Where was Jesus for the 3 days between His death and resurrection?
The question of where Jesus was for the three days between His death and resurrection has long been central to Christian belief and reflection. The New Testament describes Jesus as truly entering the realm of the dead, sharing fully in death, and then returning to life. Scripture speaks of His descent using recognizable Jewish categories—particularly Hades or Sheol, the place of the dead. Understanding where Jesus was during these three days requires listening closely to the language and imagery used in the biblical world. The early church understood this period not as symbolic but as a real journey into death, victory, and liberation.
1. Jesus Himself described His three days in terms of descent into the realm of the dead
When Jesus spoke about His coming death, He used the imagery of Jonah’s three days in the belly of the fish as a prophetic foreshadowing of His own descent. He described this period as being “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). This expression reflects Jewish ways of speaking about Sheol—the grave, the underworld, or the realm of the dead.
Sheol (Greek: Hades) was not simply a metaphor. It was the common biblical term for the place where the dead awaited God’s future judgment and restoration (Psalm 49:15; Psalm 88:3–5). In this sense, Jesus entered the same realm all humans enter in death. He was not merely unconscious or inactive. He truly shared in human death so that He could conquer it from the inside (Hebrews 2:14).
2. Jesus was in Hades, and yet in paradise, during these three days
The biblical material introduces an important nuance: Jesus’ presence in the realm of the dead does not fit neatly into a single location. Scholars note that His own words to the thief—“Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43)—indicate that paradise was not a distant heavenly realm detached from Hades but a blessed part of it.
Jewish tradition regularly described Sheol/Hades as having different regions:
a place of refreshment and blessing for the righteous
a place of shadowed waiting or grief for the wicked
Paradise, in this framework, was understood as the portion of Hades where God’s faithful were comforted. Thus, Jesus could truly be in Hades and truly be in paradise without contradiction. He was in the realm of the dead, but in the blessed chamber reserved for the righteous, and He was present there as its Lord.
3. Hades was understood as the shadowy place of the dead, not merely a place of punishment
In the Old Testament and intertestamental Jewish thought, Hades/Sheol was the inevitable destination of all who died (Genesis 37:35; Job 7:9). It was portrayed as:
a realm of darkness (Job 10:21–22),
a place beneath the earth (Isaiah 14:9),
a condition of diminished vitality (Psalm 88:10),
neither heaven nor hell in the later theological sense.
The righteous did not suffer torment there; rather, they experienced restful waiting. The wicked were not yet receiving final judgment—only confinement. This shared destiny underscored the universal reality of death.
Jesus’ descent into Hades therefore confirmed His full participation in human mortality. He did not avoid the common human fate but entered it in order to shatter its power.
4. Hades was viewed as a place of waiting, divided between the righteous and the wicked
Early Jewish thought often described Hades as containing separate chambers. In these descriptions:
the righteous awaited the future resurrection in a state of refreshment,
the wicked awaited judgment in a state of gloom,
both groups remained conscious,
and both awaited God’s final act of judgment and restoration.
This explains why Jesus could speak of paradise as a real destination for the righteous dead, even before His resurrection had opened the way into the final state. The righteous thief entered the blessed side of Hades with Christ, even as Christ’s own presence signaled that Hades itself was about to be overthrown.
5. God did not abandon Jesus in Hades but raised Him from the realm of the dead
Peter’s sermon on Pentecost quotes Psalm 16: “You will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption” (Acts 2:27). The apostle uses this text to declare that Jesus truly entered Hades—and that God truly delivered Him out of it. Jesus’ body did not decay, and His soul was not held in the realm of the dead. God raised Him up, breaking the chains of death.
The author of Hebrews affirms the same truth. By entering death as a real human being, Jesus destroyed “the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). Christ descended into the realm ruled by death, conquered it, and rose with authority over it (Revelation 1:18).
Thus, for the three days between His death and resurrection, Jesus was in the place of the dead—yet He was not defeated by it. He was present in paradise, present in Hades, and present as the One who would emerge victorious over death itself.
Conclusion
According to the Bible’s own world, Jesus spent the three days between His death and resurrection in the realm of the dead—Hades, or Sheol—just as every human being faced death. He entered fully into this condition, occupying the righteous side of Hades known as paradise. He was not abandoned there; He was raised from Hades in fulfillment of Scripture. His descent was not a defeat but an act of victory, breaking the power of death from within. The meaning of where Jesus was for those three days reveals the depth of His identification with humanity and the completeness of His triumph over death. Christ entered the place of waiting and rose to open the way to life.
Bible Verses About Where Jesus Was for the Three Days
“For just as Jonah was three days… so will the Son of Man be three days in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40)
“Today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)
“You will not abandon my soul to Hades.” (Acts 2:27)
“God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death.” (Acts 2:24)
“Through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death.” (Hebrews 2:14)
“I am the first and the last… I have the keys of Death and Hades.” (Revelation 1:18)
“My soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.” (Psalm 88:3)
“They will go down to the bars of Sheol.” (Job 17:16)
“Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you.” (Isaiah 14:9)
“God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol.” (Psalm 49:15)
