The descent into Limbo, also known as the Harrowing of Hell, does not
appear in the gospels. It is most familiar from the Apostles creed:
- I believe in God,
- the Father almighty,
- Creator of heaven and earth,
- and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
- who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
- born of the Virgin Mary,
- suffered under Pontius Pilate,
- was crucified, died and was buried;
- he descended into hell;
- on the third day he rose again from the
dead;
- he ascended into heaven . . . . .
A passage in 1Peter is said to validate the story:
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the
unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the
flesh, but quickened by the Spirit; by which he also went and
preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were
disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days
of Noah, while the ark was a preparing wherein few, that is, eight
souls were saved by water.
- (3 v 18 - 20)
The most detailed source comes from the Apocryphal Acts of Pilate,
also known as The Gospel of Nicodemus. Here is a
short extract: the full text is at
http://folk.uio.no/lukeb/books/apocrypha/Gospel_of_Nicodemus.pdf
This text identifies
the nearest figure to Christ as Adam; the crowned figure is probably
King David.
The Lord looked down from heaven that he might hear
the groanings of them that are in fetters and deliver the children
of them that have been slain. And now, O thou most foul and stinking
Hell, open thy gates, that the King of glory may come in.
And the Lord stretching forth his hand, said:
Come unto me, all ye my saints which bear mine image and my
likeness. Ye that by the tree and the devil and death were
condemned, behold now the devil and death condemned by the tree. And
forthwith all the saints were gathered in one under the hand of the
Lord. And the Lord holding the right hand of Adam, said unto him:
Peace be unto thee with all thy children that are my righteous ones.
But Adam, casting himself at the knees of the Lord entreated him
with tears and beseechings, and said with a loud voice: I will
magnify thee, O Lord, for thou hast set me up and not made my foes
to triumph over me: O Lord my God I cried unto thee and thou hast
healed me; Lord, thou hast brought my soul out of hell, thou hast
delivered me from them that go down to the pit.Sing praises unto the
Lord all ye saints of his, and give thanks unto him for the
remembrance of his holiness. For there is wrath in his indignation
and life is in his good pleasure. In like manner all the saints
of God kneeled and cast themselves at the feet of the Lord, saying
with one accord: Thou art come, O redeemer of the world: that which
thou didst foretell by the law and by thy prophets, that hast
thou accomplished in deed. Thou hast redeemed the living by
thy cross, and by the death of the crossthou hast come down unto us,
that thou mightest save us out of hell and death through thy
majesty. O Lord, like as thou hast set the name of thy glory in the
heavens and set up thy cross for a token of redemption upon the
earth, so, Lord, set thou up the sign of the victory of thy cross in
hell, that death may have no more dominion. And the Lord stretched
forth his hand and made the sign of the cross over Adam and over all
his saints, and he took the right hand of Adam and went up out of
hell, and all the saints followed him.
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