RTE No 20 Interior - Road to Emmaus Journal

CHRIST,THE MEDICINEOF LIFE:The Syriac Fathers onthe Lord’s Descent Into HellPresently working on her D. Phil. at Oxford University, England, Russian Orthodox Syriacscholar Irina Kukota delves into the writings of the Syriac fathers on the Lord’s descent intohell, the Church’s traditional teaching on the afterlife, and the effects of contemporaryChristian eschatology. With clear insight and warm faith, Irina compounds the spiritualwealth of the patristic East into an accessible and healing balm for the soul.RTE: Irina, your work is quite intriguing because most of us don’t often thinkof the implications of the Lord’s descent into hell. Can you summarize thetradition for us? I’m sure it is much richer than the passing thought most ofus give it during the Paschal services.IRINA: Yes, this is absolutely true. How many times during Easter liturgy dowe hear that Christ descended into Hades (the Greek word for the underworld)and broke “the gates of bronze and the bars of iron.” Even afterEaster and Pentecost, for example, during liturgy on the Feast of All Saints,we sing this in services. So, it is true that we hear about the descent often,but I’ve noticed that many people have difficulty explaining why.The tradition of Christ’s descent into hell (Hades in Greek, Sheol in Syriac)is an ancient one and it had a very profound meaning for early Christians. Wecan find early references to the descent already in the gospels and epistles.The basic text for the tradition is from the first epistle of St. Peter:For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for theunrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in theflesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also He went and made aDescent into Hades – Resurrection, 1320, Pech Patriarchate, Serbia.17