Christian teachers continued the work of Christ in preaching to the dead. Few have followed them in this opinion, whether ancient or modern. There is no Biblical evidence on the subject. It is a question of probability, or improbability, depending on deductions from other doctrines and facts of the Christian religion.

In this section of the Creed, as in the others, the phrase, descended into hell, may mean little or much in accordance with circumstances and education.

There are, however, several modern opinions, which have no historic right in the interpretation of the Creed. These are:

(1) He descended into hell amounts to nothing more than He descended into the grave.

(2) He descended into hell means He suffered the penalties of the damned in hell.

(3) He descended into hell to triumph over the devil in his own dominions.

The Formula of Concord (IX) limits the purpose of the descent to this: "that He destroyed hell for all believers, and that we through Him have been snatched from the power of death and Satan, from eternal damnation, and even from the jaws of hell."

None of these theories explain the insertion of the clause into the Creed; and they are altogether inconsistent with the Descent into Hades as a saving act of Jesus, which certainly was the thought of those who inserted the clause in the Creed.

Unfortunately the early Protestants, in overlooking the Middle State of souls, confounded the Mid

dle State with the Final State after the Resurrection; and so Hell was used for Hades = Sheol, the Biblical term for the Middle State, and also for Gehenna= άπλia, the Final State after the resurrection; and they understood Hell in the sense of Gehenna, the ultimate place of damnation. Accordingly, the Protestant Episcopal Church permits the minister to substitute: "He went into the place of departed spirits." But this permission is seldom used now; for the ministry and people have come to a better understanding of the meaning of the Descent into Hell.

CHAPTER VII

RISEN FROM THE DEAD

THE fifth article of the Apostles' Creed represents the resurrection of Christ from among the dead, on the third day, as His third great act of salvation, securing thereby the resurrection of mankind and the justification of all believers.

The fifth article of the Old Roman Creed was: On the third day risen from the dead. The Creed of the fourth century was the same, except the substitution of indicative for participle of the same verb. The Creed has always remained the same in this article since the second century.

The exact words of the Creed are not found in the New Testament, nor among the Apostolic Fathers, so far as I know.

Tertullian has in his first form: tertia die resuscitatum a mortuis.

The Creeds of Cyril, Eusebius, and Nicæa have: ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ.

It seems probable from the usage of these Eastern Creeds that, underlying the Creed of the second century, there was a still earlier form without ek Tôv Vekρv, and that the original form of the Roman Creed was that of the Oriental Creeds, so far as this article is concerned.

The whole phrase of these early Creeds is prima

rily based on the words of Jesus Himself, predicting His resurrection.

The Lukan Gospel, here as elsewhere, was at the basis of the Roman Creed, the original phrase being based on the words of Jesus (Luke 922, 1833), later enlarged by the addition of ek veкpŵν from Luke 2446.

(1) On the third day. This phrase was doubtless used because of its significance in the words of Jesus Himself, fulfilled as they were by the event, as represented in I Cor. 154. The significance of the third day was: (a) to make sufficiently evident the reality of the death, burial, and descent into Hades. There was sufficient time for all these. (b) It was not to extend the time during which the Redeemer would be subjected to death and Hades; (c) it was to make the resurrection more distinct and definite, as an event which happened at a particular time and after a predicted interval. Doubtless the prediction of Jesus and its fulfilment were in the minds of the authors of the Creed.

(2) Risen, the aorist participle, is connected, as all the other terms, with Jesus Christ, God's Son, our Lord. The verb is here active, as implying that the resurrection was an act of the Lord Himself. It is usual in the New Testament to represent that God raised up His Son, God being active, Jesus passive.1

We have exactly the same difference in point of view here as in the case of the incarnation; only there is a singular reversal of attitude. Thus St.

1 Acts 224, 32, 1334, 171; I Cor. 15-20 (nine times); Rom. 4"; cf. 14, 4 64, 81, 4; Eph. 120.

=

Paul represents the Son as active in the incarnation, but usually as passive in the resurrection, except in I Thes. 414, and when the resurrection and ascension are combined in the ascent. According to Matthew, the Son is passive in the resurrection as well as in the incarnation. Luke's Gospel follows Mark in regarding the Son as active in the resurrection, in all cases, quoting words of Jesus. Matthew agrees with St. Paul in using eyeípw, arouse from the sleep of death the Old Testament term of Is. 261o, Dn. 122. But the Gospels of Mark and Luke use ȧvíoτη, intransitive, rise up, stand up; doubtless because of the Aramaic of Jesus and Hebrew of Mark.1 Luke, in Acts, uses both ȧvíσrη and eyeípw. The Son is active in John's Gospel, so far as the resurrection comes into view. He has life in Himself as the Father has. Usually the resurrection is combined with the ascension, in the return to the Father and ascending where He was before. There is no difference of doctrine here, for both God the Father and God the Son are active together in the unity of their Being. Whenever God the Father is mentioned, the resurrection of Jesus is His work.

St. Paul regards the resurrection of Christ as the cardinal principle of his theology. "If Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain" (I Cor. 1514). The resurrection is the cardinal doctrine also to St. Peter, and in the early preaching of Christians. The Apostles were especially witnesses of Christ's resurrection (Acts 122).

1 Delitzsch, Hebrew New Testament, uses op here.