Editing Harrowing of Hell (section)

== Early Christian teaching ==
[[File:Harrowing of Hell.jpg|thumb|''Descent into Hell'', with [[Hellmouth]], engraving by [[Michael Burghers]] (1647/48–1727)]]
The Harrowing of Hell was taught by [[Christian theology|theologians]] of the [[early church]]: St [[Melito of Sardis]] (died c. 180) in his ''Homily on the [[Passover]]'' and more explicitly in his ''Homily for Holy Saturday,'' [[Tertullian]] (''A Treatise on the Soul'', 55, though he himself disagrees with the idea), [[Hippolytus (writer)|Hippolytus]] (''Treatise on Christ and Anti-Christ''), [[Origen]] (''[[Against Celsus]]'', 2:43), and, later, [[Ambrose]] (died 397) all wrote of the Harrowing of Hell. The early heretic [[Marcion]] and his followers also discussed the Harrowing of Hell, as mentioned by Tertullian, [[Irenaeus]], and [[Epiphanius of Salamis|Epiphanius]]. The 6th-century sect called the [[Christolytes]], as recorded by [[John of Damascus]], believed that Jesus left his soul and body in Hell, and only rose with his divinity to Heaven.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=turn&id=HistSciTech.Cyclopaedia01&entity=HistSciTech.Cyclopaedia01.p0368&q1=christolytes |last=Chambers |first=Ephraim |encyclopedia=Cyclopædia, or, An universal dictionary of arts and sciences |year=1728 |title=Christolytes |via=History of Science and Technology, University of Wisconsin Digital Libraries |language=en-US|access-date=September 29, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929135533/http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=turn&id=HistSciTech.Cyclopaedia01&entity=HistSciTech.Cyclopaedia01.p0368&q1=christolytes |archive-date=September 29, 2017}}</ref>

The Gospel of Matthew relates that immediately after Christ died, the earth shook, there was [[Crucifixion darkness|darkness]], the veil in the [[Second Temple]] was torn in two, and many people rose from the dead, and after the resurrection ([[Matthew 27]]:53) walked about in [[Jerusalem]] and were seen by many people there. Balthasar says this is a "visionary and imaginistic" description of Jesus vanquishing death itself.<ref name="Balthasar">{{Cite book |last=von Balthasar |first=Hans Urs |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k4hHDwAAQBAJ&q=Harrowing+of+Hell |title=Mysterium Paschale: The Mystery of Easter |date=January 1, 2000 |publisher=Ignatius Press |isbn=978-1-68149-348-0 |language=en |access-date=March 15, 2023 |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405193512/https://books.google.com/books?id=k4hHDwAAQBAJ&q=Harrowing+of+Hell |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to the apocryphal [[Acts of Pilate|Gospel of Nicodemus]], the Harrowing of Hell was foreshadowed by Christ's raising of [[Lazarus of Bethany|Lazarus]] from the dead prior to his own crucifixion.
[[File:Christ's Descent into Limbo by Dürer.png|thumb|upright|''Christ's Descent into Limbo'', woodcut by [[Albrecht Dürer]], c. 1510]]
[[File:5part-icon-Hell.jpg|thumb|right|[[Russian icon]] of John the Baptist foretelling the descent of Christ to the righteous in [[Hell in Christianity|Hades]] (17th century, [[Solovetsky Monastery]])]]

In the Acts of Pilate – usually incorporated with the widely-read medieval Gospel of Nicodemus – texts built around an original that might have been as old as the 3rd century AD with many improvements and embroidered interpolations, chapters 17 to 27 are called the ''Decensus Christi ad Inferos''. They contain a dramatic dialogue between Hades and Prince Satan, and the entry of the King of Glory, imagined as from within [[Tartarus]]. <!-- nothing about "Lazarus is said to have prophesied to those in Hell both about his own imminent resurrection and Christ's coming resurrection and victory" however -->