Section 285
56This interpretation is not extinct; cf. F. Büchsel, TDNT 3, pp. 641-42 (s.v. ϰάτω ϰτλ), whose arguments that there is a reference here to “the sphere of the underworld, the place of the dead,” proved so powerful that they persuaded J. Schneider to weaken in his view that the reference is “to the earthly journey of the Redeemer, not to His descent into Hades,” which he had maintained in TDNT 1, p. 523 (s.v. ϰαταβαίνω), and concede that either interpretation is tenable (TDNT 4, pp. 597-98, s.v. μέϱος). But his first thoughts were right.
57Another proof-text for this tradition is 1 Pet. 3:19-20, where, however, τὰ ἐν φυλαϰῇ πνεύματα are probably the errant angels of Gen. 6:1-4 (cf. Jude 6; 2 Pet. 2:4). (Similarly, the ϰαταϰθóνιοι of Phil. 2:10 are probably spirits or demons rather than dead human beings.)
58This was the view of Irenaeus: “by captivity he means the destruction of the rule of the apostate angels” (Epideixis 83). Cf. H. Traub, TDNT 5, pp. 525-26 (s.v. οὐϱανóς): Christ’s journey to earth and return to heaven broke the power of the hostile forces which controlled the heavenly zones and prevented men and women’s access to God. H. Schlier supposed that the language, if not the thought, of this passage was influenced by the gnostic account of the descent and ascent of the redeemed redeemer, his ascent being at the same time the regeneration (ἀναγέννησις) of the “perfect man” (Christus und die Kirche im Epheserbrief, p. 33); but, as has been said before, evidence for the pre-Christian circulation of this account is hard to come by. On the passage in general see G. B. Caird, “The Descent of Christ in Ephesians 4, 7-11,” SE 2 = TU 87 (Berlin, 1964), 535-45.