A Dialogue in Hades

When Jesus arrives, Hades bids his servants to bolt and lock the doors, but to no avail; Jesus shatters the gates and enters. He seizes Satan and binds him in iron chains, then consigning him into Hades’s keeping until the second coming. Jesus next turns his attention to the patriarchs. He raises up Adam, along with all the prophets and the saints. Together, they all depart up out of Hades, and ascend into Paradise.) The “Harrowing of Hell” portion of that Gospel was widely circulated in other compilations of religious literature, most notably in the Golden Legend of the lives of the saints, compiled by Jacob of Voragine in the 13th century. On the other hand, The original of this manuscript is deposited in the French war archives, in Paris; a copy was, with the permission of the French Government, taken in 1855. This document is supposed to have been written about the year 1765. In the remainder of this book, we would like to look at ten different visual depictions of the story.