INTO HADES : A STUDY IN COMPARATIVE RELIGION. 223 



interpreting these, or with the explanations by which their 

 fairly evident meaning has been attempted to be set aside. In 

 iii, 18 f. we have the doctrines of the descent and the preachings 

 but a preaching apparently limited to a certain group — to those 

 disobedient in the time of Noah, unless the reference to them is 

 to be considered as typical of a larger number to whom the good 

 news was brought. The verses, with their explanatory or 

 limiting phrases, seem indeed to follow the outlines of some well 

 known doctrinal formula. First is mentioned the Crucifixion, then 

 the Death, then the Descent into Hades, tlien the Eesurrection and 

 the Ascension. Looked at in this way it can hardly be doubted that 

 there is here a clear reference to the Descent idea. Admitting 

 this, we can hardly help admitting that the reference in iv, 6^ 

 " For this cause was the Gospel preached to them that are dead/' 

 is equally clear, though it sets no limits to the preaching. 



These are the passages which may be claimed as showing that 

 the Descent, though possibly already separating into difi'erent 

 traditions, was already known to the Apostles. As has been 

 seen, there is no reason to believe that at this early stage 

 borrowing from pagan sources had been resorted to, though we 

 can see that there was a Jewish foundation for the doctrine. 

 Can we trace it, then, to anything in current eschatology or in the 

 teaching of our Lord Himself ? The current doctrine of the life 

 after death among the Jews was probably represented by the 

 parable of Dives and Lazarus, -i.e., all souls fared to an intermediate 

 state in which were two divisions, for the righteous and for the 

 wicked. This,generally speaking,is the doctrinetanghtin wTitings 

 which emanated from the schools of Palestinian, as opposed to 

 Alexandrian Judaism. It is obvious, then, that the earliest 

 disciples must have believed that the soul of Christ between His 

 death and resurrection was in that intermediate state, Sheol, 

 Hades, or Paradise. This they would also gather from words- 

 spoken by Christ : — " The Son of Man shall be three days and 

 three nights in the heart of the earth " (St. Matt, xii, 40), and 

 the words spoken to the dying thief, " To-day thou shalt be with 

 me in Paradise. This is given by St. Luke, and the Petrine 

 teaching preserved by him in Acts ii, 31, regarding Christ's soul 

 not being left in Hades agrees with it. The disciples, interested 

 probably in the late of those who died before Christ came, 

 would naturally think, and their Jewish traditions would support 

 the thought, that as Christ preached the good news on earth. 

 He would also do so in Hades, since according to his own inten- 

 tion, the Gospel was to be preached to the whole world (St. 

 Mark xiv, 9 ; xvi, 15), and it was not the will of His Father that 



