When Peter wrote this letter to believers in Asia Minor, persecution was increasing and they were under pressure to deny their faith. Peter’s letter is full of practical instruction on attitudes and the behaviors needed to strengthen faith and its witness. The world has always been (and will continue to be) hostile to Jesus Christ and His followers. In light of that, the First Letter of Peter contains both relevant and needed teaching and encouragement for Christians today.
In its opening verse, the sacred author identifies himself as “Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ…” He is addressing the “sojourners of the dispersion; [in] Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” that were five provinces in Asia Minor who were undergoing religious persecution. The letter also comprises multiple references to the Hebrew Bible; those citations are drawn from the Septuagint (or LXX) translation that was a Greek translation created in Alexandria for the use of those Jews who could not easily read the Hebrew and Aramaic of the then-existent version of the Hebrew Bible. In the opening chapters, the author urges steadfastness and perseverance in the face of such persecution. In the two subsequent chapters, he endorses patience and holiness in order to imitate the example of Christ.
One unusual verse is found in chapter 4, “For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead that, though condemned in the flesh in human estimation, they might live in the spirit in the estimation of God” (1 Peter 4:6). Logically, due to the various assertions that Christ was “raised from the dead” that assertion must also presuppose that between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Jesus travelled to the abode of the dead before his Resurrection. This belief came to be that on the day before He rose Jesus “sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection” (CCC, n. 632). It became included as one of the articles of faith known as Apostles’ Creed, where you would read this: “He [Jesus] descended into Hell (Lat. descendit ad inferos)”.
C.S. Lewis & The Harrowing of Hell
C.S. Lewis wrote to a woman named Mrs. Sutherland (April 28, 1960). “I believe in something like this…” Lewis explains to Mrs. Sutherland that Jesus did go to hell to preach to those who came before the Cross. Christ saved some of them and brought them to heaven with Him. “The medieval authors,” says Lewis, “delighted to picture what they called ‘the harrowing of hell’, Christ descending and knocking on those eternal doors and bringing out those who He chose…. That would explain how what Christ did can save those who lived long before the Incarnation.”
“The New Testament always speaks of Christ not as one who taught, or demonstrated, the possibility of a glorious after life but as one who first created the possibility – the Pioneer, the First Fruits, the Man who forced the door,” Lewis says.
Partially excerpted from Zach Kinkaid. http://www.cslewis.com. “The Harrowing of Hell.” 31 October 2017
Nature and dignity 