Section 228

Oriental churches had not the words, yet they had the sense of them in the word buried" implying that the words "he descended into Hades" are equivalent to "he descended into the grave." Socrates, Jllst. Ecd. ii, 37, 41, gives it as stated in the Arian Creed adopted at Sir- mium A.D. 350, and at Rimini in 3G0. It is given in the Athanasiau Creed (oth century). It fails to be found, except in the Athanasian Creed and in a few MSS., before the 6th centurj', but became quite common in the 7th, and is universal after the 8th century (Pear- son, On the Creed, art. v, notes). It remains in the Apos- tles' Creed as used in the Greek and Itoman churches, the Lutheran Church, and the Chiu-ch of England. It is also retained in the Creed as used by the Protestant Episcopal Church, with a note in the rubric that " any churches may omit the words He descended into hell, or may, instead of them, use the words lie went into the Xilace of departed spirits, which are considered as words of the same meaning in the Creed." The clause was omitted by the Convention of 1785, but, the EngUsh bishops objecting, it was replaced, with the qualification named, after a great deal of discussion in 178G, 1789, and 1792 (see White, Hist, of the Prof. Epiiscopal Church ; Muenscher, in Bib. Sac. April, 1859). It is omitted in the Creed as used by the Methodist Episcopal Church. II. The Doctrine. — 1. Scrijjture. — There is no passage in which it is expressly stated that Christ descended into hell, but there are several which express or im- ply that his soul went, after his death, into the " place of departed spirits." (1.) Thus David says (Psa. xvi, 9, 10) : " Therefore my heart is glad, and my ylory rejoic- | eth : my flesh also shall rest in hojye. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou sujer thine Holy One to see corruption." And Peter applies this passage to Christ (Acts ii, 25-27) : " For David speaketh con- cerning him, I foresaio the Lord always before my face; for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; m,oreover also my flesh shall rest in hope : because thou icilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou sufer thine Holy One to see corruption." (2.) The passage in Ephes. iv, 8-10 Q^ Now that he ascended," etc.), is supposed bj' some writers to imply the descent into Hades, but the best interpreters apply it to the Incarnation. (3.) Paul, in Rom. x, 7 (" Who shall descend into the deep," etc. — n'e Karafii)(TeTai atQ ti]v diSvcraov), seems to implj-^ a descant of Christ " into the abyss." (4.) 1 Pet. iii, 18- 20 : " For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being jnit to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit : by which also he went and ptreached unto the spirits in prison ; which sometime loere dlsohedienf, when once the long-suf- fering of God ivaited in fir- il njit ,./" Noah, w-hile (he ark was a preparing, wh<-r, in j' .r. tint i<!, eight souls were saved by water." This pi>vig,> is relied on by many, not only as strongly asserting tliat Christ descended into Hades, but also as explaining the object of that descent. But the weight of interpretation, from Au- gustine downwards, seems to be against this view. Dr. A. Schweitzer, in a recent monograph (Hinabgefahren 2. mile als Mythus, etc., Zurich, 18G8, p. 49), interprets the passage to mean that the preaching spoken of was " addressed to * the spirits in prison' in the days of Noah, while they were yet in the flesh ; and this preaching consisted, to a great extent, in the building of the ark. By this work, undertaken at the command of the Spirit of Christ, and prosecuted, through many years, to com- pletion in the sight of the people, they were warned to repent; but the people persisted in disobedience, and at last the flood swept them away" {Baptist Quarterly Re- view, July, 1869, p. 384). This view accords with that held by Augustine, Aquinas, Scaliger, Beza, Gerhard. Hammond, Leighton, and otliers, and which has of late been readopted by Dr. Hofmann (Schriftbetceis, II, i, 335), of the influence of the pre-existent Spirit of Christ at the time of the Deluge. It is also the interpretation of the passage given by Dr. A. Clarke (Comm. on 1 Pe-