>>18084522 (OP)
there is no explanation in the canonical texts. There was a non-canonical tradition, very popular during the medieval period, called "the harrowing of hell" that answered this question by saying during those three days Jesus went to hell, battled demons, and freed all the righteous souls who had died from the dawn of time to his crucifixion, and led them to heaven. There are many surviving works of art from the medieval period that portray this. I like this Italian fresco from the early 1400s because you can see the door to hell has been booted off its hinges by Jesus and crushed a demonic gatekeeper underneath it.
Today there is a somewhat obscure reference to it in the catholic apostole's creed, which goes:
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen.
Note the line "he descended into hell." That is not in the bible, that's from the harrowing of hell. Always found that ironic considering how aggressive the catholic church was at many times of violently suppressing non-canonical texts.
Also, there are gnostic gospels that do have Jesus laughing at the romans as his spirit departs from the cross, telling them how pathetic they are to think they can harm him, and that the man on the cross they killed was just some poor sod he possessed with his divine essence.
