In the Apostles’ Creed we pray: “He descended into hell.” That reflects the belief that Jesus saving death and resurrection effects everyone, even those who had been dead long before the Pascal events. An ancient legend is that Jesus encountered the progenitor of humanity, Adam, when he “descended into hell.” Below find an ancient Greek sermon describing the scene:
He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”
