Scriptures:
Matthew 16:18 – And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it.
Psalm 116:9-21 – 9 For he satisfies the empty soul, and fills the hungry soul with good things, 10 even them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, fettered in poverty and iron; 11 because they rebelled against the words of God, and provoked the counsel of the Most High. 12 So their heart was brought low with troubles; they were weak, and there was no helper. 13 Then they cried to the Lord in their affliction, and he saved them out of their distresses. 14 And he brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bonds asunder. 15 Let them acknowledge to the Lord his mercies, and his wonders to the children of men. 16 For he broke to pieces the brazen gates, and crushed the iron bars. 17 He helped them out of the way of their iniquity; for they were brought low because of their iniquities. 18 Their soul abhorred all meat; and they drew near to the gates of death. 19 Then they cried to the Lord in their affliction, and he saved them out of their distresses. 20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them out of their destructions. 21 Let them acknowledge to the Lord his mercies, and his wonderful works to the children of men.
Job 38:17 – Do the gates of death open to you for fear, and did the door keepers of hades quake when they saw you?
Revelation 1:18 – I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
Church Fathers:
Melito of Sardis:
55) All flesh fell under sin,
and every body under death,
and every soul was plucked from its dwelling of flesh,
and that which was taken from the dust was reduced to dust,
and the gift of God was locked away in Hades.
What was marvelously knit together was unraveled,
and the beautiful body divided.
56) Humanity was doled out by death,
for a strange disaster and captivity surrounded him;
he was dragged off a captive under the shadow of death,
and the father’s image was left desolate.
For this reason in the body of the Lord
is the paschal mystery completed. – Paschal Homily, chapter 55-56
100) The Lord clothed himself with humanity,
and with suffering on behalf of the suffering one,
and bound on behalf of the one constrained,
and judged on behalf of the one convicted,
and buried on behalf of the one entombed,
rose from the dead and cried out aloud:
101) “Who takes issue with me? Let him stand before me.
I set free the condemned.
I gave life to the dead.
I raise up the entombed.
Who will contradict me?”
102) “It is I”, says the Christ,
“I am he who destroys death,
and triumphs over the enemy,
and crushes Hades,
and binds the strong man,
and bears humanity off to the heavenly heights.” – Paschal Homily, chapter 100-102
Origen:
And in like manner each one of those who are the authors of any evil opinion has become the architect of a certain gate of Hades; but those who co-operate with the teaching of the architect of such things are servants and stewards, who are the bond-servants of the evil doctrine which goes to build up impiety. And though the gates of Hades are many and almost innumerable, no gate of Hades will prevail against the rock or against the church which Christ builds upon it. Notwithstanding, these gates have a certain power by which they gain the mastery over some who do not resist and strive against them; but they are overcome by others who, because they do not turn aside from Him who said, I am the door (John 10:9), have razed from their soul all the gates of Hades. And this also we must know that as the gates of cities have each their own names, in the same way the gates of Hades might be named after the species of sins; so that one gate of Hades is called fornication, through which fornicators go, and another denial, through which the deniers of God go down into Hades. And likewise already each of the heterodox and of those who have begotten any knowledge which is falsely so called (1 Timothy 6:20), has built a gate of Hades — Marcion one gate, and Basilides another, and Valentinus another. – Commentary on Matthew, book 12, chapter 12
And it is not incredible that the gates which are said to open spontaneously are referred obscurely by some to the words, Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may go into them, and praise the Lord; this gate of the Lord, into it the righteous shall enter; and again, to what is said in the ninth psalm, You that lifts me up from the gates of death, that I may show forth all Your praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion. The Scripture further gives the name of gates of death to those sins which lead to destruction, as it terms, on the contrary, good actions the gates of Zion. So also the gates of righteousness, which is an equivalent expression to the gates of virtue, and these are ready to be opened to him who follows after virtuous pursuits. – Against Celsus, book 6, chapter 36
Hippolytus:
The jailers of Hades trembled when they saw Him. And the gates of brass and the bolts of iron were broken. For, look! The Only-Begotten, God the Word, had entered Hades with a soul—a soul among souls. – Hippolytus (c. 205, W), 5.194.
Gregory Thaumaturgus:
In this wise have the martyrs shown their power, leaping with joy in the presence of death, laughing at the sword, making sport of the wrath of princes, grasping at death as the producer of deathlessness, making victory their own by their fall, through the body taking their leap to heaven, suffering their members to be scattered abroad in order that they might hold their souls, and, bursting the bars of life, that they might open the. gates of heaven. And if any one believes not that death is abolished, that Hades is trodden under foot, that the chains thereof are broken, that the tyrant is bound, let him look on the martyrs disporting themselves in the presence of death, and taking up the jubilant strain of the victory of Christ. O the marvel! Since the hour when Christ despoiled Hades, men have danced in triumph over death. O death, where is your sting! O grave, where is your victory? 1 Corinthians 15:55 Hades and the devil have been despoiled, and stripped of their ancient armour, and cast out of their peculiar power. And even as Goliath had his head cut off with his own sword, so also is the devil, who has been the father of death, put to rout through death; and he finds that the selfsame thing which he was wont to use as the ready weapon of his deceit, has become the mighty instrument of his own destruction. Yea, if we may so speak, casting his hook at the Godhead, and seizing the wonted enjoyment of the baited pleasure, he is himself manifestly caught while he deems himself the captor, and discovers that in place of the man he has touched the God. By reason thereof do the martyrs leap upon the head of the dragon, and despise every species of torment. For since the second Adam has brought up the first Adam out of the deeps of Hades, as Jonah was delivered out of the whale, and has set forth him who was deceived as a citizen of heaven to the shame of the deceiver, the gates of Hades have been shut, and the gates of heaven have been opened, so as to offer an unimpeded entrance to those who rise there in faith. – On All The Saints
Ephrem the Syrian:
If He was not a man, whose side was opened by a lance, and there came out blood and water? And if He were not God, who hath broken the gates of hell, and burst the iron bars? And by whose command did the dead that slept in their graves come forth? – Sermon on the Transfiguration
Satan came with his servants, that he might see our Lord cast into Sheol, and might rejoice with Death his Counsellor; and he saw him sorrowful and mourning, because of the dead who at the voice of the Firstborn, lived and came forth thence even from Sheol. The Evil One arose to console Death his kinsman. You have not destroyed as much as you were able. Even as Jesus is in your midst, to your hand shall come they that have lived and that live. Open for us see Him, yea and mock Him: let us answer and say, ‘Where is Your power? For lo! Three days have passed for Him, and let us say to Him, O You of three days, Who raised Lazarus, when he had lain four days, raise Your own self.’ Death opened the gates of Sheol, and there shone from it the splendour of the face of our Lord; and like the men of Sodom they were smitten; they groped and sought the gate of Sheol, which they had lost. – Nisbene Hymns, Hymn 41, chapter 15-16
The death of Jesus to me is a torment; I prefer for myself His life rather than His death. This is the Dead whose death (lo!) is hateful to me; in the death of all men else I rejoice, but His Death, even His, I detest; that He may come back to life I hope. While He was living He brought to life and restored three that were dead; but now by His death, at the gate of Hell they have trampled on me, the dead who have come to life, whom I was going to shut in.
I will haste and will close the gates of Hell, before this Dead, Whose death has spoiled me. Whoever hears will wonder at my humiliation, that by a dead man who is without I am overcome. All the dead seek to go forth, but this one presses to enter in. A medicine of life has entered into Hell, and has restored life to its dead. Who then has brought in and hidden from me, that living fire wherein have reposed, the cold and dark recesses of Hell?
Death has seen the Watchers in Hell; the immortal instead of the mortal; and he said Confusion has entered our abode, for in these two things is torment to me: That the dead have come forth out of Hell, and the Watchers that die not have entered therein. Lo! One at the pillow in this tomb, has entered and sat down by it, and a second his companion at His feet. I will entreat of Him and will persuade Him, with His pledge to ascend and go to His Kingdom. – Nisbene Hymns, Hymn 36, chapter 13-15
John Chrysostom:
But that my meaning may be yet plainer, let me illustrate it from the actual case. He raised up Lazarus by a single word merely, and shewed him alive. Again, He said, “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against the Church (St. Matt. xvi. 18.) and, “He that forsaketh father or mother, shall receive an hundred-fold in this life, and shall inherit everlasting life.” (ib. 19. 29.) The miracle then is one, the raising of Lazarus; but the predictions are two; made evident, the one here, the other in the world to come. Consider now, how they are all proved by one another. For if a man disbelieve the resurrection of Lazarus, from the prophecy uttered about the Church let him learn to believe the miracle. For the word spoken so many years before, came to pass then, and received accomplishment: for “the gates of Hades prevailed not against the Church.” You see that He who spake truth in the prophecy, it is clear that he also wrought the miracle: and He who both wrought the miracle and brings to accomplishment the words which He spake, it is clear that He speaks the truth also in the predictions of things yet to come, when He saith, “He who despiseth things present shall receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” For the things which have been already done and spoken, He hath given as the surest pledges of those which shall hereafter come to pass. – Commentary on 1 Corinthians, homily 7
After he descended into hell, he threw all things into an upheaval. He filled everything with tumult and confusion. He destroyed the citadel. The prophets did not remain silent on this, but David exclaimed and said: “Lift up your gates, you who are rulers, reach up, you ancient portals, and the king of glory will come in. The Lord of hosts, he is this king of glory.” Isaiah put it another way. “Bronze doors I will shatter, and iron bars I will snap. I shall open up to you and show you treasures out of the darkness, hidden away, unseen.” This is the way he referred to hell. Even if it was hell, it still preserved the sacred souls and precious vessels, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is why Isaiah called it a place of treasures, even if in darkness, because the Sun of Justice had not yet penetrated there with its rays nor with any message on the resurrection. But hear how David made it clear that, after Christ’s resurrection, he would not remain on earth but would ascend into heaven: “God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.” By speaking of the shout and the trumpet, David showed how manifest Christ’s ascension would be. – Demonstration Against the Pagans, chapter 4, paragraphs 14-15
For this symbol of death – and I shall not stop repeating this over and over again – became the foundation of many blessings, a wall to make us secure on every side, a timely trap to catch the devil, a rein to hold in check the demons, a muzzle against the power of our adversaries. This sign has destroyed death, this sign has shattered hell’s gates of brass and crushed iron bars. It has destroyed the stronghold of the devil, it has cut the sinews of sin. The cross has rescued the whole world, which was lying under condemnation, and has rid us of the calamity which God was sending down upon our human nature. – Demonstration Against the Pagans, chapter 10, paragraph 5
“‘Consequently say,”’ Abram said, “‘I am his sister, that things may go well for me on your account, and my life will be spared thanks to you.”’ This is what the good man had said – not the mark of a person about to breathe his last (Scripture says, after all, “Don’t fear those who destroy the body but are unable to destroy the soul”19); rather, his remarks on this occasion to his wife were according to habit. “‘So that things may go well for me on your’ account,”’ he said, ”’and my life will be spared thanks to you”‘ – as if to say to her, Say, I am his sister, in case you cause my flight from famine in Canaan to lead me into the clutches of the Egyptians. So prove to be the cause of my salvation, “‘so that things may go well for me on your account.”’ Piteous words: great was his fear on account of Egyptian passion and also because of the fact that the tyranny of death had been let loose. Hence the good man chose even to be an accomplice in his wife’s adultery, as if playing the role of adulterer in his wife’s shame, so as to avoid death. Its face, you see, was fearsome: its brazen gates had not yet been broken, its edge had not yet been blunted. – Homily 32 on Genesis
The words: “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” mean the dangers which beget death, the dangers which lead us down to hell. – Demonstration Against the Pagans, chapter 12, paragraph 2
For whereas the Resurrection was a thing future, he shows that it happens every day: for when [God] lifts up again a man who is despaired of and has been brought to the very gates of Hades, He shows none other thing than a resurrection, snatching out of the very jaws of death him that had fallen into them: whence in the case of those despaired of and then restored either out of grievous sickness or insupportable trials, it is an ordinary way of speaking to say, We have seen a resurrection of the dead in his case. – Homily 2 on Second Corinthians
Athanasius:
Whence neither can the Lord be forsaken by the Father, who is ever in the Father, both before He spoke, and when He uttered this cry. Nor is it lawful to say that the Lord was in terror, at whom the keepers of hell’s gates shuddered and set open hell, and the graves did gape, and many bodies of the saints arose and appeared to their own people. – Discourse Three Against the Arians, chapter 29
For when the ruthless men wished to prove the image to be the truth, and to destroy that true habitation which we surely believe His union with us to be, He threatened them not; but knowing that their crime was against themselves, He says to them, ‘Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up,’ He, our Saviour, surely showing thereby that the things about which men busy themselves, carry their dissolution with them. For unless the Lord had built the house, and kept the city, in vain did the builders toil, and the keepers watch. And so the works of the Jews are undone, for they were a shadow; but the Church is firmly established; it is ‘founded on the rock,’ and ‘the gates of hades shall not prevail against it.’ – Discourse Four Against the Arians, chapter 34
Remember the twelfth hour, because in this hour our Lord descended to Hades. And seeing him, [Hades] shuddered and was astonished, saying: “Who is this, who descends in authority and great power? Who is this, who shatters the bronze gates of Hades and crushes the steel bars [Ps. 107:16]? Who is this, who descends from heaven and is crucified and yet is not subject to me, Death? Who is this, who loosens the chains of those under my power? Who is this, who by his own death destroys me, Death?” – Discourse on Salvation to a Virgin, chapter 16
Cyril of Jerusalem:
Would you see yet more surely that some are saved by others’ faith? Lazarus died (John 11:14-44): one day had passed, and a second, and a third: his sinews were decayed, and corruption was preying already upon his body. How could one four days dead believe, and entreat the Redeemer on his own behalf? But what the dead man lacked was supplied by his true sisters. For when the Lord had come, the sister fell down before Him, and when He said, Where have you laid him? and she had made answer, Lord, by this time he stinks; for he has been four days dead, the Lord said, If you believe, you shall see the glory of God; as much as saying, “Supply thou the dead man’s lack of faith:” and the sisters’ faith had so much power, that it recalled the dead from the gates of hell. – Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 5, chapter 9
Hilary of Poitiers:
They praise Him because He, the Image of the Invisible God, created all their host in Himself, made the worlds, established the heavens, appointed the stars, fixed the earth, laid the foundations of the deep; because in after time He was born, He conquered death, broke the gates of hell, won for Himself a people to be His fellow-heirs, lifted flesh from corruption up to the glory of eternity. – On the Trinity, Book 3, chapter 7
Gregory of Nazianzus:
Christ is risen from the dead, rise with Him. Christ is returned again to Himself, return ye. Christ is freed from the tomb, be freed from the bond of sin. The gates of hell are opened, and death is destroyed, and the old Adam is put aside, and the New is fulfilled; if any man be in Christ he is a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17); be renewed. – Oration 45, chapter 1
Epiphanius:
But his body was truly buried and remained lifeless for the three days without breath and motion—wrapped in the shroud, laid in the tomb, shut in by the stone and the seal of those who had imposed it. Yet the Godhead was not shut in, the Godhead was not buried; it descended to the underworld with the holy soul, took the captive souls from there, broke the “sting of death,” “shattered” the bars and the unbreakable “bolts,” and by its own authority “loosed the pains of hades.” – Panarion 17,3
Caesarius of Arles:
When Samson went in to the harlot, he was impure if he did so without reason, but if he did so as a prophet it is a mystery. If he did not enter in order to lie with the woman, perhaps he did so because of a mystery. We do not read that he was intimate with her, but the story continues: ‘His enemies awaited him at the city gate, that they might seize him as he went out from the harlot whom he had visited; but he slept.’ See how it is not recorded in Scripture that he was united to the harlot, but it is written that he slept. ‘When he arose and left at midnight,’ it says, ‘he took the city gates with the bolts, and carried them to the top of a hill,’ and he could not be held by the strangers. He took away the city gates through which he had gone in to the harlot, and carried them to a mountain. What does this mean? Hell and love for a woman Scripture joins together; the house of the harlot was an image of hell. It is rightly considered as hell, for it rejects no one but draws to itself all who enter. At this point we recognize the actions of our Redeemer. After the synagogue to which He had come was separated from Him through the devil, they shaved His head, that is, they crucified Him on the site of Calvary, and He descended into hell. Then, His enemies guarded the place where He slept, that is, the sepulchre, and wanted to seize Him although they could not see Him. ‘But he slept’; this was mentioned here because it was not real death. The words: ‘He arose and left at midnight’ signify that He arose in secret. He had suffered openly, but His Resurrection was revealed only to His disciples and certain other people. Thus, all saw the fact that He went in, but the fact that He arose just a few knew, remembered, and felt. Moreover, he removed the city gates, that is, He took away the gates of hell. What does it mean to remove the gates of hell, except to take away the power of death? He took it away and did not return it. Furthermore, what did our Lord Jesus Christ do after He had taken away the gates of death? He went up to the top of a mountain. Truly, we know that He both arose and ascended into heaven. – Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 118, chapter 5
Gregory the Great:
As Samson carried off the gates of Gaza during the night, even so Christ rose in the night, taking away the gates of hell. – Paschal Homily (Homily XXI)