The descent of God into Hades

A discourse by our holy father Epiphanius, Bishop of Cyprus, concerning the God-bodied burial of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and concerning Joseph of Arimathea, and concerning the descent into Hades following the salvation-bringing passion, occurring on the holy and great Sabbath. What is this? Today there is much silence in the land; much silence and much stillness; much silence because the King sleeps. The earth was terrified and grew quiet, because God slept in the flesh and raised those sleeping from eternity. God died in the flesh, and Hades was terrified. God slept for a short time and raised those in Hades.

Where are now the former disturbances, the cries, and the tumults against Christ, O lawless ones? Where are the crowds, the insurrections, the ranks, the weapons, and the spears? Where are the kings, the priests, and the condemned judges? Where are the torches, the swords, and the disorderly mobs? Where are the peoples, the shouting, and the unruly clamor? Truly, indeed, truly, the peoples labored in vain. They struck against the cornerstone, Christ, but they themselves were crushed; they struck against the solid rock, but they themselves were crushed, and their own waves were dissolved into foam; they struck against the unyielding whetstone, but they themselves were broken; they lifted the stone of life upon a tree, and its coming killed them; they bound the great Samson-like God who is the sun, but having loosed the bonds of eternity, He destroyed the aliens and the lawless.

God, the sun Christ, set under the earth, and has made total darkness for the Jews. Today is salvation for those on earth, and for those from eternity under the earth; today is salvation for the world, all that is visible and all that is invisible. Today there is a double presence of the Lord, a double economy, a double philanthropy, a double descent—both descent and co-descent—a double visitation toward men, from heaven down to the earth.

From the earth, from under the earth, God comes about; the gates of Hades are opened. You who have slept from eternity, rejoice; you who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, receive the great light. The Master is with the slaves; God is with the dead; life is with the mortals; the one without accountability is with the accountable; the unsetting light is with those in darkness; the liberator is with the captives; and the one above the heavens is with those below.

We have believed in Christ upon the earth; let us descend also with Christ and behold even the mysteries there; let us know the wonderful hidden secrets under the earth; let us learn how the proclamation shone even to those in Hades. What then? God, having appeared in Hades, simply saves all, even those who believed there. Yesterday the things of the dispensation are shown, today the things of power; yesterday the things of weakness, today the things of authority; yesterday the things of humanity, today the things of divinity are shown.

Yesterday the dwelling of Hades was being struck, today it is struck by the lightning of divinity; yesterday it was being bound, today it binds the tyrant with unloosable bonds; yesterday he was being condemned, today he grants freedom to the condemned; yesterday Pilate's servants mocked him, today the gatekeepers of Hades, seeing him, shuddered.

But listen to the word of Christ's passion, which is higher; listen, and hymn; listen, and glorify; listen, and proclaim the great wonders of God: how the law gives way; how grace prevails; how the types pass away; how the shadows pass through; how the sun fills the inhabited world; how the Old has grown old, and how the New is being established; how the ancient things passed away, and how the new things have been set in place.

Two peoples in Zion have come at the time of Christ's passion: the one from the Jews, and the one from the Gentiles; two kings, Pilate and Herod; two high priests, Annas and Caiaphas; so that the two might become one Passover: the one ceasing, and the one of Christ beginning; two sacrifices.