Messiah's Descent to Sheol

1 Peter 3:19-20 speaks of Sheol as the "place of imprisoned spirits." 

Alice C. Linsley

Heavenly recognition for the Horite Hebrew was never an individual prospect. Heavenly recognition came to the people through the righteousness of their ruler-priest. Horite Hebrew rulers took this seriously, some more than others. The best were heavenly minded and the worst were so earthy minded that they shed much blood enlarging their territories.

They took great care in the burial of their dead and never practiced cremation, as in the religions that seek to escape material existence (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism). Their greatest fear was the "second death" (Rev. 21:8) which occurs when the unity of body and spirit are not restored in the resurrection. They believed that the dead person continues as a shadow beyond death in Sheut (šwt), meaning shadow. The Hebrew word Sheol is derived from the ancient Egyptian word Sheut.

On Holy Saturday Jesus descended to Sheol to announce his victory over death. A Horite song found at the royal complex at Ugarit speaks of the descent of Horus, the son of God, to the place of the dead "to announce good tidings."

Among Abraham's ancestors the resurrection of the ruler meant the salvation of the people. He was expected to lead them from life to the greater immortal life that is beyond death. The people were believed to follow their risen ruler from this world to the next. Their immortality depended on the bodily resurrection of their priest-king.

Great care was taken in the burial of these ruler-priests. The prayers that were offered at the tombs are evidence that they hoped for resurrection. These prayers were written on the walls of the tombs and have been collected into volumes that can be studied today. The volumes include The Pyramid Texts (2400 BC), The Coffin Texts (2100 BC), and the Book of the Dead (1500 BC). 

In these volumes there is a great deal of descent-ascent language. Utterance 214 of the Pyramid texts bids the deceased king to "ascend to the place where your father is." Utterance 214 also mentions the "Imperishable Stars" that raise the king aloft. The Imperishable Stars are connected to ascent to heaven. The third day resurrection of the son of God is expressed in the Pyramid Texts: "Oh Horus, this hour of the morning, of this third day is come, when thou surely passeth on to heaven, together with the stars, the Imperishable Stars" (Utterance 667).

The descent-ascent language is similar to what is expressed in Ephesians 4:8-10. 

This is why it is written: 

“When he ascended on high,
he took many captives
and gave gifts to his people.”

(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the depths of the earth? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)

This reflects a layered cosmos with the firmament of heaven above as the place of God. The Apostle Paul speaks of being taken to the "third heaven" in 2 Corinthians 12. In Second Enoch, chapter 8, the third heaven is described as the heaven "whereon the Lord rests, when he goes up into paradise." Utterance 44 of the Pyramid Texts says, "Re (Father God) in the sky is gracious to you."

Generally, the cosmos is perceived as 3-tiered: the realm above (heaven), the plane of earth's surface (between the eastern and western horizons), and the "deep" under the earth, sometimes called "the pit" (Ezekiel 26:20). The dead are buried in the earth. They literally repose under the earth (Phil 2:9-10) until the general resurrection. They await deliverance from Sheol, the place of shadows.

Paul speaks of the ascent-descent in Romans 10:6-8.

‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

Paul poses this rhetorical question to show that only God can fill all things in heaven and in earth and below the earth. "He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things." (Ephesians 4:10)

Though much prayer was offered, and many rituals of purification were completed, none of the ruler-priests of the ancient world rose from the dead. Therefore, none had the power to deliver captives from the grave and to lead them to the throne of heaven (Psalm 68:18; Psalm 7:7; Ephesians 4:8). 

On Holy Saturday, Jesus Messiah delivered good news to the spirits in Sheol. He showed them that death has been defeated and that their hope of resurrection is not in vain. He had shown this to the living before his crucifixion when he raised Lazarus from the grave. Jesus explained, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.” (John 11:11)

The Horite Hebrew believed that heavenly recognition of a people depended on the righteousness of their ruler-priest. The ruler-priest was regarded as the mediator between God Father and the people. If God turned His face away from the ruler, the people suffered. If the ruler found favor with God, the people experienced abundance and peace.

The ruler-priest was expected to intercede for his people before God in life and in death. Were the ruler-priest to rise from the grave he could lead his people beyond the grave to immortality (eternal life). The ruler's burial was attended by prayers, sacrifices, and a grand procession to the royal tomb.

The New Testament speaks about Jesus as the ruler-priest. He is the firstborn from the grave and by his resurrection he delivers to the Father a "peculiar people." He leads us in the ascent to the Father where we receive heavenly recognition because we belong to Him. Jesus said, "I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world." (John 6:51)

Indeed, God the Father has put everything under the feet of the Son, Jesus Messiah, who fills all things everywhere with himself." (Ephesians 1:23)

Messiah's descent to Sheol was to deliver that message to those who repose in the bosom of Abraham, the father of our faith. For we who believe "are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all." (Romans 4:16)

Related reading: The Substance of Abraham's Faith; Sheol and the Second Death; The Bosom of Abraham; Cosmologies of the Ancient Near East

Comparing Cosmologies to Trace Origins

Hypostyle Hall of the main temple of Karnak aligned to the Milky Way

Alice C. Linsley


Using the kinship data presented in the king lists of Genesis 4, 5, 10, 11, 25 and 36, the pattern of intermarriage among Abraham's ruler-priest ancestors has been identified. (See The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of Abraham's People.)

The early Hebrew rulers had two wives who lived in separate settlements on a north-south axis. Abraham's half-sister wife Sarah resided in Hebron and Abraham's cousin wife lived to the south in Beersheba. This relates to the cosmology of the Horite and Sethite Hebrew who perceived of the Sun as the emblem of the High God. He rides the sun as his celestial boat or chariot, making his daily circuit from east to west. From the perspective of the person on earth, high noon marked the sacred center of the High God's journey. It is the time of no shadows to which James refers: "Every good and perfect gift descends from above, from The Father of lights with whom there is no change nor a shadow of variation." (James1:17)

Cosmology is the study of the origin and structure of the universe, its parts, elements, and laws. Among biblical populations, the arrangement of a home, a village, and a royal complex expressed the community's cosmological understanding. For example, the place of priority was at the sacred center. In the home, this was the hearth. In the palace, this was where the ruler was seated on his throne. In the temple, this was the inner sanctum. Temples were built with east-facing entrances because the Sun was the symbol of the Rising God whose light filled the temple each morning.The pillars of the temples were perceived to connect Heaven and Earth. The temporal sacred center was high noon.The spatial sacred center was the mountain top.

Comparing cosmologies can help to clarify the worldviews of the biblical populations, and can serve as a way to trace points of origin. This also relates to the celestial totems claimed by various Hebrew clans.

Related reading: Hebrew Rulers With Two Wives; Cosmologies of the Ancient Near East; The Wives' Settlements Marked the Territory's Borders

Christ as Alpha and Omega

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." Revelation 1:8

"He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life." Rev. 21:6

"And behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." Rev. 22:12

The alpha and the omega, the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet, do not correspond to the Phoenician exactly and do not resemble Egyptian hieroglyphics. However, the alpha and the omega are used to describe Jesus Christ because the Apostles recognized in Him the fulfillment of an ancient conception that is traced back to Egypt through the Canannite Phoenician language, from which Hebrew emerged.  The prophet Isaiah tells us that Hebrew is a “language of Canaan” (Isaiah 19:18), which has been confirmed the study of ancient inscriptions.


The Greeks recognized that hieroglyphs were symbolic and depicted the esoteric theology of the ancient Egyptian priests. In fact, the word hiero is derived from the word hiereus, meaning priest. The priests were wise in astronomy, geometry, animal behavior, medicine and metaphysics. That Helioplois was a center of astronomical knowledge is reflected in the high priest's title, “Chief of Observers” or “Greatest of Seers."

When Herodotus visited the priests at Heliopolis (449-440 B.C.) he praised them for their wisdom. When Strabo visited in 25 B.C., he wrote "At Heliopolis we saw large buildings in which the priests lived. For it was said that anciently this was the principal residence of the priests, who studied philosophy and astronomy." This suggests that the esoteric knowledge of the ancient Heliopolitan priests was by Herodotus' time lost or obscured by the prevalent Hellenistic worldview.

Plotinus, a 4th-century A.D. Egyptian-born philosopher, interpreted hieroglyphic writing from the viewpoint of his priestly training under Ammonius Saccas, a priest of Heliopolis.[1] It is not clear how well Ammonius understood the meaning of the hieroglyphic writings, but his association with Heliopolis and his name, which means Teacher, suggest that he was recognized as a learned man.

Heliopolis is the Greek name for the ancient Nile shrine which was dedicated to Horus. The Egyptian name was lunu, which means "place of pillars" because the temples were constructed with many wooden pillars. Arabs call the place Ain Shams, which means "the well of the Sun." The well was the Nile and when the Sun rested over the waters at noon, it was midway between the mountains on the east of the Nile and the mountains on the west.

According to Egyptologist Maspero, King Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, investigated the earlier sources of the Pyramid Texts. Maspero notes that “the likeness between what was copied in the various Pyramid Texts suggests that some of their information were directly derived from old written sources." Those sources are represented by the pictographs found at Hierakonpolis (Nekhen).

There is evidence that Horus was regarded as the beginning (alpha) and the end (omega). The beginning and the end of each day was symbolized by a double lion (Aker). In the New Kingdom, the lion was sometimes pictured as a falcon and called Hor-em-akhet ("Horus in the Horizon") because Horus' emblem is the Sun. At the earlier Horus shrine in Hierakonpolis Horus was also known as "Nekheny", meaning falcon.

Hor-em-akhet (Horus) was represented as a child, a falcon, or as the leonine sphinx. The great east-facing Sphinx of Giza was viewed as "Horus in the Horizon" and it lay between the twin peaks of the giant akhet (horizon/mountain) formed by the pyramid of Khufu and the horizon/mountain of the pyramid of Khafre). In the relief scene carved on the "Sphinx Stele" at Giza, Tuthmosis IV is shown making offerings to twin sphinxes which represent the aspects of Horus in the Horizons. Horus' name appears above the animals' heads. These sphinxes are placed back to back with the winged sun disk above and between them, depicting Horus at the sacred center.Horus who is the beginning (east) and the end (west) is also present at the center (the eternal).

The Jews who affirmed Jesus as the Son of God thought in the language and symbols of the Phoenician Canannites. John McClintock observes, "The Hebrews adopted Phoenician as their own language, or, in otherwords, that which is called [ancient] Hebrew language was in fact "the language of Canaan." It is not merely poetic but literal and in the philological truth. One of the proofs for this is taken from the Bible itself: Isaiah 19:18 says "In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD Almighty. One of them will be called the City of Destruction -- City of the Sun (that is, Heliopolis). --John McClintock, Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature