1 Peter 3:22

ὅς ἐστιν ἐν δεξιᾷ θεοῦ. Some MSS. of the Vulgate and the Latin writers, Augustine, Fulgentius, Cassiodorus and Bede, add the words “having swallowed up death that we might be made heirs of eternal life,” but there is no Greek authority for this addition. The first part of it may be derived from Isaiah 25:8, quoted by St Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:54, κατεπόθη ὁ θάνατος εἰς νῖκος. The second clause may be based upon 1 Peter 1:3, ὁ� … διʼ ἀναστάσεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐκ νεκρῶν εἰς κληρονομίαν …, and the phrase κληρονομεῖν ζωὴν αἰώνιον occurs in Matthew 19:29; Mark 10:17; Luke 10:25; Luke 18:18; cf. Titus 3:7.

Possibly there may be a double purpose in this reference to the Session of Christ at God’s right hand:
(a) That as it was to present us to God that Christ died, therefore the Christian who claims in Baptism to share Christ’s resurrection must set his affections on things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, cf. Colossians 3:1.

(b) That suffering and death culminated in glory in Christ’s case, and the same will be true for His followers.

The doctrine of Christ’s Session at the right hand of God is based upon our Lord’s application to Himself of Psalms 110:1, “Sit thou on my right hand,” etc. It is stated in Mark 16:19, in St Peter’s speeches in Acts 2:33-34; Acts 5:31, by St Paul in Romans 8:34; Colossians 3:1, and Ephesians 1:20, where there is a similar mention of the subordination of angelic powers. Cf. also Hebrews 1:3-13; Hebrews 8:1; Hebrews 10:12; Hebrews 12:2.

ὑποταγέντως αὐτῷ�. R.V. angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. Possibly, however, ἀγγέλων may govern the two substantives which follow, as in the Book of Henoch lxi. 10, a book of which St Peter seems to shew other traces, “angels of power and angels of principalities” are mentioned among the various grades of angels.

For ὑποταγέντων cf. 1 Corinthians 15:27; Ephesians 1:22; Hebrews 2:8, all of which passages are based upon Psalms 8:7, which originally described the sovereignty of man.

For the exaltation of Christ above all grades of angels, cf. Ephesians 1:21; Romans 8:38; Colossians 2:10, and in Colossians 1:16 various grades of angels are described as having been created by, in and for Christ.

ADDITIONAL NOTE A

The Descent into Hell

In the Gospels the only passage which bears upon the subject is the promise to the penitent thief, “To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise,” Luke 23:43.

In St Paul we have three possible allusions to the subject:

Romans 10:7, “Say not … who shall descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead?”

Romans 14:9, “For to this end Christ died and lived again that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”

Ephesians 4:9, “Now this, He ascended, what is it but that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth?” This verse might, however, merely mean that Christ came down from heaven to the lower sphere of this earth, and so refer to the Incarnation (but see Robinson, ad loc.).

In St Peter,

Acts 2:27; Acts 2:31, In his speech on the day of Pentecost St Peter quotes Psalms 16:8-11, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades,” and shews that it was true of Christ.

In this Epistle,

1 Peter 3:19 states that Christ, being put to death in the flesh but quickened in spirit, went in that spirit and preached to the spirits in prison who were disobedient in the days of Noah.

1 Peter 4:6 states that good tidings was preached to the dead in order that, despite their judgment in the flesh, they may live according to God in the spirit.

The only N.T. writer therefore who says anything about the object of our Lord’s descent into Hades or of His work there is St Peter. We have, however, no evidence as to the source from which he derived his teaching. According to early Jewish conceptions there were social and national distinctions in Sheol, and in the second century B.C. moral and ethical distinctions between the righteous and the wicked among the dead were introduced, but there was no idea of any moral improvement or possibility of change in the condition of the dead. Unless, therefore, we are prepared to treat St Peter’s words merely as a pious conjecture, we must believe either that he learned these mysterious facts from the mouth of the Risen Lord Himself, or that it was specially revealed to him “not by flesh and blood but by the Father in heaven.”

In the Early Fathers the descent of Christ to Hades is constantly referred to.

In the Apocryphal Gospel of Peter three men are seen coming forth from the tomb, two of them supporting the other, and a cross following them; and the head of the two reached to heaven, but that of Him who was led by them overpassed the heavens. And they heard a voice from the heavens saying, “Thou didst preach (ἐκήρυξας) to them that sleep,” and a response was heard from the Cross, “Yea.”

Ignatius (ad Magn. IX.) says, “Even the prophets, being His disciples, were expecting Him as their teacher through the Spirit. And for this cause He whom they rightly awaited when He came raised them from the dead” (cf. ad Philad. IX.).

Justin Martyr (Dial. 72) quotes a passage from Jeremiah, “The Lord God remembered His dead people of Israel, who lay in the graves and descended to preach to them His own salvation.” This passage he accuses the Jews of having cut out from their copies of the Scriptures. It does not, however, occur in any extant MSS. of the LXX., but Irenaeus quotes it several times (once as from Isaiah, once as from Jeremiah, and in other passages anonymously (see iii. 20, iv. 22, 33, v. 31), in the last of which he definitely connects the preaching with the three days between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection). Irenaeus says nothing, however, about the Jews having cut out the words, and, from the fact that he assigns them to two different prophets, it would seem that the words were not contained in the current text of the LXX. If we could assume that this passage was known to St Peter, he might be referring to it, but there is no sufficient evidence for this, and St Peter’s reference to those who were disobedient in the days of Noah would not be explained by this passage.

Irenaeus also (iv. 27) relates a discourse which he heard from “an elder” (i.e. a Christian of the generation before his own) who had heard it from personal companions of the apostles and their disciples, “that the Lord descended to the parts beneath the earth preaching His Advent there also and declaring remission of sins as available for those who believe in Him; but those have believed in Him whose hopes were set on Him, that is, those who foretold His Advent, just men and prophets and patriarchs.”

Hermas (Sim. IX.) describes the apostles and first teachers of the Gospel as preaching to those who had previously fallen asleep, of whom he mentions the prophets and the ministers of God as well as the first two generations of mankind which preceded them.

Clement of Alexandria (Strom. II. 9), quoting the above passage of Hermas, extends the preaching to pious heathen as well as Jews, and in Strom. vi. 6 he says that the Apostles followed the example of our Lord by preaching in Hades, but, while Jesus preached there only to the Jews, they addressed themselves to the righteous heathen.

In the Apocryphal Preaching of Thaddeus to Abgarus King of Edessa, quoted in Eusebius H. E. I. 13, Christ is stated to have descended into Hades and burst the bars which from eternity had not been broken, and raised the dead, for He descended alone, but rose with many, and thus ascended to His Father.

Tertullian, de Anima 55, speaking of the days between the death and resurrection of Christ, says “He descended to the lower parts of the earth that there he might make patriarchs and prophets partakers of Himself.”

Hippolytus, de Antichristo 45, represents John the Baptist after his death as preaching in Hades that the Saviour will come there also to deliver the souls of the saints.

Origen (contra Celsum II. 43) says, “With His soul stripped of His body Christ associated with souls stripped of their bodies, converting to Himself those even of them who were willing or those who for reasons which He Himself knew were more fitted for it.”

In the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, the date of which is uncertain, but which may be based upon a second century work, the two sons of the aged Symeon are described as having been raised from the dead, and giving an account of Christ’s work in Hades, that He delivered Adam from the penalty of his sin, and brought the patriarchs from a lower to a higher blessedness, and emptied the prison house and set the captives free, and erected the Cross in the midst of Hades that there also it might preach salvation.

Marcion accepted the descent of Christ into Hades, but, according to his opponents, regarding the Demiurge, the God of the O.T., as a different God from the God of the N.T., he maintained that the righteous men and prophets under the old dispensation, as being subjects of the Demiurge, refused to listen to Christ’s preaching, and only Cain and the other wicked characters of the O.T. listened and were saved.

Athanasius (de Incarnatione), arguing against the Apollinarians, who denied that Christ had any human spirit (πνεῦμα), says that the Lord appeared in Hades in an incorporeal state to shew the souls there present the presence of His own soul as having received the bonds of death, so that He might burst the bonds of the souls which were held fast in Hades.

Gregory Nazianzen inquires whether we are to suppose that Christ, appearing in Hades, did save all without exception, or did save there, as He does here, only such as believed.

Cyril of Alexandria, in commenting on John 16:16, says, “After three days He came to life again, having preached also to the spirits in prison. For thus there was the fullest manifestation of His love to men, I mean, in the fact that He not only saved those who were still alive upon the earth, but also to those who had already departed and were seated in darkness in the recesses of the abyss He preached deliverance as it is written.”

Also de Incarnatione he says that the soul of Christ went to Hades and appeared also to the spirits there.

Jerome, commenting on Ephesians, says that our Lord and Saviour descended into Hell that He might lead with Him in triumph to heaven the souls of the saints that were shut up in prison.

Augustine, in his letter to Euodius 164, argues that the prophets and patriarchs were already in happiness and enjoyed the presence of God, and therefore needed no translation by the descent of Christ to Hades. Others who were in the pains of hell were released, but it would be very rash to suppose that Christ released all whom He found there. But Augustine confesses himself to be very doubtful whether 1 Peter 3:19 can be satisfactorily explained as referring to the descent into Hell, and he suggests the possibility of its referring to the Spirit of Christ preaching to the world in the days of Noah.

In Creeds the clause “He descended into Hell” is not contained in the Nicene Creed. It occurs first in the creed drawn up by the Homoeans at Sirmium to be presented to the Western Council at Ariminum 359, “He descended into Hell (εἰς τὰ καταχθόνια) and disposed matters there; at the sight of whom the door-keepers of Hades trembled.”

In Western Creeds the clause first occurs in the Creed of Aquileia, as given by Rufinus about 400 A.D. He states that it was not contained in the Creed of Rome nor in the Eastern Creeds, but argues that it was meant to be included in the statement that Christ was buried. He quotes this passage of St Peter in support of it.

In the Articles of 1553 the English copy runs as follows, “As Christ died and was buried for us, so also it is to be believed that He went down to Hell. For the body lay in the sepulchre until the resurrection, but His ghost departing from Him was with the ghosts that were in prison or in hell, and did preach to the same, as the place of St Peter doth testify.” In the Latin form of the article there had been an additional clause that “by His descent the Lord did not deliver any from prison or from torment.” In our present 3rd article only the first sentence of the above article is retained, but this passage of St Peter is still appointed as the Epistle for Easter Eve, implying that it is to be interpreted of the work of Christ between His death and resurrection.