Like Jesus Christ Gone to Hell

[vovat]

We all know Christianity teaches that Jesus died on Good Friday and came back from the dead on Easter Sunday, but what did he do in the meantime? If your answer is, "Nothing! He was dead," remember that belief in the afterlife is an important part of Christianity. The Apostles' Creed actually includes a line saying that Jesus descended into Hell, and traditions developed around this idea. The Gospel of Nicodemus, an apocryphal Latin work often conflated with the Acts of Pilate, includes a section about Jesus' visit to Hades. While some English translations use "Hell" as the equivalent of "Hades," this isn't entirely accurate. Hades, the Greek world of the dead, contained a few different sections. One of them, Tartarus, was basically the equivalent of the modern Hell, being a place of eternal torment. It was, however, reserved for the worst of the worst. Most people actually ended up in the dull, boring Plain of Asphodel, which doesn't seem to have been all that much different from the Jewish concept of Sheol. The spirits of the dead whom we see in the Gospel of Nicodemus don't seem to be tortured so much as just waiting around. John the Baptist, a relatively new arrival in Hades, preaches the importance of repentance to the dead, basically insisting that it's their only chance to get out. Adam and Seth are both present at this sermon, and Seth tells a story about how, when Adam lay dying, he journeyed to the gates of Paradise to ask for a cure. An angel showed up and told the younger patriarch that he'd have to wait until 5500 years after the creation of the world, at which point God's son would fix everything.


I find the figure of 5500 years given here to be interesting. We don't know exactly when Jesus died, but it would have been around the Jewish year 3790. So there was apparently some tradition at the time of the writing of the Gospel that the world was older than Jewish scholars thought it was, although only by a negligible amount when compared to the actual age of the planet. Even today, there isn't a complete consensus among Young Earth Creationists as to the world's age, although a lot of them still hold to the seventeenth century calculations of Dr. John Lightfoot and Bishop James Ussher, who regard the year of creation as 4004 BC. Some argue, however, that the world is closer to 10,000 years old. Given what we now know, the fact that the argument even still exists is ridiculous, but science wasn't quite as developed in medieval times.


After Adam and Seth say their piece, the story cuts to a conversation between Satan and Hades, both of whom are fretting about how Jesus plans to rescue some souls from the underworld. Jesus then shows up, breaks the gates of Hades, and binds Satan in chains. He then takes the patriarchs, prophets, martyrs, and forefathers with him to Heaven, where they meet Enoch, Elijah, and the man who was crucified next to Jesus.


While the Gospel of Nicodemus obviously never obtained canonical status, the idea that Jesus came to Hades to save the patriarchs remained popular. Dante mentions it in his Inferno, although he limits it to eight individuals the Messiah saved from Limbo: Adam, Abel, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, Jacob, and Rachel. The descriptions in Nicodemus make it sound like he took a lot more people than that, and Dante doesn't even mention Seth. I assume this tradition was in answer to the question of what happened to the people who were good, faithful followers of God BEFORE Jesus made his atoning sacrifice. I believe some other Christians think that Jesus' sacrifice actually took place outside of time, with the crucifixion by the Romans being merely an earthly representation of the eternal truth. While I don't know for sure, I'm guessing that this means people could have been saved prior to Jesus' earthly life. We know that Christianity developed at a time when mystery cults were popular among the Romans, and the leaders of these religions taught that the myths were less important than the mystical, universal messages behind them. One of the main rivals to Christianity was the worship of Mithras, and it seems that the main thing he did was kill a bull, which is no mean feat but hardly something you'd think could save the world.


I get the impression that, even early on in the development of Christianity, people were skeptical of the idea that a guy (even if he WAS the Son of God) being executed would atone for all the sins of the world. Hence, they came up with explanations that gave a deeper and more mystical significance to this earthly event. It doesn't appear that Mel Gibson wanted any of this, though, as it seems like the main message of the Passion of the Christ was "you should believe in Jesus because he went through a lot of crap." While I'm certainly not minimizing crucifixion, probably the most inhumane means of execution ever devised, Jesus wasn't the only one who had to go through it, and other people have suffered severe pain for much longer periods of time. So it strikes me that Mel's theology might well be less sophisticated than that of people 2000 years ago, but is anyone really all that surprised by this?

Comments

[burningofroissy.livejournal.com]

An angel showed up and told the younger patriarch that he'd have to wait until 5500 years after the creation of the world, at which point God's son would fix everything....We don't know exactly when Jesus died, but it would have been around the Jewish year 3790.

So Jesus should have come back sometime in the early 1700s. *looks at watch* Hm.

[I'd make a joke about hippies always flaking out on people, but it's Easter. :P I got a little respect.]

ETA: Also that last picture is kind of a mindfuck. It looks like Crucified Jesus is hurtling down from the sky and is gonna smash right into that guy's boat. ETA again: I just realised it's by Dali. That pretty much explains everything.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

How do you know Jesus DIDN'T come back in the eighteenth century? Maybe the Rapture happened and no one noticed.

[burningofroissy.livejournal.com]

Haha, like two or three people got taken up and everybody else was left here? Sounds about right.

[zimbra1006.livejournal.com]

Ha!

This is my favorite story: Apparently about 10-15 years ago, my future mother-in-law wrote all of her children a letter on what to do in the event of the Rapture, since she would be gone, the executor of her estate (the priest) would be gone, and "probably the lawyer too." That was the part my boyfriend took the greatest offense at - sure, her kids would still be here and damned to hell, that part is a given, but the LAWYER gets to ascend to heaven?!

Very weird website: http://www.raptureletters.com/

[vovat.livejournal.com]

It kind of seems to me that, at least according to what Jesus taught, the people who are so sure they'll be raptured might well be the ones who aren't. After all, isn't that prideful?

[burningofroissy.livejournal.com]

Oh wow.

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

Just an aside about crucifixion: It wasn't pain that killed people (although it was plenty painful), it was hypovolemic shock. Legend has it that Jesus was unique in being nailed up there, as, normally, people were just tied up there, with their arms stretched across the top of the Tau cross (most of the crosses were just a beam across the top, with no vertical continuing above, as in a Latin cross.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I wonder whether the idea that he was nailed was made up by one of those people who was desperate to find a holy relic.

"Hey, I found this old rusty nail in Jerusalem! It must be one of the ones they used to crucify Jesus!"
"Um, people were tied to crosses, not nailed."
"Oh, uh...it was different for him!"

I think I've heard that the way Jesus is generally depicted as hanging wouldn't have been able to support his weight. Then again, when you can walk on water, the laws of physics kind of go out the window. {g}

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

I think it does say in the accounts that he was nailed to the cross to cause further pain and humiliation, but it wasn't unheard of to nail people's hands. And the nails would have been in addition to the ropes tying him onto the cross. Also, usually they would have a bit of a toeboard to stand on. This was done ostensibly to prolong the time it would take to die of shock, because you could lift up every now and then.

They nailed his feet as well, according to the gospels. But when it came to breaking his legs (also a hurry-up tactic), they took a pass. Crucifixions done a certain way could go on for days, with the victim dying of dehyration, but I think Jesus lasted about 4 hours (vett me on that one, though). Of course, they pierced his side with a spear, so that probably hurried things a bit.

[zimbra1006.livejournal.com]

Huh, we were taught that it would be asphyxiation! (I just read that this was an older theory that has since been debunked). And yeah, he would have had to be nailed through the wrists to support his weight, since nails through your hands would rip right through. *ouch* They say a footboard would help with that though.