Alászállt a poklokra
“Descended into Hell”

Summary/Abstract: This short paper analyses the article of the Apostles’ Creed concerning Christ’s descent into Hell. It is important to consider that in the Creeds the word “hell” does not denote the place of eternal punishment of the impious, but simply the Kingdom of the Dead. The first step of this analysis is the presentation of the biblical teaching concerning the Realm of the Dead. After presenting the exegesis of those biblical passages which imply the fact that the Lord descended into the Realm of the Dead we revisit the history of this article from the earliest Christian writings to the formation of modern theological thought. Here we can see that mainly as a result of the apocryphal tradition the scholastic theologians of the Middle Ages have taught that Christ descended into the place of eternal punishment of the impious. The Reformation departed from this interpretation. As a conclusion we can say that the descent into the Realm of the Dead on the one hand proclaims to us that there is light in the Realm of the Dead, and on the other hand shows the magnitude of the price the Lord had paid for oursins.

• Details
• Contents