The event—“he descended into hell”—mentioned in the Apostles’ Creed but omitted in the Nicene Creed is known as the “descent into hell” or the “harrowing of hell.” “Harrowing” is an Old English word for “robbing,” and “hell” is not the later Christian place of eternal punishment, but the Jewish Sheol or the Greek Hades, the afterlife place of nonexistence. Think of it as the Grave writ large.
