Did Jesus Really Go to Hell?
Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman
Chris Huntley
4.8 • 745 Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2024
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If Jesus was dead for three days -- where did he go? The standard view for almost all of Christian history was that he went to the realm of the dead to save the lost souls who died before his crucifixion made salvation possible. But did he save only a few or ... everyone?
In this episode, Bart and Megan dive into the ancient doctrine called the "Harrowing of Hell," which is still believed by millions today. But what are we to make of idea that Jesus' salvation was universal? Literally everyone gets saved?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to misquoting Jesus. One of the most appealing concepts in Christianity is the escape of eternal damnation through the power of Jesus Christ. But who gets saved and what roles individuals play in their own salvation is something that has been the subject of discussion, debate, and controversy. Today, we're going to be talking about one of the earliest controversies |
| 0:22.2 | and asking why, if Jesus died for our sins and conquered hell, Christian theology continues to |
| 0:28.6 | preach hellfire and damnation. Stay tuned for all of that and so much more. |
| 0:36.4 | Welcome to misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman. |
| 0:39.6 | The only show, where a six-time New York Times bestselling author and world-renowned Bible scholar, |
| 0:45.7 | uncovers the many fascinating, little-known facts about the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the rise of Christianity. |
| 0:53.1 | I'm your host, Megan Lewis. Let's begin. |
| 0:57.6 | Early Christian texts describe the horrors of hell and Christ's dissent and subsequent |
| 1:02.3 | liberation of the damned. Why then is hell still an ever-present threat for many Christians? |
| 1:08.3 | And how does that reflect upon the power of Jesus? If Jesus is all powerful and vanquished hell, then why are sinners still threatened with torment? We'll be getting to that in a couple of minutes, but before we do, Bart, good morning. How are you today? Good morning, yeah. Okay, the cheery topic for us. It's something I've been writing about lately, and so I'm glad to be dealing with this. How are you doing? Good, good. A little bit of a whirlwind, but very good, |
| 1:31.4 | thank you. Normally, Megan, we start with you asking me some kind of question, and we were |
| 1:35.9 | chatting ahead of the episode just now, and I realized, I want to ask you a question. You're telling |
| 1:41.8 | me, you run this enterprise, Digital Homorabi, with your husband, Josh Bowen, |
| 1:46.9 | and you told me that he started teaching Hebrew to people as part of Digital Hamarabi |
| 1:53.1 | and that you all are starting to have other courses that people can take of ancient languages. |
| 1:58.5 | I'm amazed. |
| 1:59.3 | Tell me about this. |
| 2:00.8 | Well, it started because I have taught a few |
| 2:03.5 | courses for community college out in Washington State, Acadian language and Sumerian language, |
| 2:08.6 | which have been very well-received. People seem to enjoy them. And we semi-regularly have had |
| 2:14.8 | people asking, how can I take classes with you guys? Do you teach |
| 2:19.2 | Hebrew or anything else? Do you know where I can take, like, Hittite language classes? And it |
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