What is "harrowing of hell"

n. (context mythology theology English) A raid into the underworld by a heroic figure.

In the context of Christian theology, the Harrowing of Hell ( Latin: Descensus Christi ad Inferos, "the descent of Christ into hell") is the Old English and Middle English term for the triumphant descent of Christ into Hell (or Hades) between the time of his Crucifixion and his Resurrection when he brought salvation to all of the righteous who had died since the beginning of the world (excluding the damned). After his death, the soul of Jesus was supposed to have descended into the realm of the dead, which the Apostles' Creed calls "hell" in the old English usage. The realm into which Jesus descended is called Sheol or Limbo by some Christian theologians to distinguish it from the hell of the damned.

The Harrowing of Hell is referred to in the Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed (Quicumque vult) which state that Jesus Christ "descended into Hell". Christ having descended to the underworld is alluded to in the New Testament in , which speaks of Jesus preaching to "the imprisoned spirits". (The Catholic Catechism interprets Ephesians 4:9, which states that "[Christ] descended into the lower parts of the earth", as also supporting this interpretation.) This near-absence in Scripture has given rise to controversy and differing interpretations.

According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, the story first appears clearly in the Gospel of Nicodemus in the section called the Acts of Pilate, which also appears separately at earlier dates within the Acts of Peter and Paul. The descent into hell had been related in Old English poems connected with the names of Cædmon and Cynewulf. It is subsequently repeated in Aelfric's homilies c. 1000 AD, which is the first known inclusion of the word "harrowing". Middle English dramatic literature contains the fullest and most dramatic development of the subject.

As an image in Christian art, the harrowing is also known as the Anastasis (a Greek word for "resurrection"), considered a creation of Byzantine culture and first appearing in the West in the early 8th century.

The Harrowing of Hell is an eighth-century Latin piece in fifty-five lines found in the Anglo-Saxon Book of Cerne (folios 98v–99v). It is probably a Northumbrian piece, written in prose and verse, where the former serves either as a set of stage directions for a dramatic portrayal or as a series of narrations for explaining the poetry.

Three voices appear in the work: those of Adam, Eve, and a narrator. The prose of the "narrator" appears in the Book of Cerne in red ink setting it off from the rest of the text. The prose portions are rhythmic and may therefore have been sung, even if they were primarily directorial. Besides the three main soloists, the piece was designed for a full choir (antiqui iusti). The piece may be either an early oratorio or the earliest surviving piece of Christian drama intended to be performed.

The Harrowing of Hell has two sources: a lost Latin homily, which survives in translation as the seventh of the Old English Blickling Homilies, and a Roman psalter also in the Book of Cerne. David Dumville (1972) provides a critical edition of the Latin text and Dronke (1994) provides some English translation.

The fifty-five lines recount how Jesus Christ descended into hell to release the "prisoners", the just who were held by Satan. In typical medieval representations of this event, Adam and Eve are released immediately, but in the Harrowing of Hell they must wait and beg before they too are finally saved. The plea of Eve goes as follows:

''Iustus est, domine, et rectum iudicium tuum, ''quia merito haec patior, ''nam ego, cum in honore essem, no intellexi ... ''Ne avertas faciem misericordiae tuae a me, ''et ne declines in ira ab ancilla tua! You are just, Lord, and your judgement is unswerving, for I suffer this deservedly, since, when I was in honour, I did not understand ... Do not turn the face of your mercy away from me, do not, in anger, shun your handmaiden.

The piece ends abruptly here, the rest apparently being lost, but if a comparable Old English piece is any indication, Eve's plea is successful.