The Harrowing of Hell (Latin Descensus Christi ad Inferos "the descent of Christ into hell") is the Old English and Middle English term for the triumphant descent of Christ into hell (or Hades) between the time of his Crucifixion and his Resurrection when he brought salvation to all of the just—but not the damned—who had died since the beginning of the world.[1] After His death, the soul of Jesus, still united to the divinity, descended into the realm of the dead, which the Apostles' Creed calls "hell" in the old English usage. It is more technically called Sheol in referring to the realm of the dead. It does not mean at all the hell of the damned.[2]

This nearly-extinct term in Christian theology is referenced in the Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed (Quicumque vult) which state that Jesus Christ "descended into Hell". However, there are no explicit New Testament references to Christ having descended to the underworld. Its absence in Scripture has given rise to controversy and differing interpretations. It is unclear how it became part of the Apostles' Creed.[3]

According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, the story first appears in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, also known as the Acts of Pilate, written by a Roman praetorian named Ananias in probably 425 AD. The descent into hell had been related in the Old English poems connected with the name of Caedmon and Cynewulf. It is subsequently repeated in Aelfric's homilies c. 1000 AD—which is the first known inclusion of the world "harrowing". Middle English dramatic literature contains the fullest and most dramatic development of the subject.[1]

As an image in Christian art, the harrowing is also known as the Anastasis (a Greek word for "resurrection"), considered a creation of Byzantine culture and first appearing in the West in the early 8th century.[4] [link to en.wikipedia.org]