O Come, Emmanuel 4: Hell's Grave

My fourth Christmastide reflection on that beautiful carol, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, focusses upon its second verse’s last two lines:

From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory o'er the grave.

The ancients had no qualms talking about, thinking about or even singing about hell. From the late nineteenth century, fashionable clergy could not even bring themselves to believe it. Even supposed contemporary evangelicals are inclined to dilute the concept, so much does it offend their sensibilities and superior knowledge of God’s ways. Yet here, it is sung in all sincerity. The word may refer to hades (Greek) or sheol (Hebrew), the abode of the dead, which might be translated 'hell' in the sense of being a gloomy waiting room or remand prison. Old Covenant believers likely abided here until such time as their future Saviour, Jesus Christ, delivered them from death’s bondage to grace’s freedom in God's heaven. The final state of hell offers no hope of rescue or deliverance. The second line therefore repeats the essence of the first, akin to the style of Hebrew psalmody. The grave, the pit, the depths, the bowels of the earth: Christ’s resurrection conquered death and liberated dead believers from its icy manacles. The Babe who outgrew the manger became the Man who outgrew the tomb.

This is the real meaning of Christmas.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel;
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory o'er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer,
Our Spirits by Thine Advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, thou Lord of Might
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times didst give the law,
In cloud, and majesty, and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

From the text of the 1851 translation by John Mason Neale of the twelfth-century hymn Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, published in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861)