Messianic Theology - Descent to Sheol

The Doctrine of Messiah’s Descent into the Netherworld

Texts: Psa 16:10; Acts 2:31; Rom 10:7; Eph 4:8-10; 1 Peter 3:18-22; 2 Peter 2:4-10; Jude 6; Jude 9; Genesis 6:1-4; Heb 13:20

Introduction: After the death of Jesus on the cross, He descended to the underworld to proclaim condemnation over fallen angelic beings and ascended to conquer principalities and powers in the heavenly places.

1 Peter 3:18–19 HCSB

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God, after being put to death in the fleshly realm but made alive in the spiritual realm. In that state He also went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison

2 Peter 2:4 HCSB

For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but threw them down into Tartarus and delivered them to be kept in chains of darkness until judgment;

Jude 6 HCSB

and He has kept, with eternal chains in darkness for the judgment of the great day, the angels who did not keep their own position but deserted their proper dwelling.

Jesus went to the realm of the dead not to hell, the place of punishment.

The Realm of the Dead is not Just One Thing

The Bible uses the word Sheol to describe the realm of the dead, a place conceived as being inside the earth because, in ancient experience, that is where the dead go—they were buried.

Broadly speaking, every reference to the underworld or realm of the dead is not hell.

The afterlife, the realm where the dead go has its own “geography,” some experience eternal life with God in the spiritual realm; others do not.

Jesus went to an area in the realm of the dead called “Tartarus” and sometimes called “the abyss.”

The demons feared going to this place (Luke 8:31)

Luke 8:31 HCSB

And they begged Him not to banish them to the abyss.

The destroying angel and the beast come from this place (Rev 9:1-11; Rev 11:7-8) and Satan is locked here for a 1000 years (Rev 20:1-3).

Tartarus ταρταρόω (tartaroō), refers to the place where fallen angelic beings/spirits are being held.

The Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament ταρταρόω

In Greek mythology Tartarus is the place of punishment of the Titans and of disobedient gods and is conceived as a gloomy place deep under the earth (cf. Hesiod Th. 720ff.; Homer Il. 14.279f.), occasionally also as the deepest place in Hades (→ ᾅδης). This conception also influenced Jewish apocalyptic thought.

New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, Volumes 1–5 ταρταρόω

The term Τάρταρος does not occur in the NT, and the vb. ταρταρόω only in 2 Pet 2:4, which reflects the Jewish apocalyptic view of Tartarus as the place where the disobedient angels were sent after they rebelled against the Lord (the close par. in Jude 6 does not use the vb.). This place, however, is not identified as the actual place of punishment for these angels. Rather, they are being “held” there temporarily as prisoners until judgment is meted out on them (but it is not clear whether a distinction with Gehenna is thereby intended). Through this imprisonment, presumably, God limits their ability to wreak havoc on the earth.

Tartarus is populated with fallen spiritual beings and their offspring.

Genesis 6:1-4

Genesis 6:1–4 HCSB

When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves. And the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men.

Tartarus is populated by various levels of supernatural beings who abandoned their stations (Gen 6:2, 4; John 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Deut 32:8-9; Psa 82:1-2).

The Lexham Bible Dictionary The Structure of the Divine Council

There is solid evidence in the Hebrew Bible for a three-tiered council. In the divine council of Israelite religion, Yahweh was the supreme authority over a divine bureaucracy that included a second tier of lesser אֱלֹהִים (elohim), also called the “sons of God” (בְּנֵי אֵלִים, beney elim, בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים, beney ha'elohim, or בְּנֵי אֱלֹהִים, beney elohim) or “sons of the Most High” (בְּנֵי עֶלְיוֹן, beney elyon). It may be significant that these “sons of God” are never clearly referred to as angels (מַלְאָכִים, mal'akhim) in the Hebrew Bible, as that word denoted the lowest tier of the Canaanite council, and thus a third tier in the Israelite version. Still, mlʾkm at Ugarit were considered gods, despite their subordinate role. It is possible that מַלְאָכִים (mal'akhim) are referred to as אֱלֹהִים (elohim) in the Hebrew Bible.

These supernatural beings are in Tartarus because they were judged due to leaving their proper boundaries.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Council Member Participation

In Deuteronomy 4:19–20 and 32:8–9, Yahweh divided and assigned the nations to lesser gods (Heiser, “Sons of God”). Yahweh delegated authority—He rejected the nations as His own people and took Israel as His portion. While Yahweh is ultimately sovereign, He does not unilaterally govern the other nations. He leaves that to subordinates, who should rule according to His will. When they don’t, they are judged. This is precisely the point of Psa 82, where Yahweh judges the gods of his council who are responsible for corrupt rule over the nations of the earth.

1 Enoch 6–11 also records Second Temple Jewish Thought about the fallen angels of Noah’s day being bound in the Abyss.

What did Jesus “preach to the spirits in prison?”

View 1: Proclamation to saints of the Hebrew Bible. These were not angels but departed long departed saints that were receiving their chance to go to heaven.

View 2: Proclamation of divine condemnation on fallen angelic beings and the announcement of Jesus lordship over all the nations the divine assembly led astray to evil. In this view, Jesus is put forward as a 2nd Enoch who according to early Jewish texts made a descent to the abyss to announce divine condemnation to these fallen beings.

1 Enoch, describes its protagonist, Enoch (cf. Gen 5:21–24), as ascending into heaven and “going” (poreuein, 12:4; 13:3; 15:2) to the disobedient angelic spirits of the Flood period with the announcement of their divine condemnation (1 En. 12:4–6; 13:1–10; 14:1–7; 15:1–16:3; cf. 2 En. 7).

In 1763 J. Bowyer published a Greek New Testament in which he conjectured that the present phrase ENŌKAI (En hō kai) in v. 19 was a substitute for an original ENŌCHKAI (Enōch kai, “Enoch also”). At the outset of the twentieth century, J. Rendel Harris (1901, 1902a, 1902b) hypothesized a text with the letters ENŌKAIENŌCH (En hō kai Enōch, “in which also Enoch”), with “Enoch” subsequently omitted by later scribes due to haplography. This proposal was accepted in the biblical translations of Moffatt (1928) and Goodspeed (1923). In defense of this conjecture Goodspeed (1954) appealed to the similarity of 1 Pet 3:19 and the Enoch legend in 1 En. 12–16

Haplography, also known as lipography, is a scribal or typographical error where a letter or group of letters that should be written twice is written once.

The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible Baptism as Holy War

Just as Jesus was the second Adam for Paul, Jesus is the second Enoch for Peter. Enoch descended to the imprisoned fallen angels to announce their doom. First Peter 3:14–22 has Jesus descending to these same “spirits in prison” to tell them they were still defeated, despite his crucifixion. God’s plan of salvation and kingdom rule had not been derailed—in fact, it was right on schedule. The crucifixion actually meant victory over every demonic force opposed to God

Ephesians 4:8–12 HCSB

For it says: When He ascended on high, He took prisoners into captivity; He gave gifts to people. But what does “He ascended” mean except that He descended to the lower parts of the earth? The One who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ,

The Hebrew Bible Background of Ephesians 4:8; Psalm 68:15-18

Psalm 68:15–18 ESV

O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan; O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan! Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain, at the mount that God desired for his abode, yes, where the Lord will dwell forever? The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them; Sinai is now in the sanctuary. You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there.

The phrase “o mountain of God” is actually “mountain of elohim” (har elohim) in Hebrew. That means it can be translated as either “mountain of God” or “mountain of the gods.”

Bashan looks with hatred on God’s abode.

Bashan is the counter of Sinai.

Bashan is not under the authority of the LORD

The Rest of the Psalm describes God’s assault with His only army on Bashan (17-18).

The LORD leads a host of conquered captives.

Psalm 68:18

Psalm 68:18 HCSB

You ascended to the heights, taking away captives; You received gifts from people, even from the rebellious, so that the Lord God might live there.

Eph 4:8

Ephesians 4:8 HCSB

For it says: When He ascended on high, He took prisoners into captivity; He gave gifts to people.

There is a conflict in Paul’s translation.

You received gifts from people…-Psa 68:18

He gave gifts to people. - Eph 4:8

Psalm 68 is about not about liberating a group of people but taking a group of people captive in conquest. Paul understands that Jesus is the incarnate YHWH, surrounded by a demonic elohim, “bulls of Bashan,” thus fulfilling the imagery of Psalm 68. Jesus puts the bulls of Bashan to an open shame (Col 2:15) and leads them away in conquest.

Colossians 2:15 HCSB

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; He triumphed over them by Him.

What about the “receiving” and “giving” problem in Paul’s text?

In the ancient world it was common for a conqueror to distribute the benefits of the conquest to his people, believers. Paul’s switch to “gave gifts to people” could be a conflation or echo of Isaiah 53:12

Isaiah 53:12 ESV

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Specifically, those benefits are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers (Eph 4:11).

Where did Jesus descend? This will help answer the question.

Some say this is the descent to the underworld of Tartarus or Sheol. Eph 4:9 “lower parts of the earth” i.e., underworld

Ephesians 4:9 HCSB

But what does “He ascended” mean except that He descended to the lower parts of the earth?

Ephesians 4:9 “the lower regions, the earth.” - i.e., he Coming of the Spirit.

Ephesians 4:9 ESV

(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?

Here is the point, Ephesians 4:8-10, speaks of Messiah’s defeating those fallen angels that once ruled as an assembly (see Job 1; Eph 6:12); and, 1 Peter 3:18-19 describes his pronouncement of condemnation over fallen beings already locked away.

Psalm 110:1–3 HCSB

This is the declaration of the Lord to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool.” The Lord will extend Your mighty scepter from Zion. Rule over Your surrounding enemies. Your people will volunteer on Your day of battle. In holy splendor, from the womb of the dawn, the dew of Your youth belongs to You.