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While this vast multitude waited and conversed, rejoicing in the hour of their deliverance from the chains of death, the Son of God appeared, declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful; and there he preached unto them the everlasting gospel, the doctrine of the resurrection and the redemption of mankind from the fall, and from individual sins on the conditions of repentance. (Doctrine and Covenants 138:18–19)

Fra Angelico, Christ in Limbo. Alamy Stock Photo.

As Jesus was buried, Luke’s account notes that “the Sabbath drew on,” leading the women who had observed Jesus’s burial to rest through the course of the next day (Luke 23:54‒56). The only event recorded in the other Gospels for the Sabbath itself comes from Matthew, who describes how the Jewish leaders convinced Pilate to set a guard over the tomb where Jesus’s body lay. In the New World, the Book of Mormon records how darkness covered the face of the earth, graphically illustrating how the Light of the World had been extinguished (see 3 Nephi 9‒10). A later New Testament text mentions that Jesus’s spirit preached to “the spirits in prison” after his body had been put to death in the flesh (see 1 Pet 3:19; 4:6). Similarly, Ephesians 4:9 describes how Christ, before he ascended on high, “descended first into the lower parts of the earth” (see also Rom 10:7).

Reflection on these passages, perhaps together with unwritten traditions about the activities of Jesus’s spirit between his death and resurrection, led to the later Christian tradition of “the Harrowing of Hell,” in which Jesus descended into the underworld, defeating the powers of Satan and bringing forth the spirits of all the righteous, beginning with Adam and Eve.[1] The earliest narratives describing this descent appear in apocryphal works, such as the so-called Gospel of Nicodemus and the Acts of Peter and Paul, which date to the fourth century.[2] From such discussions comes a line in the late fourth-century Apostolic Creed, which declares that Christ “descended into hell” or “to the dead” (Latin, descendit ad inferos), although this creed does not clearly describe the purpose or result of the journey.[3] Although revelations of Joseph Smith had used somewhat similar language when they taught that Jesus “descended below all things” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:6; 122:8), a clearer understanding of the details of this ministry to the dead, particularly for its implications for those after Christ’s death and resurrection, needed to await the inspired vision of President Joseph F. Smith (1838‒1918), the sixth President of the Church. President Smith’s own life and experiences with death uniquely prepared him for this vision, which he received on October 3, 1918, not quite two months before his own death.[4] Presented to the Church in general conference the next day and accepted as a revelation by the First Presidency, the Council of the Twelve, and the Patriarch to the Church on October 31 later that month, this vision was first published in the Pearl of Great Price and later as section 138 of the Doctrine and Covenants.[5]

President Smith’s vision details that while Jesus’s body lay in the tomb, his spirit organized the spirits of the righteous to teach the fullness of the gospel to all the other dead, thus preparing them to receive vicarious ordinances if they would receive Christ as their Savior, repent, and accept the work done for them in Latter-day Saint temples. Elder Spencer J. Condie, an emeritus Seventy, describes it this way: “The facts of Jesus’ death and Resurrection are hailed by those of Christian denominations as fundamental tenets. However, [exactly] what Jesus’ immortal spirit did after His death and before His Resurrection is a mystery to all but the Latter-day Saints. And the significance of what He did during those hours provides the doctrinal foundation for building temples across the earth.”[6] Given the traditional commemoration of the harrowing of hell, Jesus’s activities are not, perhaps, a complete mystery to some outside the Church. Nevertheless, modern revelation gives us vital additional insights, making the Saturday of Holy Week a particularly appropriate time for Latter-day Saints to reflect upon the great saving work for the dead that we perform in our temples.

Texts: Matthew 27:62–66; 1 Peter 3:18–19, 4:6; Doctrine and Covenants 138:11–23, 30–39

Matthew’s short treatment of the guard and seal placed upon the tomb is unique in the Gospel narratives. Although it is sometimes seen in the polemical context of the Matthean community’s struggle with emerging Rabbinic Judaism in the period immediately after the destruction of the temple in AD 70, there is no need to doubt its basic historicity.[7] The letter of 1 Peter deals largely with the alienation and growing persecution that early Christians felt in the face of broader pagan society; the two short excerpts presented here are part of a larger discussion on how Christians should respond in the face of such hostility (3:13‒4:19). As noted above, Doctrine and Covenants 138 is a Latter-day vision on October 1918 to Joseph F. Smith, which was placed at the end of the Doctrine and Covenants in 1978.

Matthew

⁶²Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, ⁶³Saying, “Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. ⁶⁴Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, ‘He is risen from the dead:’ so the last error shall be worse than the first.” ⁶⁵Pilate said unto them, “Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.” ⁶⁶So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

1 Peter

¹⁸For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: ¹⁹By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;

⁶For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

Doctrine and Covenants

¹¹As I pondered over these things which are written, the eyes of my understanding were opened, and the Spirit of the Lord rested upon me, and I saw the hosts of the dead, both small and great. ¹²And there were gathered together in one place an innumerable company of the spirits of the just, who had been faithful in the testimony of Jesus while they lived in mortality; ¹³And who had offered sacrifice in the similitude of the great sacrifice of the Son of God, and had suffered tribulation in their Redeemer’s name. ¹⁴All these had departed the mortal life, firm in the hope of a glorious resurrection, through the grace of God the Father and his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. ¹⁵I beheld that they were filled with joy and gladness, and were rejoicing together because the day of their deliverance was at hand. ¹⁶They were assembled awaiting the advent of the Son of God into the spirit world, to declare their redemption from the bands of death. ¹⁷Their sleeping dust was to be restored unto its perfect frame, bone to his bone, and the sinews and the flesh upon them, the spirit and the body to be united never again to be divided, that they might receive a fulness of joy.

¹⁸While this vast multitude waited and conversed, rejoicing in the hour of their deliverance from the chains of death, the Son of God appeared, declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful; ¹⁹And there he preached to them the everlasting gospel, the doctrine of the resurrection and the redemption of mankind from the fall, and from individual sins on conditions of repentance. ²⁰But unto the wicked he did not go, and among the ungodly and the unrepentant who had defiled themselves while in the flesh, his voice was not raised; ²¹Neither did the rebellious who rejected the testimonies and the warnings of the ancient prophets behold his presence, nor look upon his face. ²²Where these were, darkness reigned, but among the righteous there was peace; ²³And the saints rejoiced in their redemption, and bowed the knee and acknowledged the Son of God as their Redeemer and Deliverer from death and the chains of hell.

³⁰But behold, from among the righteous, he organized his forces and appointed messengers, clothed with power and authority, and commissioned them to go forth and carry the light of the gospel to them that were in darkness, even to all the spirits of men; and thus was the gospel preached to the dead. ³¹And the chosen messengers went forth to declare the acceptable day of the Lord and proclaim liberty to the captives who were bound, even unto all who would repent of their sins and receive the gospel. ³²Thus was the gospel preached to those who had died in their sins, without a knowledge of the truth, or in transgression, having rejected the prophets. ³³These were taught faith in God, repentance from sin, vicarious baptism for the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, ³⁴And all other principles of the gospel that were necessary for them to know in order to qualify themselves that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. ³⁵And so it was made known among the dead, both small and great, the unrighteous as well as the faithful, that redemption had been wrought through the sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross.

³⁶Thus was it made known that our Redeemer spent his time during his sojourn in the world of spirits, instructing and preparing the faithful spirits of the prophets who had testified of him in the flesh; ³⁷That they might carry the message of redemption unto all the dead, unto whom he could not go personally, because of their rebellion and transgression, that they through the ministration of his servants might also hear his words. ³⁸Among the great and mighty ones who were assembled in this vast congregation of the righteous were Father Adam, the Ancient of Days and father of all, ³⁹And our glorious Mother Eve, with many of her faithful daughters who had lived through the ages and worshiped the true and living God.

Where Was Jesus Buried?[8]

Background

Archaeological evidence from the first century gives some idea of what a tomb like Joseph of Arimathea’s would have been like. An extended family with sufficient means typically paid for a rock-cut tomb to serve as a resting place for deceased members. Jewish law required that such tombs be outside of the city, with a relatively simple initial tomb expanded over time as more members died. A typical tomb consisted of a burial chamber, which featured an area in the middle that was deep enough for those burying the dead and subsequent mourners to stand. This was surrounded on one to three sides by low stone benches, where shrouded bodies were laid out for up to a year, after which the bones were gathered and stored in stone chests called ossuaries. As the number of burials increased, horizontal shafts (Hebrew, kōḵîm; Latin, loculi) were excavated into the walls of the main chamber into which bodies could be inserted head first or where ossuaries from previous burials could be stored. In the largest tombs, additional chambers could be added to the first chamber.[9] The use of various forms and compounds of the verb “to roll” (Greek, kyliō; see Mark 15:46; 16:3; Matt 27:60; 28:2; Luke 24:2) when describing the closing and opening of the tomb has led to the usual image of a large round stone used to block its entry. However, only a few very large, expensive tombs seem to have had large round stones. Instead, most known tombs used square or rectangular blocking stones, which were still large and heavy enough that they would need to be tumbled or “rolled” into place. Because the texts specify that Joseph’s tomb was a “new” tomb in which no one had yet been buried, it probably consisted of a single chamber with perhaps a single burial shelf opposite the door, since those who came Sunday morning could see the empty bench from the doorway, upon which one or two angels stood.[10]

Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Chad Emmett, used with permission.

None of the Gospels give any clear idea as to exactly where the tomb was located outside of Jerusalem. As noted in our discussion of Golgotha in the chapter on Good Friday, the sites of both Jesus’s crucifixion and his burial have traditionally been located under the current Church of the Holy Sepulchre. When Constantine had the temple to Venus over the supposed site of Jesus’s crucifixion and burial dismantled, one of the tombs discovered beneath it was identified as the supposed resting place of Jesus. The emperor then had an impressive church complex built on the site that featured a commemorative rotunda called the Anastasis (Greek, “resurrection”) around the tomb and a large basilica called the Martyrion (“witness”) to its east. Between the two lay a courtyard called “The Holy Garden” that recalled the garden mentioned in John 19:41, with the now reexposed rock of Golgotha in its southeast corner. This complex was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt in the following centuries, with the current structure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre dating back to the period of the Crusades.[11] Because of the site’s frequent rebuilding and changed layout, the original basilica and garden area no longer extant in the current church, making it difficult for modern visitors to visualize the scenes portrayed by the Gospels.[12]

Kokim shafts in the Holy Sepulchre. Eric D. Huntsman, used with permission.

Arguments in favor of this traditional site include the fact that at the time of Jesus this area had been outside of the Herodian city walls, and because it was near an important gateway, it would also have been a site where public executions such as that of Jesus might have taken place. All that remains of the supposed tomb of Jesus is the burial shelf, now enclosed in marble within a small shrine called the Edicule under the rotunda. Behind it in the Chapel of Joseph of Arimathea are two kōḵîm, or horizontal shaft graves, typical of first-century tombs, suggesting that this was, in fact, a burial area at the time of Jesus.[13] [1/8 page image: 8.3 Huntsman photo, kokhim shafts in Holy Sepulchre] On the other hand, archaeologists still debate the actual course of the walls at the time of Jesus, with some questioning whether the site of the Holy Sepulchre might actually have been within the walls, disqualifying it as an active burying area since Jewish law did not allow tombs within cities. Further, a few scholars have noted a later Jewish ruling preserved in the Mishnah that forbade burials close to the city on the west, where prevailing winds could carry odors and, more significantly, potential ritual impurities over Jerusalem.[14]

Garden Tomb. Eric D. Huntsman, used with permission.

In addition to these concerns, growing numbers of Protestants who began visiting Jerusalem in the nineteenth century often found themselves disenchanted with the traditional site at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The church was crowded, and the liturgies and artistic expressions of the older Catholic, Orthodox, Armenian, and other Christian communities that controlled it were unfamiliar to them. As a result, many responded positively to a proposal that a rock-cut tomb near the site of Gordon’s Calvary north of Damascus Gate might be the actual site of Jesus’s tomb.[15] In 1894 the Garden Tomb Association of London, initially supported by the Anglican Church, purchased the site and has maintained it since as a beautifully tended devotional site. Archaeologists have demonstrated, however, that the tomb dates to the seventh century before Christ, much too early to have been the “new tomb” described in the Gospels, although it was repurposed and reused in the Byzantine Period before being converted into the storeroom of a stable by the Crusaders.[16] Accepting this evidence, Jeffrey Chadwick, a BYU professor and archaeologist, nonetheless accepts Gordon’s Calvary, the “Skull Hill” next to the Garden Tomb, as the probable site of the crucifixion, suggesting that the actual tomb in which Jesus was laid lies somewhere to its east.[17]

The archaeological improbability of the site led the Church of England to withdraw its official support, and no Protestant church currently endorses it. Nevertheless, the Garden Tomb’s beautiful and peaceful setting continues to provide a conducive place for some evangelicals and many Latter-day Saints to commemorate Jesus’s burial and resurrection. This may help explain why two Latter-day Saint leaders, President Harold B. Lee (1899–1973) in 1972, when he was in the First Presidency, and President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) in 1979, when he was President of the Church, both felt strongly about the location when they visited it.[18] Perhaps a way to reconcile the seeming contradiction of tradition and archaeology on the one hand and sentiment and inspiration on the other is to remember that we commemorate sacred events, not necessarily the places where they took place. The faith of almost two millennia of Christian pilgrims has made the Church of the Holy Sepulchre sacred, regardless of whether it in actuality stands over the sites it claims to enshrine. Likewise, reading scripture, singing hymns, and praying in the reverent setting of the Garden Tomb can evoke the presence of the Spirit in a powerful way.[19] Additionally, as Chadwick observes, “Rather than venerate it as a sacred space, we would do well to employ the Garden Tomb as a visual aid—a pleasant and useful locale that may continue to be used in teaching aspects of the accounts of Jesus’ Crucifixion, burial, and Resurrection. . . . Anyone who visits Golgotha and the Garden Tomb, whether in person or by photograph, continues to have a spiritually enriching and educationally instructive adventure.”[20]

While Jesus’s Body Was in the Tomb

Interpretation and Application

James Tissot, The Watch over the Tomb. Picture Art Collection/Alamy Stock Photo.

Whereas Joseph of Arimathea had taken quick action to lay Jesus’s body to rest before the Sabbath began at sunset on Friday, according to Matthew, the Jewish leadership ironically finds itself compelled to take action on the Sabbath to ask Pilate to secure the tomb. Noting Jesus’s earlier prediction, “After three days, I will be raised,” a delegation of chief priests and leading Pharisees express the concern that Jesus’s followers would steal his body in order to claim that he has been resurrected. While the Sadducean chief priests, who did not believe in the resurrection, had been the primary actors in arranging for the arrest and condemnation of Jesus, Matthew’s account had not specifically mentioned the Pharisees since Jesus’s condemnation of them and the scribal experts of the law earlier in the week (see Matt 23:29). John Nolland, professor of New Testament at Trinity College at the University of Bristol, notes, “There is a nice irony in having the Pharisees, with their strong belief in resurrection, involved in precisely this episode in which only the possibility of a pretense of resurrection is considered.”[21] In addition to posting a guard, they also set a seal on the stone. This would have consisted of wax or clay into which the credentials of the sealing authority would have been pressed; such a seal would be broken if anyone, including the guards themselves, were to remove it. The breaking of the seal thus became a witness that the tomb had been violated or otherwise opened. The authorities would claim that Jesus’s disciples took the body; for Christians, the broken seal reinforced their conviction that Jesus was, in fact, resurrected.[22]

While Jesus’s body lay in the tomb, his spirit was nonetheless alive and active. The Book of Mormon records the voice of Jesus speaking in the darkness to the remnant of the people in the New World who survived the destructions there that accompanied the signs of his death (3 Nephi 8:19‒23; 9:1‒22). In addition, early Latter-day Saints inherited from the scattered references in the New Testament the understanding that Jesus, between his death and resurrection, had been active in the world of spirits (Rom 10:7; Eph 4:9; 1 Pet 3:19; 4:6). In particular, the expression “spirits in prison” (1 Pet 3:19) led to the Latter-day Saint concept of a postmortal “spirit prison,” where those died without the fullness of the gospel could be taught it and given a chance to accept it.[23] Even before President Joseph F. Smith’s 1918 vision of Jesus’s ministry in the world of spirits, Restoration scripture had already prepared Latter-day Saints with core principles upon which the visit would be based: first, that the redeeming mission of Jesus Christ was understood and accepted by righteous saints before his coming (see, for example, 1 Nephi 10:4‒5; Jacob 4:4; Mosiah 13:33‒35; Helaman 8:18; 3 Nephi 20:23‒24; Moses 1:6; 5:7‒15; 6:51‒54; Doctrine and Covenants 20:26); second, that between death and resurrection the spirits of men and women were divided in their state, and perhaps even place, between those who were righteous and those who either did not yet know the truth or who had been willfully disobedient to the truth they did have (see 2 Nephi 9:12; Alma 40:11‒14).[24]

Robert T. Barrett, Jesus Teaching in the Spirit World. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

When President Smith recorded his vision, he described in moving terms the “innumerable company of the spirits of the just, who had been faithful in the testimony of Jesus while they lived in mortality” who had “assembled awaiting the advent of the Son of God into the spirit world, to declare their redemption from the bands of death” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:12‒16). To these “the Son of God appeared, declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:18). While Alma had defined the condition of these righteous dead as “a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow” (Alma 40:12), they were nonetheless in a state of captivity inasmuch as they “looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as bondage” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:50). Now, with Jesus poised to overcome death for himself and all the family of Adam and Eve, they rejoiced “because the day of their deliverance was at hand” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:15). A particularly new insight from this vision was the understanding that the spirit of Jesus did not directly preach among the spirits of the wicked or rebellious. Rather, he organized a great missionary force from among the righteous dead to preach the gospel to those “who had died in their sins, without a knowledge of the truth, or in transgression, having rejected the prophets” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:32).[25]

While many of the righteous dead visited by the spirit of Christ would soon be beneficiaries of the First Resurrection, which began soon after Jesus’s own resurrection and will accelerate with his promised Second Coming, Latter-day Saints understand that the work among the dead continues as the spirits of faithful members continue to labor on the other side of the veil (Doctrine and Covenants 138:57).[26] In addition, Jesus’s visit to the spirit world inaugurated the continuing work for the dead on this side of the veil, “including the building of the temples and the performance of ordinances therein for the redemption of the dead” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:54). As Skinner has observed, “Before the coming of Jesus to the world of spirits, those spirits could not be judged according to men in the flesh while living according to God in the spirit, because the gospel had not ever been preached to the dead. . . . Baptisms for the dead had not been performed. . . . Jesus’ visit to the spirit world changed the universe forever.”[27]

Celebrating Holy Saturday in the Christian Tradition

In the early centuries of the Christian era, Holy Saturday—also known as Black Saturday, Great Saturday, and Hallelujah Saturday—was a relatively quiet day for fasting and reflection upon Jesus in the tomb. Christians also commemorated what is called “the Harrowing of Hell,” or Christ’s descent into hell to redeem the “saints” of the Hebrew Bible. Byzantine art, for example, depicts Jesus holding the hands of Adam and Eve and leading them out of hell and through the gate of heaven. By the fourth or fifth centuries, an established Saturday night Easter Vigil was in place throughout much of the Christian world. A tradition of mass baptisms also converged with the Easter Vigil tradition. Christians would wait until Holy Saturday to be baptized while commemorating Jesus in the tomb, a fitting ceremony for this day because baptism imagery connotes burial and resurrection (see Rom 6:3‒5). The Anglican Church, in particular, continues this baptism tradition today. In the medieval period, the custom of adult baptism on Holy Saturday waned and was eventually replaced with lengthy readings from the Hebrew Scriptures. Hymns such as Kyrie (“Lord have mercy”) and Gloria (“Glory to God in the highest”) also became more prominent during the Easter Vigil.[28]

Ethiopian worshippers take part in a holy fire ceremony at the church of the holy sepulchre in 2017. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

A medieval tradition that started on Good Friday is particularly intriguing. After the Crusades, Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land exploded. Many travelers planned their pilgrimage around Holy Week. By the fourteenth century, a tradition had developed where pilgrims allowed themselves to be locked into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for three days, from Good Friday to just after the conclusion of Easter Sunday. This practice was a reenactment of Jesus’s three-day burial in the tomb. While some of this time was spent in prayer and worship, considerable periods of boredom resulted in noise, the buying and selling of wares, and even “pious vandalism” as some worshippers chiseled their names and coats of arms into the walls of the church. Some of these markings are still visible today. Others attempted to chip chunks from the walls or even off the most sacred of spots, such as altars or the rock of Calvary itself, to take them home as holy relics. These and other practices remind us that worship and religious commemoration is often accompanied by various customs that might seem superstitious—and also reminds us of the importance of respecting sacred sites so that others can enjoy them after us. At the conclusion of Easter Sunday, the local guardians of the church would open the doors, and pilgrims would emerge from the church as Christ emerged from the tomb.[29]

Since the ninth century, and perhaps earlier, the Holy Fire ceremony has been a major component of Holy Saturday worship in Jerusalem. Eastern Orthodox tradition maintains that on Holy Saturday, a miraculous firelight sparks within the Edicule, or small shrine within the rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre, that surrounds the marble slab that is believed to be the bench on which Jesus’s body laid while in the tomb. Orthodox Christian clergy light their candles from this miracle light. When the candle is brought out of the Edicule, it serves to ignite other candles in the church. Christians whose candles are first lit then turn around and light candles held by other worshippers. This continues until thousands of candles are ignited in the Church, and the fire is also handed off from person to person throughout the crowded streets of the Old City’s Christian Quarter. In modern times, the Holy Sepulchre candle is then taken to Bethlehem to light those sacred Christian sites. Other candles are taken immediately by flight to other Christian locations around the world including Greece, Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, Cyprus, Lebanon, and even the United States.[30] Most Western Christians have not participated in this ceremony for centuries, since Pope Gregory IX declared the miracle a fraud in 1238.[31]

Today, Christians in the East and West conduct their Holy Saturday observance with a quiet tone, with the Morning Prayer focusing on the death and burial of Christ. Instead, the Easter Vigil on Saturday night is the crowning event of Holy Week, which according to Jewish and earlier Christian reckoning was the earliest part of Easter (see “Celebrating Easter Sunday in the Christian Tradition” below).

Suggestions for Latter-day Saints

While using art such as Tissot’s The Watch over the Tomb or Fra Angelico’s Christ in Limbo can help set the tone for the traditional events commemorated on the Saturday of Holy Week, this is an occasion that lends itself well to focusing on the unique doctrinal contributions of Restoration scripture and teaching. For instance, Latter-day Saint families may want to read 3 Nephi 8‒9, discussing the symbolism of the destructions and darkness that covered the New World at the death of Jesus, paying special attention to 3 Nephi 9:14‒22, in which Jesus testifies of his death and resurrection. Then, after reading Isaiah 52:7 and 53:10, they can then turn to Mosiah 15:10–18 and discuss what Abinadi meant when he said that after Christ made his offering for sin, he saw his “seed,” which consisted of all the righteous who had faith in him. This sets the stage for reading all or portions of Doctrine and Covenants 138, followed by a discussion of Jesus’s activities in the spirit world while his body was in the tomb. Families can then discuss redeeming the dead, one of the major missions of the Church, spend time doing family history work, or attend the temple to do baptisms for the dead or participate in an endowment and sealing session.

J. Kirk Richards, Light Piercing the Darkness. Used by permission.

Because of the insights of Restoration scriptures and teaching—about Christ’s mission and atonement in general, but about his work for the dead in particular—listening to great full-length works by recent Latter-day Saint composers can be particularly uplifting on the Saturday before Easter. Knowing that these artists share not only a testimony of the saving work of Jesus but also a testimony of the restored gospel adds to the appreciation of their music.[32] One of these is The Redeemer, a full-length oratorio in the tradition of Handel’s Messiah that was composed by Robert Cundick in 1977. Earlier, Ralph Woodward, music professor at Brigham Young University, had selected scriptures from throughout all four Latter-day Saint standard works for a “musical service depicting the doctrines and Atonement of Jesus Christ.” He then approached Brother Cundick, who served as Tabernacle organist from April 1965 until December 1991, to compose the score. Spanning the prophesied coming of the Redeemer, the achievement of his atoning sacrifice, and the promise that it offers us, the oratorio culminates with “a glorious declaration of the hope and light to be gained from the Savior’s resurrection and Atonement, as taught by Book of Mormon prophets and latter-day revelation.”[33] Another is Requiem by Mack Wilberg. Encouraged to compose a full-length requiem by his friend and colleague, Craig Jessop, then conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Brother Wilberg completed the score that summer, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square premiered it in April 2007. The published recording notes explain, “Recognizing the weight of tradition that accompanies the writing of a Requiem, Wilberg has incorporated several archaic features into this work. All of the texts are at least a thousand years old, and in several of the movements the melodies are decidedly chant-like. In many ways Wilberg’s Requiem represents and summarizes centuries of the lamenting tradition in music.” While every movement of this work is musically powerful, the final movement, “I Am the Resurrection and the Life,” fits the anticipation of the Saturday before Easter perfectly.[34]

Marking the Saturday of Holy Week

Reflecting on Jesus’s ministry to the spirit world and how it opened the doors for the redemption of the dead expands his atoning sacrifice to all the human family, including those who did not have the fullness of the gospel in this life. Additionally, participating in family history and temple work provides us opportunities to share in this great work, becoming “saviors on Mount Zion” (Obad 1:21). Regarding this, President Hinckley taught, “That which goes on in the House of the Lord, . . . comes nearer to the spirit of the sacrifice of the Lord than any other activity of which I know. Why? Because it is done by those who give freely of time and substance, without any expectation of thanks or reward, to do for others that which they cannot do for themselves.”[35] Indeed, being in the temple on Good Friday or the Saturday before Easter can become an essential part of our Easter preparations.[36] §

For Further Reading

Borg and Crossan. The Last Week, 165–88.

Huntsman. God So Loved the World, 95–106.

Matthews, Mark A. “‘Between the Time of Death and the Resurrection’: A Doctrinal Examination of the Spirit World.” Religious Educator 21, no. 1 (2020): 105–27.

Skinner, Andrew C. “The Savior’s Ministry to the Spirit World.” In With Healing in His Wings, edited by Camille Fronk Olson and Thomas A. Wayment, 81–107. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013.

Stuart, Joseph. “Development of the Understanding of the Postmortal Spirit World.” In Joseph F. Smith: Reflections on the Man and His Times, edited by Craig K. Manscill et al., 221–32. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 2013.

Notes

[1] For a variety of treatments of the topic, see J. A. MacCulloch, Harrowing of Hell: A Comparative Study of an Early Christian Doctrine (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1930), 217–39, 253–87; Hilarion Alfeyev, Christ the Conqueror of Hell: The Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective (New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2009) 43–101; Matthew Y. Emerson, “He Descended to the Dead”: An Evangelical Theology of Holy Saturday (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press Academic, 2019), 22–104. See also the historical review of Latter-day Saint scholar Terryl Givens, Wrestling the Angel (New York: Oxford, 2015), 248‒50.

[2] New Testament Apocrypha, ed. Wilhelm Schneemelcher, trans. R. Mcl. Wilson, 2 vols., revised edition (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1990), 1.501‒36, 2.213‒321; Bart Ehrman and Zlatko Pleše, The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 465‒90. Earlier Christian references to Christ’s Harrowing of Hell include Gospel of Peter 10:41, dating to the early second century, and Justin, Dial, 72, and Irenaeus, Heresies, 499, both dated to the second half of the second century.

[3] Brown, Introduction to the New Testament, 714‒15.

[4] Joseph Stuart, “Development of the Understanding of the Postmortal Spirit World,” in Joseph F. Smith: Reflections on the Man and His Times, ed. Craig K. Manscill et al. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013), 221–32.

[5] Joseph Fielding McConkie and Craig J. Ostler, Revelations of the Restoration: A Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants and Other Modern Revelations (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 1143‒44; Francis M. Gibbons, Joseph F. Smith: Patriarch and Preacher, Prophet of God (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1984), 323–27; Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Joseph F. Smith: Portrait of a Prophet (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 2000), 258–62; Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 95‒96.

[6] Spencer J. Condie, “The Savior’s Visit to the Spirit World,” Ensign, July 2003, 32. We have added “exactly” to Elder Condie’s observation because a fair study of Orthodox, Catholic, and even evangelical understanding of Jesus’s ministry among the dead (see, for example, the surveys listed in note 1) reveals considerably more appreciation and discussion of it than Latter-day Saints often assume.

[7] Nolland, Gospel of Matthew, 1235.

[8] This section consists of a revised and expansion version of the material first published in Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 100‒101.

[9] Jodi Magness, “The Burial of Jesus in Light of Archaeology and the Gospels,” Eretz Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies 28 (2007): 1‒2, 5‒6, maintains that poorer burials were done in simple trench graves that usually did not leave much archaeological record. See the contrary arguments of Gibson, “Final Days of Jesus,” 133‒37, 141.

[10] Amos Kloner, “Did a Rolling Stone Close Jesus’ Tomb?” Biblical Archaeological Review 25, no. 5 (1999): 23‒29, 76; Chadwick, “Revisiting Golgotha and the Garden Tomb,” 40‒44.

[11] Brown, Death of the Messiah, 1279‒83; Karen Armstrong, Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths (New York: Ballantine Books, 1997), 165, 179‒83, 259, 263‒65, 290‒91; Murphy-O’Connor, Holy Land, 50‒62; Dan Bahat, “The Holy Sepulchre Church—Jesus’ Tomb,” Where Christianity Was Born, ed. Hershel Shanks (Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 2006), 177‒95; Gibson, Final Days of Jesus, 151‒54.

[12] Helpful in imagining the original site and understanding each phase of the Holy Sepulchre’s construction is the series of artistic reconstructions in “Was This the Tomb of Jesus?,” 51‒57, in Kristin Romey, “The Search for the Real Jesus,” National Geographic Society 232, no. 6 (December 2017): 30‒69.

[13] Barkay, “The Garden Tomb,” 53; Brown, Death of the Messiah, 1248‒49, 1279; Gibson, Final Days of Jesus, 154‒55. See, however, Chadwick, “Revisiting Golgotha and the Garden Tomb,” 15, who questions the dating of the two kōḵîm found in the Chapel of Joseph of Arimathea.

[14] b. B. Bat. 25a. See the discussion of Chadwick, “Revisiting Golgotha and the Garden Tomb,” 16‒20, and Andrew C. Skinner, The Garden Tomb (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005), 22‒23.

[15] For a detailed discussion of the tomb and the arguments made over the years in its support, see Sarah Kochav, “The Search for the Protestant Holy Sepulchre: The Garden Tomb in Nineteenth Century Jerusalem,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 46, no. 2 (1995): 278‒301.

[16] Murphy-O’Connor, Holy Land, 161; Barkay, “The Garden Tomb,” 40‒57, and “The Garden Tomb—It Isn’t,” in Where Christianity Was Born, ed. Hershel Shanks (Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 2006), 196‒211; Chadwick, “Revisiting Golgotha and the Garden Tomb,” 23‒37; Gibson, Final Days of Jesus, 150‒51.

[17] Chadwick, “Revisiting Golgotha and the Garden Tomb,” 21‒23, 37‒40.

[18] Harold B. Lee, “I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked,” Ensign, April 1972, 6; Dell Van Orden, J Malan Heslop, and Lance E. Larsen, “A Prophet for All the World: Glimpses into the Life of President Spencer W. Kimball,” BYU Studies 25, no. 4 (Fall 1985): 56‒57; Jack Marshall, “Walking Where Jesus Walked,” Deseret News, March 19, 2011.

[19] Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 101.

[20] Chadwick, “Revisiting Golgotha and the Garden Tomb,” 45‒46.

[21] Nolland, Gospel of Matthew, 1236.

[22] Nolland, Gospel of Matthew, 1237.

[23] Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 101.

[24] See the discussions regarding the world of spirits in Stuart, “Development of the Understanding of the Postmortal Spirit World,” 222‒28; Givens, Wrestling the Angel, 247‒48; Mark A. Matthews, “‘Between the Time of Death and the Resurrection’: A Doctrinal Examination of the Spirit World,” Religious Educator 21, no. 1 (2020): 105‒27.

[25] Andrew C. Skinner, “The Savior’s Ministry in the Spirit World,” in With Healing in His Wings, ed. Camille Fronk Olson and Thomas A. Wayment (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013), 92‒98.

[26] Skinner, “The Savior’s Ministry in the Spirit World,” 98‒102.

[27] Skinner, “The Savior’s Ministry in the Spirit World,” 103‒4.

[28] Pierce, “Holy Week and Easter in the Middle Ages,” 171.

[29] Peters, Jerusalem: The Holy City in the Eyes of Chroniclers, Visitors, Pilgrims, and Prophets, 437–39, 442–49. One observer, Felix Fabre, explained that Eastern Christians would chip small pieces of pebbles off the walls and drink them with their beverage, believing that such a practice would heal them. Fabre also noticed human hair stuffed in almost every nook and cranny of the church. He learned that Eastern Christians would send their hair with pilgrims to the church, believing that this would heal their chronic headaches and other ailments.

[30] To see the Holy Fire ceremony, search “Holy Fire Easter” on YouTube. In addition, to see an apologetic presentation on the Holy Fire, search for “The Holy Fire in Scripture, History, and Science,” YouTube, January 21, 2018.

[31] Peters, Jerusalem: The Holy City in the Eyes of Chroniclers, Visitors, Pilgrims, and Prophets, 261–67, 571–79.

[32] An earlier version of these suggestions was first published in God So Loved the World, 96.

[33] “‘The Redeemer’ Performed for Easter,” Church News, March 29, 2008.

[34] Luke Howard, Program Notes on Mack Wilberg’s “Requiem” and Other Choral Works (Salt Lake City: Mormon Tabernacle Choir, 2008), 4.

[35] Gordon B. Hinckley, “A Century of Family History Service,” Ensign, March 1995, 62–63.

[36] Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 105.