Did Early Christians Teach Christ Descended to Hades?
Early Christians did teach that Christ went down to Hades or the lower parts of the earth after his death. Writers like Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Hippolytus, Tertullian, and Novatian connected this to his victory over death and his work for the dead. Key Bible texts often used were Acts 2:31, Ephesians 4:9, and 1 Peter 3:19-20. The details vary, but the core belief is broad and early.
138 early-church witnesses · 212 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about christ Descending into Hades?
Early Christians widely taught that Christ went down to Hades or the lower parts of the earth after his death, and that this was tied to his victory over death and his work for the dead. Clear witnesses include Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Hippolytus, Tertullian, Gregory Thaumaturgus, and Novatian, with Bible passages like Acts 2:31, Ephesians 4:9, and 1 Peter 3:19-20 often used as support.
The strongest and most repeated theme is that Christ preached, triumphed, or freed captives in Hades, especially in 2nd- and 3rd-century writers. A few cards are only background, typology, or about unrelated descent language, so they should not drive the main answer. Overall, the belief is broad and early, though some details vary on whether the descent is described more as preaching, rescue, or victory.
Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Many early Christian writers said Christ descended to Hades after his death.
- The descent was linked to preaching, victory over death, and rescue from the realm of the dead.
- Acts 2:31, Ephesians 4:9, and 1 Peter 3:19-20 were major Bible texts used for this teaching.
Questions Answered by the Sources
Did early Christians teach that Christ descended to Hades?
Yes. Multiple early Christian writers explicitly say Christ descended to Hades or the lower parts of the earth, often tying that descent to Scripture and to Christ's victory over death.
-
Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness
...scend, because he himself contains and fills all things. And yet Moses nevertheless presents God as descending to look at the tower that the sons of men were building, asking and saying, "Come," and then, "Let us go down and there confuse their tongues, so that each one may not understand the words of his neighbor." Whom do they claim was the God who descended to that tower and came to inspect those men at that time? God the Father? Then he is enclosed in a place; and how then does he embrace all things? Or do they say that it was an angel descending with angels, and saying, "Come," and then, "Let us go down and there confuse their tongues"? And yet in Deuteronomy we see that God related these things, and that God said them, where it is written, "When He scattered abroad the children of Adam, He fixed the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God." Therefore the Father did not descend, as the matter itself shows. Nor did an angel command these things, as the fact makes clear. Then it remains that he must have descended of whom the Apostle Paul says, "He who descended is the same who ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things," that is,
Did early Christians say Christ preached to the dead or the spirits in prison?
Yes. Several sources explicitly say the Lord preached the gospel to those in Hades or to spirits in prison, and they link that claim to 1 Peter and related passages.
-
Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness
in which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which at one time were disobedient, when the long-suffering of God once waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing.
-
Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness
If, then, He preached the Gospel to those in the flesh that they might not be condemned unjustly, how is it conceivable that He did not for the same cause preach the Gospel to those who had departed this life before His advent?
How did early Christians connect Hades with Christ's resurrection?
The sources present Christ's descent as part of his saving work and his rising again as the defeat of Hades and death. Several witnesses say the gates of Hades were shut, Hades was despoiled, or the dead were brought up through Christ's work.
-
Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book V Direct teaching
and He descended to them, to rescue and save them.” And the Lord Himself says, “As Jonas remained three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth.” Then also the apostle says, “But when He ascended, what is it but that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth?” This, too, David says when prophesying of Him, “And thou hast delivered my soul from the nethermost hell;” and on His rising again the third day, He said to Mary, who was the first to see and to worship Him, “Touch Me not, for I have not yet ascended to the Father;
-
Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book IV Direct teaching
2. It was for this reason, too, that the Lord descended into the regions beneath the earth, preaching His advent there also, and [declaring] the remission of sins received by those who believe in Him.
-
Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Direct teaching
Therefore the Lord preached the gospel to those in Hades. So Scripture says, "Hades says to Destruction, We have not seen His form, but we have heard His voice." It is not the place itself that heard the voice, as the words above say. Rather, it was those who had been put in Hades and had given themselves over to destruction, like people who voluntarily throw themselves from a ship into the sea. They, then, are the ones who hear the divine power and voice. For who, if he is in his right mind, can suppose that the souls of the righteous and the souls of sinners are under the same condemnation, and so accuse Providence of injustice?
-
Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness
1 Peter 3:19-20 And it has been shown also, in the second book of the Stromata, that the apostles, following the Lord, preached the Gospel to those in Hades.
-
Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness
Wherefore the Lord preached the Gospel to those in Hades.
-
Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness
If, then, the Lord descended to Hades for no other end but to preach the Gospel, as He did descend;
-
Origen, Commentary on John Direct teaching
...oing with Jesus as He goes down into Hades, and by descending from heaven and from the mysteries of Christ's deity to the coming that He necessarily made among us when He took on man, as His sandals. Now He who put on man also put on the dead, for Romans 14:9 says, "For this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living." This is why He put on both living and dead, that is, the inhabitants of the earth and those in Hades, so that He might be Lord of both dead and living. Who, then, is able to stoop down and untie the strap of such sandals, and after untying them, not let them fall, but by the second ability he has received, take them up and carry them, by carrying their meaning in his memory?
-
Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness
he, bending down in his mind and going with Jesus as He goes down into Hades, and descending from heaven and the mysteries of Christ's deity to the advent He of necessity made with us when He took on man (as His shoes).
-
Origen, Commentary on Matthew Supporting witness
after this, I think, descending into Hades to the dead, as free among the dead.
-
Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness
Now I consider that the inhumanisation when the Son of God assumes flesh and bones is one of His shoes, and that the other is the descent to Hades, whatever that Hades be, and the journey with the Spirit to the prison.
-
Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness
As to the descent into Hades, we read in the sixteenth Psalm, You will not leave my soul in Hades, and as for the journey in prison with the Spirit we read in Peter in his Catholic Epistle, 1 Peter 3:18-20 Put to death, he says, in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit;
-
Hippolytus, Exegetical Fragments Direct teaching
For this reason, the guards of Hades trembled when they saw Him, and the bronze gates and iron bars were broken. For look, the Only-begotten entered, a soul among souls, God the Word with a human soul. For His body lay in the tomb, not emptied of divinity. But just as, while in Hades, He was in His essential being with His Father, so He was also in the body and in Hades. For the Son is not confined by space, just like the Father, and He contains all things in Himself. But by His own will He lived in a body made alive by a soul, so that with His soul He might enter Hades, and not with His pure divinity.
More related quotations from this section 12 shown
-
Hippolytus, Treatise on Christ and Antichrist Direct teaching
and of things under the earth, because He was also reckoned among the dead, preaching the Gospel to the souls of the saints,1 Peter 3:19 (and) by death overcoming death.
-
Hippolytus, Treatise on Christ and Antichrist Supporting witness
He also first preached to those in Hades, becoming a forerunner there when he was put to death by Herod, that there too he might intimate that the Saviour would descend to ransom the souls of the saints from the hand of death.
-
Gregory Thaumaturgus, On All the Saints Supporting witness
...hen he cast his hook toward the Godhead and took the familiar pleasure of the bait, he himself is clearly caught while he thinks he is the captor, and he discovers that instead of touching mere man, he has touched God. For this reason the martyrs leap upon the head of the dragon and despise every kind of torment. For since the second Adam has brought the first Adam up from the depths of Hades, as Jonah was delivered from the whale, and has displayed the one who was deceived as a citizen of heaven to the shame of the deceiver, the gates of Hades have been shut and the gates of heaven have been opened, so as to offer free entrance to those who rise there in faith. In ancient times Jacob saw a ladder set up reaching to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending on it. But now, since He was made man for man's sake, He who is the Friend of man has crushed under the foot of His divinity the one who is the enemy of man, and has lifted up man with the hand of His Christhood, and has made the pathless sky able to be walked by the feet of man. Then the angels were ascending and descending. But now the Angel of the great counsel neither ascends nor descends. For from where, or
-
Gregory Thaumaturgus, On All the Saints Supporting witness
O the marvel! Since the hour when Christ despoiled Hades, men have danced in triumph over death.
-
Gregory Thaumaturgus, On All the Saints Supporting witness
For since the second Adam has brought up the first Adam out of the deeps of Hades, as Jonah was delivered out of the whale, and has set forth him who was deceived as a citizen of heaven to the shame of the deceiver, the gates of Hades have been shut, and the gates of heaven have been opened, so as to offer an unimpeded entrance to those who rise there in faith.
-
Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness
... that by the taking of flesh He might ascend there as the Son of man, from where the Son of God had descended as the Word, then reasonably, by the mutual connection, the flesh wears the Word of God, and the Son of God assumes the frailty of the flesh. And when the flesh, being espoused, ascends there from where without the flesh it had descended, it at last receives that glory which, since it is shown to have had it before the foundation of the world, most clearly proves that He is God. And nevertheless, while the world itself is said to have been founded after Him, it is found to have been created by Him. By that very divinity in Him by which the world was made, both His glory and His authority are proved. Moreover, if it belongs to none but God to know the secrets of the heart, and Christ beholds the secrets of the heart; and if it belongs to none but God to remit sins, and this same Christ remits sins; and if it belongs to no man to come from heaven, and He descended by coming from heaven; and if this saying can be true of no man, "I and the Father are one," as John 10:30 says, and Christ alone declared this saying out of the consciousness of His divinity; and if finally the
-
Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness
If Christ is only man, how is it that He says, "Though I bear witness of myself, yet my witness is true, because I know where I came from and where I am going; you do not know where I came from and where I am going. You judge according to the flesh"? Notice also that He says He will return there, to the place He testifies He came from before, as one sent, that is, from heaven. Therefore He came down from there, in the same way that He goes there, from where He descended. So if Christ were only man, He would not have come from there, and therefore would not depart there, because He would not have come from there. Moreover, by coming from there, where as man He could not have come, He shows that He came as God. For the Jews, ignorant and untaught about this very descent of His, have had these heretics follow them, since to them it was said, "You do not know where I come from and where I go. You judge according to the flesh." Both the heretics and the Jews, because they held that Christ's bodily birth was His only birth, believed that Christ was nothing but man. They did not consider this point: just as man could not come from heaven in such a way as to return there, so He who descend
-
Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Supporting witness
If Christ is only man, how is it that He says, “Though I bear witness of myself, yet my witness is true, because I know from where I came and where I go. You do not know from where I came and where I go. You judge according to the flesh”? See, He also says that He will return there, from where He bears witness that He came before, as being sent, that is, from heaven. Therefore He came down from where He came, in the same way as He goes there from where He descended. If Christ were only man, He would not have come from there, and therefore would not depart there, because He would not have come from there. Moreover, by coming from there, from where as man He could not have come, He shows Himself to have come as God. For the Jews, ignorant and untaught in this very matter of His descent, made these heretics their successors, since to them it is said, “You do not know from where I come and where I go. You judge according to the flesh.” As much they as the Jews, holding that the fleshly birth of Christ was the only one, believed that Christ was nothing else than man. They did not consider this point: just as man could not come from heaven so that he might return there, He who descended
-
Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Supporting witness
If Christ was only man, how is it that He Himself says, “And everyone who believes in Me shall not die forevermore?” And yet he who believes in man by himself alone is called accursed. But he who believes in Christ is not accursed, and is said not to die forevermore. Therefore, if on the one hand He is only man, as the heretics want, how will anyone who believes in Him not die eternally, since he who trusts in man is held to be accursed? Or on the other hand, if he is not accursed, but rather, as it is read, is destined to attain everlasting life, Christ is not only man, but also God. In Him, he who believes both lays aside all risk of curse and attains the fruit of righteousness. If Christ was only man, how does He say that the Paraclete shall take of His, those things which He shall declare? For the Paraclete does not receive anything from man. Rather, the Paraclete offers knowledge to man. Nor does the Paraclete learn future things from man, but instructs man concerning the future. Therefore, either the Paraclete has not received from Christ, as man, what He should declare, since man could give nothing to the Paraclete, seeing that man himself ought to receive from Him, and Chri
-
Alexander of Alexandria, Epistles on the Arian Heresy Supporting witness
therefore was it that the souls came forth from Hades, and the dead appeared upon the earth.
-
Alexander of Alexandria, Epistles on the Arian Heresy Supporting witness
hell was unbarred. the dead received their life, the souls were sent back again into the world, and that because the Lord had conquered hell, had trodden down death, had covered the enemy with shame;
-
Alexander of Alexandria, Epistles on the Arian Heresy Supporting witness
6. For when our Lord was suffering upon the cross, the tombs were burst open, the infernal region was disclosed, the souls leapt forth, the dead returned to life, and many of them were seen in Jerusalem, while the mystery of the cross was being perfected;
What Bible passages did early Christians use for this teaching?
Early Christians often used Acts 2:31, Acts 2:27, Ephesians 4:9, 1 Peter 3:19-20, 1 Peter 4:6, and Matthew 12:40. These passages were read as teaching that Christ was not left in Hades, that he descended to the lower parts of the earth, and that he preached to the spirits in prison.
-
Acts 2:31 Direct teaching
he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.
-
Acts 2:27 Direct teaching
For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.
-
Ephesians 4:9 Direct teaching
(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
-
1 Peter 3:19 Direct teaching
By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
-
1 Peter 4:6 Direct teaching
For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
-
Matthew 12:40 Direct teaching
For 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.
More related quotations from this section 4 shown
-
Luke 24:46 Supporting witness
Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,
-
Romans 10:7 Supporting witness
Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
-
1 Peter 3:20 Background
who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
-
1 Peter 3:18 Background
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:
Common Questions
Did early Christians believe Jesus went to Hades?
Yes. Several early Christian writers said Christ went to Hades or the lower parts of the earth after his death.
What did early Christians say Jesus did in Hades?
They said he preached there, triumphed over death, or rescued souls from the realm of the dead.
Which Bible verses were used for Christ’s descent into Hades?
Acts 2:31, Ephesians 4:9, and 1 Peter 3:19-20 were often used.
Source Index for Christ Descending into Hades
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 154 ranked source links from 212 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 154 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 138
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
-
Clement of Rome, Connection to Numbers 16:33
Bible Passages 74 included
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.
Related Resources
Course Lesson
Christ's Descent Into Hades
Open a related course lesson for more teaching connected with Christ Descending into Hades.