Thursday, December 27, 2012

The Harrowing of Hell

The Old Scofield Bible has it--Jesus descending into hell, after his crucifiction and preaching to the souls there. As I remember--and I'm no expert on this doctrine--some of the souls stayed behind while he led the other souls to heaven.

The new Scofield Bible, which I love, says this is not true. As I grew older, I thought of where the harrowing idea probably came from. It was nothing less than the long-lasting legend of Orpheus, applied to Jesus! Orpheus descended into hell to rescue his beloved. I remembered seeing the movie, "Black Orpheus," a beautifully done modern form of the legend.

But can't we keep our legends out of the Bible? In the movie, Orpheus played his music to cause the sun to rise. In the Bible, Jesus made the sun.

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