Christ died. Christ resurrected. But something happened between those two events that isn’t clearly described in the Bible. Christ’s spirit went somewhere while His body was in the tomb, and we easily wonder where He went and what He did.
There is a lot of speculation out there about what exactly happened while Christ was in the grave. Some of it is based on Scripture, some based on tradition or assumptions. I will try to point out things that are obvious and others that are assumptions.
It’s also important to note that my own understanding of this is always evolving. The reality is that God doesn’t give us intimate details about these events in the same way He reveals other events in the narrative of Christ’s earthly ministry. As we’ll see, there are more things to look at than just what is recorded in the four gospels. With that, I acknowledge that I may discover things later that give even more detail about Christ’s time in the grave. So this article represents everything as I understand it now, but that’s not to say there isn’t more all of us can learn beyond this.
All that being said, let’s see what we can know about what likely happened while Christ was dead, as well as try to understand what happened immediately after.
The short answer
Christ died and went to a Hell-adjacent place called “Abraham’s Side.” This place held the Old Testament saints because they were the bride of God the Father. While in the grave, He may have told the Watchers from Genesis 6 about their condemnation, His victory, and the redemption of humanity. At His resurrection, the saints were also resurrected and walked around Jerusalem before going to Heaven.
Whew, that’s a lot. Some of it may be new, and some of it may seem made up. Let’s look at where I’m getting all of this.
The Father’s patient bride
The events of Christ’s death are part of the Bible’s true story – God redeeming His people. Thus, it’s important that we briefly consider some bigger parts of the Old Testament to get a clear picture of why other things happen. (If you are just curious about the question of this article, skip down to “Christ’s Time in the Grave,” but be warned that the why of that answer may not make sense without context!)
First, God had promised a Savior ever since the Fall:
And I will make enemies
Of you and the woman,
And of your offspring and her Descendant;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise Him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
We also see that God’s followers were always looking for a Savior. Consider what Noah’s father assumed about him:
Now Lamech lived 182 years, and fathered a son. And he named him Noah, saying, “This one will give us comfort from our work and from the hard labor of our hands caused by the ground which the Lord has cursed.” (Genesis 5:28-29)
As time goes on, we see God establish Israel as His people. As we see their interactions, God uses an important picture for their relationship:
not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:32)
Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. (Hosea 4:15a)
God uses marriage language as both a sign of assurance and as an accusation against Israel’s (frequent) unfaithfulness. This isn’t accidental, nor is it the only time a person of the Trinity calls Himself a husband to His people.
Although God reveals Himself as the Father to all of His people in the New and Old Testament, this marriage language between the Father and His people is reserved only for Israel. Although Ephesians 5:25-27 reveals that the church is the Bride of the Son, we see that Israel is the bride of the Father.
So throughout the Old Testament, we see these two truths working together: The Father’s bride is patiently waiting for a Savior to come and redeem them.
This also helps explain what Hebrews 11 says about salvation in the Old Testament. God’s people believed Him and it was counted to them as righteousness. In other words, they trusted God based on the information they had, believing that God was sending a Savior and living according to that belief. Even though they couldn’t specifically trust in Christ, they lived according to their faith that God would somehow redeem them.
However, we must also remember that the Old Testament saints still died in their sins. Even though they gave regular animal sacrifices, that was only a picture of what their true Savior was coming to do:
But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:3-4)
That’s where we find ourselves before Christ paid the penalty for sin. People died in faith, but they were still guilty of their sins. God counted their faith as though they trusted in Christ, but they still couldn’t enter Heaven and be in the Father’s presence without justice being done for sin. Although God put their punishment on hold, they still couldn’t enter Heaven without someone paying their debt.
So where did these Old Testament saints go?
Punishment, peace, and waiting rooms
Hell seems very clear-cut while being very confusing. We often picture it as a place filled with nothing but fire and the souls of the damned, so we don’t know what to do when we talk about where people went before they could enter Heaven. When it comes to Christ, many people wonder whether He had to suffer in Hell thanks to some confusing wording in the Apostle’s Creed:
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to hell. The third day he rose again from the dead.
To be clear, Christ didn’t suffer in Hell for sin. Things like the Apostle’s Creed are wise and attempt to be biblical, but they are still written by men.
To understand the true nature of Hell and the afterlife, we must understand life after death through the worldview of the Old Testament. When these people thought about what comes next, they would talk about Sheol, which is simply “the grave.” It’s a place where all souls would go after death as they awaited judgment. So in a broad sense, both the righteous and unrighteous would go to the same place.
However, one of Christ’s parables sheds light on what Sheol looks like. In it, we have a rich man who goes to Hades (or Hell) and experiences constant torment, and the righteous Lazarus who is taken by angels to be at Abraham’s side.
What is noteworthy is that the rich man can see and speak to Lazarus, meaning that they are in close proximity to one another. The Old Testament saints died and went to the same place as the wicked, but didn’t suffer because they were in a place that is unofficially called “Abraham’s side” (meaning close proximity to Abraham). Based on this information, here’s a simple idea of how this place is built:
Abraham’s Side wasn’t a permanent dwelling. As we also know from Revelation 20:13, Hell isn’t a permanent dwelling either. Although the saints’ section of Sheol is empty (as we’ll soon discuss), Hell will be emptied when its residents are resurrected, and both will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.
Why bring all that up? Because it’s important to know where Christ went when He died, but also why. Sheol is nothing more than a waiting room. Everyone before Christ went there as they waited for what had been promised all the way back in Genesis 3.
They were waiting for a Savior. He would restore their fellowship with God, cleanse them of sin, and allow them to spend eternity with their husband. Christ didn’t go to Hell as we think of it, but to Abraham and the waiting saints of the Old Testament.
As further confirmation of this, consider Christ’s words to the thief on the cross:
And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43)
The thief went to the same place as the other saints who were waiting for the day of Christ’s resurrection. He would be in the presence of God (the definition of “Paradise”), meaning that wherever the thief went in the afterlife, Christ would also be there. But the thief, like everyone else who died in faith, wouldn’t be there much longer.
(Note: People will refer to Hell as either the waiting room in Sheol, or as the Lake of Fire which is the final judgment. This is often due to a mix of our preferred Bible translations and our Christian traditions. When I refer to Hell, I speak of it as the current location of the unrighteous, while the Lake of Fire is a separate thing that Hell and the unrighteous will be thrown into.)
Christ’s time in the grave
We’ve established the relationship of Israel and the Father, where they and Christ went at death, and why. So what happened while Christ was actually there?
Prepare for wild speculation!
Maybe it’s not that wild. However, this question is where it’s hard to find a consensus. Tradition says one thing, some scholars say something else. But the reality is that we just don’t know without making some assumptions. So I’ll present the two most likely scenarios.
Scenario #1 – The victory lap
This theory combines some of the more supernatural elements of the Old and New Testaments. It is far beyond the scope of this article to fully dig into this, so I’ll just focus on the more relevant parts.
First, we must assume that the events of Genesis 6 involve spiritual beings (often assumed to be angels) impregnating human women and creating spirit-human hybrids. God destroys the world because of this specific wickedness and the evil of mankind in general:
Now it came about, when mankind began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with man forever, because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of mankind, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. So the Lord was sorry that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe out mankind whom I have created from the face of the land; mankind, and animals as well, and crawling things, and the birds of the sky. For I am sorry that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:1-7)
We can argue all day about the “sons of God” and “Nephilim” based on this little bit of text. However, a piece of writing outside the Bible adds clarity to what this means and what Christ did in the grave. This is called “1 Enoch,” which was written a few centuries before Christ.
I want to be very clear that this book isn’t inspired by God, and it may be complete nonsense. However, if it simply reflects Jewish belief that was passed down over the centuries, then it could serve as a man-made document that fills in some gaps.
In the events before the text below, we see God giving commands to various spiritual beings, telling them to bring judgment on the various things happening at the time of Genesis 6. Then we see Michael given a command regarding the Watchers, or angels who committed these horrible deeds with women:
And the Lord said unto Michael: ‘Go, bind Semjâzâ and his associates who have united themselves with women so as to have defiled themselves with them in all their uncleanness. And when their sons have slain one another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of their judgement and of their consummation, till the judgement that is for ever and ever is consummated. In those days they shall be led off to the abyss of fire: and to the torment and the prison in which they shall be confined for ever. And whosoever shall be condemned and destroyed will from thenceforth be bound together with them to the end of all generations. And destroy all the spirits of the reprobate and the children of the Watchers, because they have wronged mankind. Destroy all wrong from the face of the earth and let every evil work come to an end (1 Enoch 10:11b-16a, Charles translation)
If that’s confusing to read, let me sum it up:
- God tells Michael to lock up the rebellious “Watchers” who made babies with humans
- They will stay locked up below the Earth until judgment
- The judgment involves them being put into an “abyss of fire” for an eternal torment
- The unrighteous will join these Watchers in their imprisonment and punishment
This may be what Peter had in mind when he described something else Christ did in the grave:
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. (1 Peter 3:18-20)
Here, Peter says that Christ’s spirit went and proclaimed something to spirits in prison. By referencing 1 Enoch, it seems that at some point during His death, Christ spoke to these Watchers who had been chained in Hell.
What did Christ proclaim to them? It wasn’t the gospel, because Christ’s sacrifice as a human only pays the debt for humans. Again, 1 Enoch may fill in the gaps.
Chapters 12 and 13 deal with an exchange between Enoch (who had been taken to Heaven earlier in Genesis) and the imprisoned Watchers. God sends Enoch to these Watchers to tell them about their crimes and the penalty for them. The Watchers can’t communicate with Heaven, so they convince Enoch to write out a petition and ask God for forgiveness. Enoch then falls asleep and dreams of a voice from Heaven telling Enoch to go reprimand the Watchers. It ends with this:
And when I awaked, I came unto them, and they were all sitting gathered together, weeping in ‘Abelsjâîl, which is between Lebanon and Sênêsêr, with their faces covered. And I recounted before them all the visions which I had seen in sleep, and I began to speak the words of righteousness, and to reprimand the heavenly Watchers. (1 Enoch 13:9-10, Charles translation)
This may give us insight into what Christ did in the grave. Not only did He visit the Old Testament saints, but He also went and proclaimed judgment, chastisement, and perhaps His victory to these Watchers, just as Enoch had before. These Watchers tried to undermine God, doing what they wanted instead of obeying. Christ came to update them with how things were going in the world since the Flood – not only were these spirits still not getting out, but God’s perfect plan was realized as the Son of God took the wrath that belonged to God’s people, both those at Abraham’s side and all who would call on the name of Christ for salvation.
Using 1 Enoch to explain this probably makes people uncomfortable. But the reality is that it’s very difficult to argue for the supernatural Genesis 6 understanding without it. And by using it, even though it’s not without error, we can put together some pieces that may not otherwise make sense.
Scenario #2 – The joyful arrival
Another, far simpler, scenario for Christ’s time in Sheol is that He went there and met with people who’d waited centuries for the Messiah to come. Imagine how many questions you’d have, how much praise you’d want to sing, and everything you’d want to do if you saw God’s promise being fully fulfilled. A few days wouldn’t be nearly enough time for even a single person to say everything they wanted, let alone all of them.
How does 1 Peter 3:18-20 fit into this? It doesn’t. When Peter’s talking about Christ’s spirit proclaiming, he means that Christ was there “in spirit” when Noah and his family proclaimed God’s truth to people. Peter is simply saying that the wicked have been imprisoned so far back that even those wicked people from Noah’s day are still in Hell. The context surrounding this may even support this, since it starts by talking about righteousness vs. evildoing and concludes by discussing baptism and salvation.
Whichever you pick…
Ultimately, we have to make a lot of assumptions to even try to guess what Christ specifically did or said while in the grave. The reason for this is that Christ going to the grave is what matters within the biblical narrative of creation-fall-redemption-restoration. His death, burial, and resurrection are the high point of the entire story. The Bible sometimes leaves out things we’d love to know simply because it’s not meant to record all of history, but to show God redeeming His people throughout history.
We know that Christ went to the grave but didn’t suffer in Hell. We know He was there with Abraham and every other righteous person who had died. Beyond that, we don’t know how those moments passed.
And while the story of Christ’s time in the grave ends there, understanding God’s bride and the purpose of Sheol helps us understand what happened in the moments following our Savior’s resurrection.
The saints go marching
And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. Also the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many. (Matthew 27:51-53)
Zombies? In the Bible? No, just a fulfillment of prophecy and a taste of what’s to come.
We know that Christ visited the Old Testament saints who were, in a way, stuck in a waiting room. However, through His resurrection, He finished His work of redemption and enabled the saints to be with the Father. He set them free, as Paul describes in Ephesians:
Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive the captives, and He gave gifts to people.” (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? (Ephesians 4:8-9)
Christ emptied Sheol of all the saints and led them to their true destination in the presence of the Father. Based on Matthew we see that at least some were given new bodies. But the saints getting new bodies and going to Heaven wasn’t just a random event. This rather odd moment was promised to Israel centuries ago:
Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am going to open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. (Ezekiel 37:12)
God promised He would resurrect Israel, His bride, and allow them to walk in Israel again. If this is linked, we see more clearly how this promise was tied into the finished work of the Messiah. Their journey was finished, and God’s promise to them was fulfilled. Although we still wait for our glorified bodies and an eternity with our bridegroom, Israel’s time of waiting is done.
Of course, it’s worth noting that even this explanation leaves many questions. It’s unlikely that all saints were resurrected since it says “many of the bodies.” Were these true Old Testament saints, or just those who had died after believing Christ before His resurrection? How long were they alive? Did people freak out? As with Christ’s time in the grave, God only reveals what He desires to reveal, even though we’d love to get answers to these questions!
Clarifying one confusing question
Some may read the full events of Matthew 27 and wonder why the dead seem to be raised immediately, yet Christ stays in the grave for three days. Colossians 1:18, calling Christ the “firstborn from the dead,” also seems to contradict this event. This deserves its own article, but I will briefly clarify this confusion.
Matthew 27:51-54 provides a snapshot of what happens over the course of three days. We know this because the following verse of Matthew 27:55 (the women watching Christ die) makes absolutely no sense if everything happens in the order we read it. Instead, verses 51-54 show the curtain being torn right away, then explain that this is related to the earthquake and resurrection on Sunday. Understanding that the dead weren’t resurrected without Christ also makes Colossians 1:18 less confusing.
Final thoughts
We are told much more about what’s happening around Christ’s time in the grave than what actually happened during it. Perhaps it’s disappointing that the best we can say is “He spent time with the saints. He may also have talked to some rebellious spiritual beings.”
However, understanding where Christ spent this time does more than just satisfy our curiosity. It actually shows us the working of God throughout biblical history, and we can rejoice in seeing Him fulfill His promise to Israel to send a Messiah. We get better clarity about the afterlife, as well as why the church and Israel must be separate entities belonging to different persons of the Trinity.
This is the best answer we’re likely to get about those mysterious three days. However, what we do know still gives us an awe of our God who has always been working toward His perfect plan of bringing redemption through Jesus Christ.
[Edit: My original version of this article used “Abraham’s Side” and “Paradise” synonymously. This is a common idea, but I’m not convinced it’s accurate. Based on the word’s use in 2 Corinthians 12:3 and Revelation 2:7, the biblical concept of Paradise is the dwelling place of God. Christ’s words to the thief on the cross weren’t that he’d be in a location named Paradise, but that he would be in the presence of God – not yet Heaven, but with Jesus Christ as He dwelt in Sheol. Until I do more diligent study and become convinced otherwise, the article will remain edited to omit inconsistent mentions of Paradise as a fixed location.]
