This below is the Roman Catholic “Apostles Creed” as recited. This is similar to most of the old-line traditional protestant churches, which explains why most religious traditionalists typically say; “When Jesus died and was buried, He descended into “hell.”

“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried; He descended into hell; on the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.”

The above highlighted misstatement is based upon a man’s misinterpretation of the words of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, below.

“Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, [by His resurrection] He Led Captivity Captive, and gave gifts unto men. ⁹ (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also Descended first into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰ He that Descended is the same also that Ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)” (Ephesians 4:8-10 (KJV)

To properly explain the above verses, we first have to go to the Scriptures and let them define some very important ‘words’ of the Bible.

First, the phrase “Hell fire” that Jesus spoke of in Matt. 5:22 is from the Greek “Gehenna,” which refers to the very real “hell” of “the lake of fire.” Jesus did not go to “the lake of fire.”

“But I [Jesus] say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment… but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of ‘hell fire.’ [Gk. gehenna pyr]” (Mat. 5:22 (KJV)

The two verses below clearly tell us how that after His death of the cross, Jesus’ soul and body descended into “the grave,” … NOT into any kind of ‘hell,’ nor Gehenna’s “lake of fire,”

“For thou [Father God] wilt not leave my [Jesus’] soul in hell [Heb. Sheol, the grave]; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption [decay]. (Psalm 16:10 (KJV)

Peter at Pentecost then preaches quoting from Psalm 16:10 (above):

“Because thou [the Father] wilt not leave my [Jesus’] soul in hell [Gk. hades, “the grave”], neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption [decay]. (Acts 2:27 (KJV)

The word “hell” seen in the two verses above is a misleading mistranslation of both the Hebrew word “Sheol” and also the Greek word “hades” … both of which, again, simply mean “the grave.” The word “grave” applies whether it be by burial in in a box, earth, the sea, or a tomb.

So, we see that after His death Jesus’s “soul” was located with His dead body in “Sheol” (Hebrew), which is the same as the Greek “hades,” both meaning “the grave.”  So, concerning Jesus’ death and burial there is no reference to the “hell fire” of “eternal destruction” (2 Thes. 1:9) in Gehenna’s “the lake of fire” or any sort of “hell”

Bible student needs to be aware that the Bible frequently mistranslates the Hebrew ‘Sheol’ and the Greek ‘Hades’ as “hell,” even in the King James Version. Therefore, Jesus never descended into a ‘hell’ of any sort with reference to Eph 4:8-10 … only into “the grave.”

Now I also want to address another misuse of the word “hell” appearing 2 Peter 2:4 KJV (below), which therefore confuses many Bible Students. 2 Peter 2:4 only then seems to indicate that there is a “hell” having “chains of darkness” (2Peter 2:4) as a “prison” (1Peter 3:19) for “the spirits” of lost human souls. But we need to read the verses below in context and in view of “The Days of NOAH” addressed in 1Peter 3:20.

“For if God spared not the ANGELS that sinned, but cast them down to hell [Tartaroo], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved [Gk. tereo, held there] unto judgment;” (2 Peter 2:4 (KJV)

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, [so] that he might bring us to God, [Christ] being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: ¹⁹ By which also he [Christ] went and preached [Gk. kerysso, proclaimed] unto The Spirits In Prison; ²⁰ Which sometime [Grk. pote, in time past) were disobedient, when once the longsuffering [patience] of God Waited In The Days of NOAH, while the Ark Was a Preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” (1 Peter 3:18-20 (KJV, emphasis added)

In 2 Peter 2:4 KJV (above) the word “hell” is not translated from the Greek words for hades or Gehenna, but rather… mistranslated from the Greek “Tartaroo.” This single occurrence of “Tartaroo [the deepest abyss of hades]” seems to suggest in its context that “Tartaroo” is associated with certain of the angels of “the days of Noah.” These in chains are not dead humans. (See 1Peter 3:18-20, below).

Now 1 Peter 3:18-20 with 2 Peter 2:4 may seem to suggest to some that there is a “hell” containing the ungodly ‘eternal spirits’ of lost men… but this is not true.

• All observant Bible Students should know that there is only one ‘eternal Spirit’ and that is “the Spirit of the Lord.”
• God’s precious Spirit/Breath (Gen 2:7) has been deposited as being ‘life on loan’ to every born human upon their physical birth. But this Spirit/Breath (pneuma) of God departs from men when they die (Eccl. 12:7).
• Actually, it is this departure of “the Spirit [breath]” of God that defines human ‘death.’

These 1Peter and 2Peter passages that we are addressing clearly speak of certain evil “angels” [2Peter 2:4) “In The Days of NOAH” as seen in Genesis 6:1-4, these are not of men. This is indicated by the reference to the “days of Noah.” These evil fallen angels are referred there as the “sons of God [who] saw the daughters of men” (v2) and took them as wives, thereby creating a race of “giants,” which the Lord dealt with by Noah’s flood.

“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, ² That the sons of God [fallen angels] saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. ³ And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. ⁴ There were GIANTS [Nephilim] in the earth in those days; and also after that, when The Sons Of God Came In Unto The Daughters of Men, And They Bare Children To Them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” (Genesis 6:1-4 (KJV)

Regardless of the corruption of the human race by evil angels, the family of Noah, who “was perfect [pure] in his generations” and therefore fit for the genealogy of Christ, was preserved from the subsequent global destruction of the flood. 2 Peter 2:4-5 (above) speaks of these “angels that sinned,” and likewise makes the connection between them and the old world of Noah. These angels are real spirit-beings, who most likely are the “spirits in prison,” which are mentioned here in 1Peter 3:18-20. Christ’s “preaching” to them is better understood as a “proclamation,” (which is an acceptable translation of the Greek word “kerysso”). The angelic attempt at “spoiling” of the human race in Genesis 6 is often interpreted as a Satanic effort to defile the lineage through which the Savior would come. It is therefore reasonable, then, that Jesus Christ, upon resurrection, would go to the angels in their prison when His work was completed, proclaiming His victory as well as their humiliating defeat.

Having all the foregoing, we can conclude that after His death… Jesus’ dead ‘body and His soul with it’ rested in “hades” – “the grave” - not in ‘hell.’ Though Jesus’ body and His person of the ‘soul’ were in “the grave,” they resurrected after 3 days and nights. Resurrection is also our glorious expectation to come.

“Because thou [the Father] wilt not leave my [Jesus’] SOUL in hell [Gk. hades, “the grave”],