Ask · Jesus

What did Jesus do between the cross and the resurrection?

The short answer

Scripture says Jesus commended his spirit to the Father, promised paradise to the dying thief that same day, and, in Peter's words, made proclamation to imprisoned spirits. Beyond those anchors the Bible says little, and the developed traditions about a descent are later readings of these few texts, held differently by Christians.

The fuller answer

The honest starting point is how little the New Testament actually says. Jesus dies on Friday afternoon, his body lies in Joseph's tomb, and he rises on Sunday morning. About his own experience in between, the texts give a handful of statements rather than a narrative, and faithful answers have to build carefully on those statements instead of filling the silence with confident detail the Bible never supplied.

His last exchanges fix two anchors. To the crucified criminal he promises that today they will be together in paradise, and with his final breath he commends his spirit into the Father's hands. Whatever else is said must fit a Jesus who is with the Father and with the forgiven thief that very day, not a Jesus confined somewhere dark awaiting rescue or completing unfinished suffering.

Peter gives the most discussed text. Christ, put to death in the flesh and made alive in the spirit, went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, those who disobeyed in Noah's days. Peter repeats that the gospel was preached even to the dead. Readers have understood this as a proclamation of victory, an announcement to fallen powers, or an offer connected with the righteous dead of the old era.

Paul says the one who ascended first descended into the lower regions of the earth, language the Apostles' Creed echoes in its line about a descent to the dead. From these texts grew the tradition often called the harrowing of hell: Christ announcing triumph to the dead. Christians hold that tradition with different confidence, but all should distinguish it from the texts themselves, which proclaim victory without giving us an itinerary.

Sources

• Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

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