Into Hell and Out Again Apr04

Into Hell and Out Again

Scott Cairns, reflecting on Holy Saturday in light of his adopted Eastern Orthodox tradition, describes Jesus’ descent into hell to rescue Adam and Eve and all those who had died before his arrival. Many of us know the line “he descended into hell” from the Apostles’ Creed. Interestingly, that line is not found in Scripture, nor was it in the earliest versions of the Creed (“he descended to the dead” is in the earliest texts), but even by the time of Augustine (who himself had a hard time explaining it) the “harrowing of hell” was an established part of the tradition. I’ll confess that...