Meaning of DESCENT (from Christ to hell)

The well-known phrase "He descended into hell" comes from the so-called Apostles' Creed, and constitutes a strained interpretation of several passages.

There is no biblical evidence that Christ went in his separate state, at his death, to any place other than Paradise (cp. Luke 23:43, 46). There is only one passage that has been the subject of all kinds of theories and diverse interpretations, that of 1 Pet. 3:18-20.

Based on this passage there are those who affirm that after his death Christ went to preach the gospel to the imprisoned spirits. However, this is not what the passage says.

Peter speaks, in the context, of an exhortation to Christians, of shaming unbelievers through their good conduct, which would thus serve as a testimony to them, of the preaching that the ancient world had, and how the imprisoned spirits, who had lived in Those times, they had been disobedient to the preaching that had been given to them by the Spirit of Christ in His patience (cf. Gen. 6:3; 1 Pet. 1:11).

With this agrees the statement of the Scriptures that Noah was a herald of righteousness. Other passages adduced in support of this theory have their most natural explanation independently of it.