{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4290","native_reference":{"book_number":560,"chapter_from":4,"chapter_to":4,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":9,"verse_to":9},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrosiaster</b>: The truth incarnate is that he is said to have descended in order to ascend, unlike humans, who have descended in order to remain there. For by decree they were held in the lower world. But this decree could not hold the Savior. He has conquered sin. Therefore, after his triumph over the devil, he descended to the heart of the world, so that he might preach to the dead, that all who desired him might be set free. It was necessary for him to ascend. He had descended to trample death underfoot by the force of his own power, then only to rise again with the former captives.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Ephesians 4.9</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: After having said that \"Christ was put to death in the flesh, and quickened in the spirit,\" the apostle immediately went on to say: \"in which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were unbelieving, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water;\" thereafter he added the words: \"which baptism also now by a like figure has saved you.\" [1 Peter 3:18-21] This, therefore, is felt by me to be difficult. If the Lord when He died preached in hell to spirits in prison, why were those who continued unbelieving while the ark was a preparing the only ones counted worthy of this favour, namely, the Lord's descending into hell? For in the ages between the time of Noah and the passion of Christ, there died many thousands of so many nations whom He might have found in hell. I do not, of course, speak here of those who in that period of time had believed in God, as, e.g. the prophets and patriarchs of Abraham's line, or, going farther back, Noah himself and his house, who had been saved by water (excepting perhaps the one son, who afterwards was rejected), and, in addition to these, all others outside of the posterity of Jacob who were believers in God, such as Job, the citizens of Nineveh, and any others, whether mentioned in Scripture or existing unknown to us in the vast human family at any time. I speak only of those many thousands of men who, ignorant of God and devoted to the worship of devils or of idols, had passed out of this life from the time of Noah to the passion of Christ. How was it that Christ, finding these in hell, did not preach to them, but preached only to those who were unbelieving in the days of Noah when the ark was a preparing? Or if he preached to all, why has Peter mentioned only these, and passed over the innumerable multitude of others?</p><p>It is established beyond question that the Lord, after He had been put to death in the flesh, \"descended into hell;\" for it is impossible to gainsay either that utterance of prophecy, \"You will not leave my soul in hell,\" — an utterance which Peter himself expounds in the Acts of the Apostles, lest any one should venture to put upon it another interpretation — or the words of the same apostle, in which he affirms that the Lord \"loosed the pains of hell, in which it was not possible for Him to be holden.\" Who, therefore, except an infidel, will deny that Christ was in hell? As to the difficulty which is found in reconciling the statement that the pains of hell were loosed by Him, with the fact that He had never begun to be in these pains as in bonds, and did not so loose them as if He had broken off chains by which He had been bound, this is easily removed when we understand that they were loosed in the same way as the snares of huntsmen may be loosed to prevent their holding, not because they have taken hold. It may also be understood as teaching us to believe Him to have loosed those pains which could not possibly hold Him, but which were holding those to whom He had resolved to grant deliverance...</p><p>As to the first man, the father of mankind, it is agreed by almost the entire Church that the Lord loosed him from that prison; a tenet which must be believed to have been accepted not without reason, — from whatever source it was handed down to the Church — although the authority of the canonical Scriptures cannot be brought forward as speaking expressly in its support, though this seems to be the opinion which is more than any other borne out by these words in the book of Wisdom. [Wisdom 10:1-2] Some add to this [tradition] that the same favour was bestowed on the holy men of antiquity — on Abel, Seth, Noah and his house, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the other patriarchs and prophets, they also being loosed from those pains at the time when the Lord descended into hell...</p><p>But seeing that plain scriptural testimonies make mention of hell and its pains, no reason can be alleged for believing that He who is the Saviour went there, except that He might save from its pains; but whether He did save all whom He found held in them, or some whom He judged worthy of that favour, I still ask: that He was, however, in hell, and that He conferred this benefit on persons subjected to these pains, I do not doubt...</p><p>You perceive, therefore, how intricate is the question why Peter chose to mention, as persons to whom, when shut up in prison, the gospel was preached, those only who were unbelieving in the days of Noah when the ark was a preparing — and also the difficulties which prevent me from pronouncing any definite opinion on the subject.<br/><i>— Letter 164 (A.D. 414), Sections 2, 3, 6, 8, 10</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: But what is it that ascends except that which also descends into the lower parts of the earth? He who is said to have ascended, ascended because he had descended before. This means: 'But what is it that ascends except that which has also descended.' Therefore, we must look into that which is written elsewhere: 'No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man' (John 3:13), how did he ascend before descending? For when he spoke these words, he had already descended from heaven and was showing how he had once ascended to heaven. Similarly, we must consider how the descent and ascent are to be understood. Whether it was a physical descent and ascent or a spiritual one, or perhaps both. The lower parts of the earth refer to hell, into which our Lord and Savior descended in order to bring with him the souls of the saints who were held captive there, triumphantly leading them to heaven. This is why, after his resurrection, many bodies of the righteous were seen in the holy city (Matthew 27:52-53). That hell is located in the lower part of the earth is confirmed by the Psalmist who says: 'The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram' (Psalms 106:17). This is further explained in the Book of Numbers (Chapter 16). We also read elsewhere: 'Let death come deceitfully upon them; and let them go down alive into Hell' (Psalms 55:15).<br/><i>— Commentary on Ephesians 4:9</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: When thou hearest these words, think not of a mere removal from one place to another; for what Paul establishes in the Epistle to the Philippians, that very argument is he also insisting upon here. In the same way as there, when exhorting them concerning lowliness, he brings forward Christ as an example, so does he here also, saying, \"He descended into the lower parts of the earth.\" For were not this so, this expression which he uses, \"He became obedient even unto death,\" were superfluous; whereas from His ascending, he implies His descent, and by \"the lower parts of the earth,\" he means \"death,\" according to the notions of men; as Jacob also said, \"Then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.\" And again as it is in the Psalm, \"Lest I become like them that go down into the pit,\" that is like the dead. Why does he descant upon this region here? And of what captivity does he speak? Of that of the devil; for He took the tyrant captive, the devil, I mean, and death, and the curse, and sin. Behold His spoils and His trophies.</p><p>\"Now this, He ascended, what is it but that He also descended?\"</p><p>This strikes at Paul of Samosata and his school.</p><p>\"He that descended, is the same also that ascended far above all the Heavens, that He might fill all things.\"</p><p>He descended, saith he, into the lower parts of the earth, beyond which there are none other: and He ascended up far above all things, to that place, beyond which there is none other. This is to show His divine energy, and supreme dominion. For indeed even of old had all things been filled.<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 11</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: It is the Son, too, who ascends to the heights of heaven, [John 3:13] and also descends to the inner parts of the earth. [Ephesians 4:9]<br/><i>— Against Praxeas, Chapter 30</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: It is the Son, too, who ascends to the heights of heaven, and also descends to the inner parts of the earth. \"He sitteth at the Father's right hand \" -not the Father at His own.<br/><i>— Against Praxeas</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: \"But what is 'ascend' except that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?\" The ascent involves the descent. For since he had previously descended and procured our salvation, he ascended again. For the wall of the lower parts of the earth had called forth death. Thus, the Prophet also says, 'They put me in the lower pit.' And again, 'And my substance is in the lower parts of the earth.'\"<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Ephesians 4.9</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"70953d7da813d2d286d76b22d25621758af53965280850e4adc7227269884f3e","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4290,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"d03e1714bd76db2a6dde016fabaab183f9df89a0632fa26f181211d5a1b4494f","translator":null,"work":null}