79. During the death of Jesus Christ where was his spirit the three days his body lay in the tomb?

There is little in the Scriptures to throw light on the question "Where was the spirit of Jesus during the three days his body lay in the tomb?"

Among the early writers, and by many of later days, the subject has been discussed. The Apostles' Creed says: "He descended into hades" (the place of departed spirits).

Some theologians, Dean Alford among them, in discussing the passage in I Pet. 3:19,20, contended that Christ, in the interval between his death and resurrection, preached or an­nounced his finished work to the spirits "in prison"; but the passage is mysterious and has always puzzled Bible students.

In the early days of the Christian Church, there were several writings on the subject profess­ing to describe the exultation of the saints and the pre-Christian fathers whom he delivered from hades and brought into paradise; but these writings have long ago been stamped as uncanonical and apocryphal.