks the power of death itself.

The Anastasis icon captures this perfectly. The Resurrection is not depicted as Christ walking out of a cave. It is depicted as Christ standing on the broken doors of Hell, pulling Adam and Eve out of the abyss by their wrists. The first act of the Risen One is not to ascend — it is to descend further, to the lowest point, and to bring everyone with him when he rises.

Related Pages

• The Passion of the Christ
• No access
• The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved

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