In the apostles’ creed it says that Jesus descended into hell in the three days between death on the cross and resurrection. Do you believe 1) that He did descend into hell (since it’s a creed and not scripture, and 2) if He did, what do you believe the purpose of the visit was?
Yes, I believe Jesus descended into Hell in the sense that the word Hell comes from the Greek Hades which means the abode of the dead. Before the resurrection it included places for both the saved and the unsaved. The place where the saved went was also called Paradise and that’s why Jesus told one of the criminals beside Him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43) After His resurrection Jesus took the saved dead to Heaven.
As for what He did, 1 Peter 3:18-20 tells us that Jesus visited the unsaved dead from the time of Noah during the 3 days He was there, and 1 Peter 4:6 says that He also preached to the saved dead.