(c) The main purpose, as we have seen (§ 3) of the Descensus was the release of captive souls. But that baptism is a release from bondage, the bondage of sin, is a commonplace in early Christian literature. Baptism, says Cyril of Jerusalem, || is alx/^a\wTOis \rjTpov (cf. Odes of Solomon, xvii. II, XX i. 1, XXV. 1, and Ephraim Syrus, Hymns on the Nativity, xv. 9 : ' Blessed be He who has annulled the bonds').
{d) The Gospel of Nicodemus describes the passage to Paradise of the saints redeemed from Hades by Christ. It was, again, a familiar thought in early Christian speculation that in baptism we are restored to Paradise, to the state from which Adam fell, the guilt of original sin being annulled (cf. Origen.lT Cyril of Jerusalem,** Basil.tt and Ephraim, t+ who says of the baptized : ' the fruit which Adam tasted not in Paradise, this day in your mouths has been placed.' See also Odes of Solomon, xi. 14).
Otlier illustrations might be given, but these are sufficient to show that what may be called the folklore of the Descent into Hades is closely con- nected with the folklore of baptism. The juxta-
* Cat. xiv. 20. t de Spiritu Sancto, xv. 36.
J 4th Council of Toledo (633), cap. 6.
§ See Bernard, Odes of Solomon (TS viii. 3 [1912]), p. 33 f., for a fuller statement and for references in regard to the matter of this section generally.
II Procat. 16. % in Gen. 28. •• Cat. L i.
it Ho7n. xiii. 2. jj Epiphany Hymns, xiii. 17.
292
DESERT, WILDERNESS
destructio:n"
position of the two thoughts — the ministry of Christ in Hades and the efficacy of baptism — in 1 P 3^^^* is remarkable, and deserves a closer examination than it has yet received from commentators.
10. The article ' He descended into Hell ' does not appear in any Creed until the 4th cent., the Arian Symbol of Sirniium (359) being the first to include it ; and it is not included in the baptismal Creed of the Eastern Cliurcli to this day. The motive with which it was inserted in the Creeds of the West is not clear ; but, whatever the motive was originally, the clause now is useful as testify- ing to the perfect humanity of Christ, His spirit iiaving passed into the unseen world after death, as the sjjirits of the departed do. Nor are we just to early Christian tradition, or mindful of the implications of 1 P 3^^ 4®, if we do not recognize that this Descensus must have affected in some way the condition of souls in the unseen world.
Literature. — This is very copious. The artt. ' Descent to Hades (Christ's) ' by Loofs in EHE and ' Hell (Descent into) ' by Burn in DCG with the literature there cited are most valu- able. A laro;e number of Patristic references will be found in F. Huidekoper, Christ's Mission to the Underworld'^, New York, 1S76. H. B. Swete, The Apostles' Creed, London, 1894 ; E. C. S. Gibson, 2'he 7'kirty-Niiie Articles of the Church of England, do. ]S9G-97 ; and J. Turmel, La Descente du Christ aiix enfers, Paris, 19C5, give useful summaries. C. Bigg, Epp. of St. Peter and St. Jvde {ICC, 1901), is the fullest English Couinientary on the Petrine texts. J. H. BERNARD.
DESERT, WILDERNESS.— The ideas suggested to our minds by the words ' desert ' or ' wilderness ' differ to a considerable extent from those conveyed to an Oi-iental by the biblical terms so translated. When we think of a desert we tend to imagine a bare sandy waste, without any vegetation or water, such as the Desert of tlie Sahara in N. Africa. The ' desert ' of the Bible is rather a place without liuman habitations, devoid of cities or towns, but by no means devoid of vegetation, at least for a considerable portion of the year. Properly speak- ing, the desert was the place to which the cattle were driven (Heb. -\f\p from -ij'j 'to drive'), an uncultivated region where pasturage, however scanty, Mas to be found. Joel, for instance, speaks of the fire having devoured the pastures of the wilderness (1-"), and of the locusts leaving a desolate wilderness behind them (2^). It was in tlie wilderness that the sheiilierds tended their flocks, and other forms of life were also to be found there. Thus, e.g., pelicans (Ps 102^), wild asses (Jer 2^), ostriches (La 4^), jackals (Mai P) had their home in the desert. As the pasture to be found in the wilderness was scanty and in- sufficient to support a flock of sheep for any length of time, the shepherds had to move from place to place in order to obtain the necessary food for their flocks. The desert was thus the special home of nomadic or wandering tribes, although the name 'desert' or 'wilderness' was applied to the un- cultivated tracts of land beyond the bounds of the cultivated area near the towns or villages. Some of the deserts mentioned in Scripture are small, and correspond to the English 'common ' or uncultivated pasture ground near a village on which any of the inhabitants could graze tlieir cattle. Thus we read of tiie Wilderness of Gibeon (2 S 22^), of Tekoa (2 Ch 202"), of Damascus (1 K 19'^). On the other iiand, many of the wildernes.ses referred to in the Bible are simply parts of larger deserts. Some of these larger tracts of unculti- vated pasture land are, e.g., the Wilderness of Judah (Jg l'«), of Moab (Dt 28), of Edom (2 K 3«). The \yildernefis of Judah included the Wilderness of Zi])!], of Tekoa, of Engedi.