No, Jesus did not go to hell to give us salvation. When Jesus died on the Cross. He fully paid the price for our sins. He didn’t have to go to hell to pay the price. He paid it in full when he breathed his last breath on the Cross (John 19:30). The common understanding arises because the words ‘hades’ and ‘hell’ often get mixed. But those two words, Hades & Hell don’t have the same meaning. The Bible also never makes a direct statement about Jesus descending into Hell. But it says that Jesus descended into the depths of the earth. Depths of earth refers to Hades/Sheol. Sheol is a Hebrew term used to describe a “temporary place for the dead” or “the place of departed soul and spirit.”

The Old Testament idea of After Life was that everyone who died would reach a place called Sheol (Gen 37:35), (Num 16:32–33). In the New Testament this same place Sheol is called as Hades. In Revelation 20:14, there’s a clear distinction between Hades and Hell. So the Sheol was a big compartment, divided into two parts (Luke 16:23). One for the Wicked (Hades proper) and One for the Righteous (Abraham’s Bosom). The Place for the Righteous is also called a place of comfort and rest. Also called paradise.

Why did he go there?

Following his death for sin, then, Jesus journeys to Hades, to the City of Death, and rips its gates off the hinges. He liberates Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, John the Baptist, and the rest of the Old Testament faithful, ransoming them from the power of Sheol (Psalm 49:15, Psalm 86:13, Psalm 89:48, Hebrews 11:39–40, Hebrews 12:23). After his resurrection, Jesus ascends to heaven and brings the ransomed dead with him, so that now paradise is no longer down near the place of torment, but is up in the third heaven, the highest heaven, where God dwells 2 Corinthians 12:2–4. Sheol is a Hebrew Term. Hades is a Greek term. Both those terms have no connection to hell. Jesus when he was on the cross, after he uttered the words “It is finished.” The price for our sins was fully paid.