I came here via Eric's blog ........ but I've always been puzzled by this.  The Apostles Creed makes it sound like he descended into hell during that time, but I don't think so.   I think the descent into hell occured during his suffering on the cross - being rejected by the Father.   I think I lean more towards the camp that says that Jesus was in Paradise ......... but I'd love to hear more of others perspectives on this!

My mother brought up an interesting point about this. Regarding the scripture of in Luke 23:43 Verily I assure you, this day you shall be with me in paradise.

Two points here. Firstly - this passage is translated into english from greek and english translaters punctuate it. So they choose where the comma's are. If you move the comma from after the 'you' to after 'this day' - the whole meaning of the passage changes.

Then it reads - Verily I assure you this day, you shall be with me in paradise.  Very interesting.

What else is interesting (second point) is when I just looked up the word 'paradise' in my on-line bible dictionary, the english word 'paradise' is translated from a word that means 'park' or an eden in the context of 'place of future happiness.'

Very interesting.

So I would go with him being in hades for 3 days.

Thanks, everyone, for your insightful comments!!!  And I'm so, so sorry for my belated response to all of them.  Let's just say I've had a few things on my mind (and in my hands) that have kept me from being faithful to xanga...  I still haven't figured this out, but I very much appreciate all your thoughts!

@droftreeology - That's an interesting view, but I don't think Scripture says anything about Jesus getting any keys from Heaven.  You might be thinking of Revelation 1:18, which states that He has the keys of "Hell and death," but no mention of where He got them from.  Or Matthew 16:19, in which Jesus tells the disciples that He will give them the keys of Heaven, but again, no mention of where He got them.  I'm assuming He had them already.  Thanks for your thoughts!  :)

@nicolevw - "I think the descent into hell occurred during his suffering on the cross - being rejected by the Father."  Yes, this is quite possible!  I'm sure that would have been "hell" for Him.  I mean, the reason Hell is what it is is because it is separation from the Father.  So, perhaps that seperation on the cross was indeed Hell for Him.  Thanks for the website!

@senoritazorro - "He gave up His identity in order to make
payment for our sins and reclaim us from the world and corruption. In
doing that it seems He was separated from the union He had shared with
Our Father because the Father is holy and nothing unholy can be in His
presence."  This is very true!  But Scripture does say "He decended..." Could that have been figurative?  Sure.  But maybe not...  Thanks for pointing out that it may not have necessarily been from a metaphysical standpoint, though... I hadn't really thought of that. :)

@yesults_blog - I've heard of that punctuation problem before, but since there was no comma in the original, we can't really assume where it was, one way or the other.  All we can assume directly from the text is that the criminal would be "with Jesus" and "in Paradise"... no telling when.  That is very interesting about "Paradise" perhaps being in a future state.  Thanks so much for that point!