Holy Saturday is the name given to the day in between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.
As I explain in this post: Was Jesus in the Grave Three Days and Three Nights? Here’s How It Adds Up, in reality Good Friday was a Thursday, and Jesus was in the grave on Friday and Saturday. But what happened during that time?
He Descended to the Dead
The Apostles’ Creed, one of the oldest Christian creeds – in continual existence since at least the 4th Century A.D. – contains a line which many people have found intriguing: it declares that Jesus “descended to the dead.”
Older translations of the original text into English sometimes translate this phrase as saying that Jesus “descended into Hell.”
Looking at the creed in ancient languages is interesting as the Greek text says: κατελθόντα εἰς τὰ κατώτατα, which means: “descended to the bottom” – and the Latin text says: descendit ad inferos, the word inferos being translated as “Hell.”
More recent translations into English have chosen to say “descended to the dead” rather than “descended into Hell” as “the dead” would be more accurate biblically and theologically than “Hell.” The reason for this is based on a particular understanding of “Sheol” in the Old Testament and the Jewish mind, which was the dwelling place of all souls, being divided (according to Luke 16:19-31) into two parts: Abraham’s Bosom and Hades, AKA: Hell.
Abraham’s Bosom, we are told in Luke 16, was a place of comfort for those who died in faith, i.e. the “Old Testament saints,” such as those described in Hebrews 11, who died prior to the redemptive actions of Jesus, but died in faith that they would be “raised up to a better life” (Hebrews 11:35)
He Proclaimed What He Had Done, and Led Captives in His Train
In 1 Peter 3:19 and 4:6, Peter tells us that Jesus’ spirit went to Sheol after his death on the cross but prior to his resurrection, and declared to the souls of the deceased there what he had accomplished in his life and death. This message would have been:
- A message of redemption and release from Sheol for those who were kept in Abraham’s Bosom awaiting the redemptive work of the Messiah (“He led captives in his train” – Ephesians 4:8)
- A message of condemnation for those held in the Hades/Hell portion of Sheol.
God Often Does His Greatest Work in the Dark
For the disciples, that first “Holy Saturday” would have seemed much less than holy. It would have felt like defeat and been perhaps the lowest point in their lives. Many of them, having left everything to follow Jesus, would have been wondering, “Now what am I going to do with my life?” – not to mention the fact that they were afraid that they would be next: that the Romans and Jewish leaders would likely come be coming to arrest and execute them as well.
And yet, in the awful silence of that day, God was doing a great work of redemption!
Remember: with God, silence is not absence. Sometimes when God seems most distant to us, is when He is accomplishing his most profound work.
That is the reminder of Holy Saturday: we can’t always see what God is doing.
May God bless you and give you rest in your soul this Holy Saturday!
See also:
Theology for the People 