HistoricalChristian.Faith

Cyril of Alexandria on the Intermediate State

Dates: c. 444 · Wikipedia
Summary: Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, in his Commentary on Luke treats Christ's harrowing of Hades as one of the works that prove him to be God: by his death and resurrection Christ "abolished death … and spoiled hell, and overthrew the tyranny of the enemy … and opened the gates above to the dwellers upon earth." The descent that despoils Hades is rehearsed as settled gospel, not argued as a novelty.

Claims & evidence

Christ "spoiled hell" and "opened the gates above to the dwellers upon earth"

For that He utterly abolished death, and effaced destruction, and spoiled hell, and overthrew the tyranny of the enemy, and took away the sin of the world, and opened the gates above to the dwellers upon earth, and united earth to heaven: these things proved Him to be, as I said, in truth God.

— Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Sermon 49 (on Luke 9:18–22, Peter's confession and the first passion-prediction), historicalchristian.faith. Commenting on why Christ charged the disciples to keep silence about his messiahship until after the resurrection, Cyril lists the works "yet unfulfilled" that would "prove Him to be … in truth God": the cross, the death in the flesh, and the resurrection — and within that the despoiling of Hades. "Spoiled hell" (Greek Hades) and "opened the gates above to the dwellers upon earth" set the descent into the realm of the dead alongside the reopening of heaven to humanity.

Notes

• Cyril is not here mapping the compartments of Hades or the soul's interim condition; the descent appears as a compact item in a list of Christ's saving, divinity-proving acts. The witness shows the harrowing rehearsed as an assumed article of the gospel in the great Alexandrian exegete of the fifth century, contemporary with Leo the Great in the West.
• The pairing — "spoiled hell" below, "opened the gates above" — is the same descent-and-ascent structure stated by Melito ("trampled Hades under foot … carried off man to the heights of heaven") and Eusebius ("descended alone, but rose with many"). For the wider adjudication of whether the descended Christ freed the OT righteous and "led captivity captive," see the descent to the dead argument page.