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From Hades to Hell Christian Visions of the Underworld (2Nd–​5Th Centuries Ce)

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From Hades to Hell Christian Visions of the Underworld (2Nd–​5Th Centuries Ce) Chapter 13 From Hades to Hell Christian Visions of the Underworld (2nd– 5th centuries ce) Zissis D. Ainalis When men and women of the Graeco- Roman world in the first century got word about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, something about that story rang a bell. After all, some of the greatest heroes of their literature and their reli- gion had gone to the Underworld and returned alive. Odysseus and Aeneas, Herakles and Orpheus – they all went to Hades in search of the dead. Glen Bowersock is certainly right when he insists that the great difference between Jesus and all the others was that he was dead, that he really died and was resurrected, and that the notion of resurrection was strange and absurd to Graeco- Roman perception.1 However, this central event of Christianity inev- itably called to mind the great characters of the Graeco- Roman tradition and, in this sense, eased the way for the acceptance of this new Semitic religion by Graeco- Roman society. This process will here be primarily illustrated by three texts: the Gospel of Nicodemus, the Vision of Paul and the Life of Saint Macarius the Roman. While these works belong in different centuries and to some extent in different literary traditions, they all display the way in which the Graeco- Roman heritage was recognized, used and developed in the Late Antique and early Byzantine tradition. The Gospel of Nicodemus From early on, Christians started to speculate about the passage of Jesus to the Kingdom of Death. Initially it may have been a taboo to call it Hades, but custom and tradition eventually prevailed. The Greek- speaking population of the Roman Empire continued to call the Underworld Hades and the new Christians began to wonder what the founder of their religion had done during the three days he spent there. These spiritual inquiries are well reflected in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, probably written by the middle of the 1 Bowersock 1994, 99– 119. See also the contribution by Johnston in this volume. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | DOI:10.1163/ 9789004375963_ 014 274 Ainalis second century ce.2 The Gospel of Nicodemus seems to be the earliest known depiction of the Christian Underworld and, moreover, the first narrative of a Christian round trip to Hades, in the sense that Jesus himself arrived there and then left. In the second part of this apocryphal story, Annas and Caiaphas are ques- tioning Joseph (of Arimathea?) about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Joseph replies that Jesus’ resurrection is not the most incredible of his deeds; indeed, his most exceptional deed is that he resurrected also many others, notably from Arimathea. So Annas and Caiaphas left for Arimathea, where they started ques- tioning the resurrected ones, writing down their stories. The resurrected ones had been to Hades (we cannot fail to notice the name), where all those who had died in the past centuries were present and the prophets were lazily talking to each other. To this place came Satan and started talking to Hades (note the typi- cally Greek conception, according to which Hades is a place and a person). Satan was trying to convince Hades to collaborate with him in order to take drastic measures and prevent Jesus Christ from resurrecting more people. This pitiful scheme turned out to be ineffective. Christ arrived, entered Hades (the place), arrested Satan and bossed around the ‘old’ god Hades. Then Christ took with him Adam and all those who had died because of Satan’s tricks and transferred them to Paradise where he delivered them to the care of Archangel Michael. Accordingly, Christ left – together with the patriarchs, the prophets and the rest of the righteous – for Paradise, leaving Hades (the place) half- empty and forcing Hades (the god) to guard Satan. This was all that the resurrected had seen. In the Gospel of Nicodemus we note, first of all, that there is not yet a concept of Hell. Hades is the typical Graeco-Roman Underworld, where the place and its master go by the same Classical name. Consequently, there is no description of this place. The reader or listener of the time was left to create in his mind his own picture of the Underworld, according to his own cultural perceptions and repre- sentations. The only characteristic we are offered is that Hades is a dark place in sharp contrast with the luminosity of Jesus. Second, after arriving and disturbing the ‘normality’ of the traditional abode of the dead, Jesus leaves Hades (the god) as a supervisor and delivers Satan to him, arrested and chained, as a prisoner to guard. I argue that it is precisely this detail that generated the concept of Hell, because one can legitimately assume that Satan corrupted Hades, managed to free himself and took command of his space. In any case, in all later represen- tations of the Christian Underworld (with the notable exception of a hymn by Romanos Melodos),3 Hades (the god) is absent and Satan rules the place. 2 Tischendorf 1853, 266– 311; English translation by James 1924. 3 “The Victory of the Cross,” De Matons 1967. Cf. Frank 2009, 220– 22..
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