Interesting
thoughts from Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology (Volume III) on the
Limbus Patrum, from some study I was doing on the subject recently. He
tries hard to distance himself from it. But the things which he does
allow for were surprising to me:
"The dead in the Old Testament
are always spoken of as going to their fathers, as descending into
'Sheol,' i.e., into the invisible state, which
the Greeks called Hades. Sheol is represeated as the general receptacle
or abode of departed spirits, who were there in a state of
consciousness; some in a state of misery, others in a state of
happiness. In all these points the pagan idea of Hades corresponds to
the Scriptural idea of Sheol. All souls went into Hades, some dwelling
in Tartarus, others in Elysium. That the Hebrews regarded the souls of
the dead as retaining their consciousness and activity is obvious from
the practice of necromancy, and is confirmed by the fact of the
appearance of Samuel to Saul, as recorded in 1 Samuel xxviii. The
representation given in Isaiah xiv. of the descent of the King of
Babylon, when all the dead rose to meet and to reproach him, takes for
granted and authenticates the popular belief in the continued conscious
existence of departed spirits." (pg. 717)
"Men may doubt and
differ as to what Christ did during the three days of his sojourn in the
invisible world. They may differ as to who the spirits in prison were
to whom he preached, or, rather, made proclamation (ἐκήρυξεν); whether
they were the antediluvians; or, the souls of the people of God detained
in Sheol; or, the mass of the dead of all antecedent generations and of
all nations, which is the favorite hypothesis of modern interpreters.
They may differ also as to what the proclamation was which Christ made
to those imprisoned spirits; whether it was the gospel; or his own
triumph; or deliverance from Sheol; or the coming judgment. However
these subordinate questions may be decided, all that remains certain is
that Christ, after his death upon the cross, entered the invisible
world, and there, in some way, made proclamation of what He had done on
earth. All this is very far from teaching the doctrine of a 'Limbus
Patrum,' as taught by the Jews, the Fathers, or the Romanists." (pg.
737)
