Monday, August 25, 2008

The apostles creed

"I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen"

i was thinking about this tonite and googled it.

well, as i was reading it i was caught by the phrase "He descended into hell"

wait. what?

has that always been in there? i grew up reciting this and i never once saw that?

what does that mean? Jesus went to hell? i'd love some comments on this one because i am a little taken aback by the fact that i never realized the weight of that phrase until NOW.

i'm going through a time of getting to the roots of my belief system and this caught me off guard for a second.

i guess it threw me off a little that i've recited something plenty of times before and never even explored what it meant.

off to google a little more...

1 comment:

Scott and Sara said...

I was actually talking to my parents when I read your blog, and asked my dad about it. My dad said that in the Greek (you know my dad!:), hell is translated as Hades and the interpretation is that Jesus went down to release the souls that had been bound there under the old covenant. I've always thought that Jesus went down to take back the keys of hell from the enemy to reassert His authority. So, I think there are lots of different interpretations. Would be interested to know what you found out by googling!