Patrick F

There seems to be quite a lot of disagreement and confusion among Christians surrounding this topic and its implications, but I find it a very interesting topic. Jesus said he would be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. I’m really curious about where he was and what he did during this time. Now I know the amount of time is disputed but I have no particular interest in that. I’m more interested in where he was and what he did.

I'm interested in the thoughts of Christians, but also if any non-believer has thoughts on this, I'd love hear from you too.



Here are some questions one might consider:



1. Did he go to hell as Catholics generally believe?



2. Did he go to Hades as Protestants generally believe?



3. Did he go to heaven?



4. Was “paradise” really “moved” during this time and transported to heaven, as some believe due to Jesus telling the criminal “today you will be with me in paradise” by which many believe must have meant Hades?




5. Are there three holding places for dead spirits, the good and bad parts of Hades and also Tartarus/Hell?



6. In 1 Peter 3 it says, “Christ did this to bring you to God, when his body was put to death and his spirit was made alive. Christ then preached to the spirits that were being kept in prison. They had disobeyed God while Noah was building the boat, but God had been patient with them.”

1 Peter 4:6 reiterates: “For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.”

So did Jesus preach to people in Hades and did some get saved as a result?



7. Did Jesus take the righteous people from the past, like Noah, Adam, and Moses, from Hades up to heaven between his death and resurrection?


8. If Hades has two parts, good and bad, how was it determined who went to the good part and who went to the bad part after death?



9. In the time before Jesus, did people who had never heard of the Jewish god go to the good part of Hades or the bad part after death?




10. Are sinners who don’t accept Jesus today consigned to the good part of Hades or the bad part? Would, let’s say, a serial killer be sent to the bad part of Hades if he died today?




Thanks for any thoughts you may have. I'm just a tad confused by all the differing ideas on this.

spamandham

In my days as a Christian, I understood that Jesus didn't go anywhere during those three days...he just stayed dead. The whole idea behind resurrection is that it saves people from the annihilation we know as death.

mountainman

The authors of the new testament assert in their story
that the figure of Jesus alluded to this. Yet I have seen
no comparison between this phrase and Jules Verne's
epic "Journey to the center of the earth".



I have thoughts about the textual evidence,
and how the textual evidence is to be treated.



My thought is to examine the primary evidence.
The new testament canon makes its assertions
as you point out above, and some people then
interpret this to mean one thing or another.

The NT canon is not the only "primary evidence"
in the phenomenom known as "EArly Christian Origins".

Have a look at The Gospel of Nicodemus for example.


This text describes in graphic detail a wondeful story about
the descent and ascent of the figure of JC into the pits, and
all about what he did there. The story tells us that it was
recorded in realtime by two separate scribes, who each wrote
an account of the Epic Homerian Journey to the Underworld,
and when they had finished, and compared their two separate
accounts, it is found that the two separate accounts are the
very very same word for word. The scribes vanish in a blinding
flash, Pontius Pilate is impressed with the preceedings, and the
story went to air through the official ROman army despatch
archives.

Patrick F

I'm really surprised there aren't Christians with answers to these questions. Surely if the Bible is about anything, it's about what happens to people when they die, but this topic seems to bring nothing but confusion with the differing ideas and esoteric bible quotes like Peter's preaching to people in "prison" and Christ saying "today you will be with me in paradise".

IamJoseph

What he did not do, better applies. Depraved Rome was certainly not confronted, while hapless money changers and many others of Rome's victims were instead targeted with full gusto. I know of no other figurehead more maligned than Jesus by Christianity - has anyone made estimates on the human toll subsequent in Jesus' name?

mountainman

Perhaps when the question what did Gandalf do between his fall into the pit with the Balrog and his "resurrection" is seen to be equivalent to your OP (what did Jesus do between his death and his resurrection) then we might start finding some answers.

Patrick F

I'm not too familiar with LoTRs but I think I know what you mean. It may be quite an apt comparrison.

storytime

I thought it a comparison with Jonah in Ninevah.