218 REV. CANON MACCULLOCH, D.D.^ ON THE DESCENT 



(5) The resurrection of the saints. — The rising of the dead at 

 the Crucifixion is connected in Nicoclewiis with the rescue of 

 souls from Hades. The same connection is found iu other 

 writings, but Clement and Origen allegorize this resurrection. 

 Those who rose were translated and appeared, not in the earthly 

 but in the heavenly Jerusalem.* Thus they avoided the 

 difficulty of the fact that this resurrection takes place before 

 the Descent, a difficulty escaped by others in more or less 

 ingenious ways. The passage is a crude reflection of the rescue 

 idea, and has two "moments," (1) the opening of the graves at 

 Christ's death ; (2) the resurrection from them after Christ has 

 risen. 



(6) The preaching in Hades. — With few exceptions {e.g., 

 JVicodemus) the rescue is connected with a preaching in Hades. 

 Hippolytus says, " Christ is become the preacher of the Gospel 

 to the dead," and this is followed by most of the Fathers and 

 by Marcion. But before them the docetic and possibly Gnostic 

 Gospel of Peter, of which a fragment was found a few years 

 ago, tells how two angels, their heads reaching to heaven, 

 came oat of the tombs with One whose head overpassed 

 heaven. A cross followed them. From heaven a voice called, 



Hast Thou preached to them that sleep ? " and the answer came 

 from the Cross, Yea." As in Gnostic writings generally the 

 Cross is a kind of Doppelgdnger of Christ. The date of this 

 Gospel is A.D. 110-130, but it should be noted that the witness 

 .of Irenaeus to the tradition of the preaching goes back to an 

 earlier generation than his own, that of the Presbyter whom he 

 quotes. Where this preaching is connected with a rescue of the 

 righteous dead, it is not referred to the passages in 1 Peter, 

 -one of which seems to limit it to the disobedient of i^oah's 

 day (iii, 18 f.), the otiier referring it to all the dead (iv, 6). 

 The passages must have been known, but did not suit a doctrine 

 of preaching to the righteous dead only. Those who, like 

 Clement and Origen, believed in a preaching to all the dead, 

 cite them,t for if the disobedient heard the good news, so also 

 might the heathen. Perhaps from early times two traditions 

 existed — one limiting the preaching to the Old Testament 

 saints, the other extending it to all. St. Peter seems to know 

 the latter, but he says nothing of a release from Hades, and 

 perhaps an early tradition did not include this, while a third 



* Ireii., ii, 171 (Clark's Ante Nic. Lib.) ; Origen, Strom.^ vi, 6 ; Comm. 

 on Matt., t. xii, 43. 



t The second passage seems to be echoed by Hippolytus. 



