Sucli speculations are absurd. On the other hand, it is reasonable to explain the iKiipv^ev of the one passage by the (vayycKlaB-ri of the other, to main- tain that repentance was offered, rejecting the sug- gestion that Christ preached only to the righteous, or to tliose who had repented at the moment of death, or to some the gospel and to others damna- tion.
If it is asked. Why should only the generation of Noah profit by it ? we can say that they were typical sinners, cut off in their sins, whose fate was questioned at that time. Bigg shows that ' it is jjossible that St. Peter is here expressing in a modified form a belief which was current in the Jewish schools.' Certain passages in the Book of Enoch seem to mean that the antediluvian sinners have a time of repentance allowed them between the first judgment (the Deluge) and the final judg- ment ; e.g. 69'-^ ' There was great joy among them because the name of the Son of Man was revealed unto them,' Bereshith Rabba : (a) 'But when they that are bound, they that are in Gehinnom, saw the light of the Messiah, they rejoiced to receive Him'; (6) 'This is that wh'ich stands written: "We shall rejoice and exult in Thee." When? When the captives climb up out of hell, and the Shekinali at their head.'
We may hope that research will yet further en- lighten us on these points. Enougli has been said to prove that, in the words of Professor Charles (art. cited) :
' These passages in 1 Peter are of extreme value. They attest the achievement of the final stap:e in the moralization of Sheol. The first "fci' in '!"« mornli^ation "n.; tikpn parly in the 2n(i cent. n.r. , \' li. h It \\,i- 1 1 iii~i. r M ,| ii,(.. L il I i. of moral distinc- tions, li;r.iii_ : i;.ih.:i. .u ' .|. -i >< •ial or national
distiii't Ill, . <r\ inadequately
tinued U) U^- Lill Ihc- Ijh.lI juilL;in^iiL.. i iuiii Llic standpoint of a true theisnt can we avoid pronnmuin- tliis conception mechani- cal and unethical? It precludes moral change in moral beings who are under the rule of a perfectly moral being.'
2. Early Christian tradition.— The belief that Christ's descent intn Iladi's changed in someway the condition of the fiiitlifiil departed meets us in the earliest Christian tradition.
Ignatius (a.d. ll.s), writing to the M;. 'Even the prophets, being His discipl. s.
their teacher through 1
a^ ing, Hast thou preaclied to them that sleep ' and a response ras heard from the cross, Yea.' The apocryphal Gospel oj Sicodenuts. a name given in the
Mil . uit to t«n mui-li older lin.)l,s, the ,t,'(s nf Pilate, and the ?. ' ' // " t 11 •! I - 1 tilt tlu two brothers with
" '(1 \ , ' '
1 ^^ nter who brings
til. 1
the tradition that
Chii 1 1'. Id 1 1 II 1 111
1
. taught that the
heathen. ,is well as tiic .K«s, shar
ie\ elation made to
the !,oiil. in Uadib. He quotes taught tliat the Apostles and first
Ikliiias
(.s-i)/i. IX. 16). who
teachers of the gospel, « hen
the\ entered into rest, preached to
the souls
m Hades. Clement
iStrum. 11. 9, p. 4o2) explains the p heathens as well as Je«s. thou;;li
SM.'. IS
nil hiding righteous
' 1 n it Hernias
himself contemplated such an a|i
. > Ills The
example quoted by St. Peter app
example of a far-reaching law (.Sf;. Origen seems to haveVuLii th. 1
. 1 liiii since the
coming of Chribt, the sn„I i n
III go at once to
Paradise instead of Had. - i
.isanuitermediate
state {in Reg. Bum. 2) 1
iinst Celsus (li. 43),
to the scoff, 'You will 11. i
nst, when He failed
to persuade the livinK. ".1 1 .1 >
1 111.
s to persuade those
who dwell there?" he replits 'Hi
soul, St
ipt of the body, did
stript, that He niigrht there convert those who ^\ere capable of
instruction, or \\ere otlier«ise in ways known to Him fit for it.
Athanasius speaks of the warders at the gates of Hell 'cower-
nexion Mt 275-». He tliinks {da Adam as held fast under the sentence of death, and crying to his Lord evermore, and of those wlio had pleased God, and had been justified by the law of nature, as niourning- and crying with him,' till God in His mercy revealed the mystery of re- demption. He quotes 1 P 319 in connexion with 'the Descent {Ep. ad Epict. 5).
The later Fathers, while they regarded Hades as a place of rest for the just, regarded Paradise as something better. Both Ambrose (de Fide ad Gratian. iv. 1_) and Jerome (Com. in Eccles. c. ill.) followed Origen on this bne of thought. This notion became the germ of the mediseval doctrine of the Limbus Patrum.
Cyril of Jerusalem (Cat. i\-.) classed the doctrine of the Descent among the ten necess;iry <h>-iii;t-, n,' i ipn; in- ii i- 'i^ ^i^'iied for the redemption of the in > i -i.^. 'that
the living should enjoy ill- i. . . li .nl should
not share in freedom .' ' It _ i i m r , !.t (_xi.lain9
John the Baptist's qucsti-ii ■ \m iIihh Ii.' li,..! -in.uM come?' as referring to the Descent. In this opinion lie was followed by Rufinus.