INTO HADES: A STUDY IN COMPARATIVE RELIGJOX. 219 



tradition, mainly developed in Apocryphal writings as in 

 the Gospel of Xicodemus, knew nothing of a preaching, but 

 only of an invasion and spoiling of Hades by Christ. The 

 two traditions meet in Origen.* Perhaps St. Paul, who does 

 not refer to the preaching, knew the tradition of the release, 

 as his words, " when He ascended up on high, He led captivity 

 captive " (Eph. iv, 8, 9), followed by a reference to the Descent, 

 seem to suggest.f 



We now ask whether the traditions of the preaching and of 

 the release, both found in the Xew Testament, owe anything to 

 current mythical fancies. 



{a) The Preaching. — Of this there is no trace in any Greek, 

 Egyptian or Babylonian myth, and it would be somewhat bold 

 to suppose that Buddhist legends of enlightenment in hell, had 

 influenced early Christian thought in Palestine, apart from the 

 fact that these legends may be post- Christian. But the idea of 

 a preaching in Hades may have been current in Judaism. In 

 the Book of Enoch (c. 12) Enoch is sent to proclaim God's 

 destroying judgments to the fallen angels, and again there is 

 joy among the antediluvian giants and the men whom they 

 deluded because the name of the Son of Man is revealed to 

 them (c. Ix, 5, 25 ; Ixiv ; Ixix, 26). An apocryphon quoted by 

 Irenaeus and Justin from Jeremiah speaks of the Holy One of 

 Israel remembering His saints and descending to them to 

 ])reach His salvation and save them.:J: An addition to the 

 Latin text of Ecclus. (xxiv, o2) speaks of wisdom penetrating 

 to the under- world, visiting and enlightening all that sleep. 

 And in Bereschit Balba it is said, "When they that are bound, 

 they that are in Gehinnom, saw the light of the Messiah [at its 

 gates], they rejoiced to receive Him, saying, He will lead us 

 forth from this darkness.''"§ Passages like these point to some 

 current Jewish belief to which the Christian doctrine of the 

 preaching may owe much. 



(b) The rescue of souls. — To this there are no iniruedia.te pagan 

 parallels. There are the Greek myths of Orpheus, Herakles, 



Cf. Contra Celsum, ii, 43, and De Princip.^ ii, 5, 3 ; ii, 6, 2. 



t Two other traditions may be noted, one, that as Christ had forerun - 

 nei*s on earth, so He also had in Hades, cf. Xicodemiis and Oiigen, Hoyn. 

 OR 1 Kings, Op., ii, 490 (Moses, the Prophets, St. John Baptist) ; the 

 other, that the Apostles preached in Hades {Hemnas, Sim., ix, 16 ; Clem., 

 Strom., vi, 6). This preaching is followed by an upward movement of 

 those who listen and accept the Gospel. 



; Irenaeus cites it six times, see e.g., Adv. Haer., iii, 20, 4. Justin, 

 Dialog., 72. 



^ Weber, Jiidische Theologie, 2, Leipzig, 1897, 368. 



