New Testament Notes

Christ’s Descent into Hell or Descent into Limbo

        The legend can be found in the Apocryphal text, the Gospel of Nicodemus. After his Resurrection, Jesus descended into Hell and led the just, the patriarchs, the prophets of the Old Testament and Adam and Eve, into the light. Later a clarity was introduced that all of them were not in Hell, but in the bordering region, Limbo (from the Latin word limbus, a hem); it was taught that because they lived and died before the Christ's self-sacrifice for peoples redemption, they were put in the lower place until such time when Jesus could liberate them.
       The story was later retold in the Golden Legend.
See: Agnolo Bronzino. Christ in Limbo.
Duccio di Buoninsegna. Maestà: Christ in Limbo.
Fra Angelico. Christ in Limbo.
 

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