Did Christ go to hell? When?

(This post was partly prompted by this other one.)  Ephesians 4:7-10 says:

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says:

“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.”

(Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

I don’t understand that parenthetical…  Surely one can go up (to Heaven) without first going down?

If Jesus did go to hell, when did He do it?  On the cross or in the tomb?  And how do you know?

Note:  I know of a PDF which supposedly addresses this, but it was scanned with the text going bottom-to-top.  I’ll update this post regarding my quest to rotate it.

One Response to “Did Christ go to hell? When?”

  1. What does it mean to be damned? « No, It’s Not 42. Says:

    [...] rest of the source paragraph addresses an issue which confuses me, but I’ve addressed that elsewhere.  I think the definition used here can be expressed as follows:  Damnation is the dealing of [...]

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