Question: What is the teaching of Holy Scripture as to Sheol or Hades?
1. Does the “three days the Son of man was in the heart of the earth,” and our Lord’s descent “into the lower parts of the earth,” refer to anything more than, in the former the grave; and in the latter the dust of death and the grave?
2. Would it be according to scripture to say that Sheol or Hades (including Abraham’s bosom, and Paradise) were below the earth? and that the Lord Jesus went there and emptied one compartment of it taking them on high? Or was Paradise or Abraham’s bosom always in heaven, and never below the earth even in Old Testament times?
3. If so what is the force of such expressions as going down into Sheol?
4. Is the “bottomless pit” distinct from Hades?
5. Could the word Sheol or Hades be applied to heaven in that it also was part of the unseen?
J. C. B.
Answer: The Old Testament word “Sheol” occurs sixty-five times and is translated in our Authorized Version thirty-one times by “grave,” three times by “pit,” and thirty-one times by “hell”; so that our excellent translators of 1611 did not consider the word of uniform signification.
It is represented in the Greek Version sixty-one times by Hades (ἄδης); twice (2 Samuel 22:6; Proverbs 23:14) by “death” (θἁνατος); whilst in two passages (Job 24:19; Ezekiel 32:21) no exact counterpart of the Hebrew clauses is reproduced in the Septuagint, and so the rendering of the word in these instances does not appear.
Now in the following passages (to give no more), Genesis 37:35; 42:38; 44:29, 31; Numbers 16:30, 33; 1 Kings 2:6, 9; Psalm 49:15 his; 141:7, Sheol cannot well mean anything but “the grave,” and is so rendered in our Authorized Version (excepting Num. 16, where they say “pit”); whilst elsewhere for the most part its general reference is to the place of departed spirits. The grave receives the inanimate body. Thus in the Old Testament Sheol is used for both receptacles.
When, however, we turn to the New Testament this indefiniteness disappears. For life and incorruptibility are now brought to light through the gospel. Hades, the general representative of the word Sheol, is in the New Testament restricted to the unseen world of separate spirits, as “death,” or the grave, applies (Rev. 20) only to the body, and not to soul nor to spirit. It is the body that dies; whilst the spirit returns to God who gave it. The spirit and soul never cease to exist, whether for weal or for woe. Further, Hades receives only the wicked; the believer, if called to die, goes not to Hades, but to paradise.
Yet it has been supposed that to Hades both good and bad alike go, at death, with the two classes nevertheless separated there by a great gulf; but scripture nowhere speaks of the good being in Hades, but rather as “afar off” from those there. Certainly, if Psalm 16:10 (twice quoted in the Acts, chap. 2) be considered as teaching that our Lord on dying did go to Sheol, or Hades, His soul being not left there then—as we know He went to paradise (a garden of delight, not of darkness), where also the dying robber was received—there must in that case have been two parts for good and bad respectively. But this mistake arises from a faulty translation of the Psalm in our 1611 version. What the verse does say is, Thou wilt not leave (abandon, or, relegate) my soul to (not in) Sheol (see R.V.), and this rendering is confirmed also by the corrected text of Acts 2:27 (accepted by the Critical Editors Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, and the Revisers.
Again, Hades is never spoken of in the New Testament in a good sense. If there was a good part of Hades, as well as a bad part, why should we read of its allotment to the wicked invariably, whilst no hint is given of the good being there also?
By “the heart,” or “lower parts,” of the earth, we understand the grave. Our Lord not only died, but “was buried” and “rose again the third day.” Of this Jonah was a sign. Psalm 139:15 may serve to guard us from a too literal interpretation of the words which would seem to indicate that by the lowest parts of the earth is meant what is plainly out of sight— “in secret.” The sepulcher was made sure and the stone sealed (Matthew 27:66). Thus no human eye should peer into that holy domain where lay the body of Jesus.
Before the Savior came Abraham’s bosom represented the acme of bliss to the pious Jew, seeing that Abraham was called the friend of God! To be “with Christ” is the Christian’s blissful prospect as now revealed. This is in the paradise of God, above. Paradise is not Hades, nor was Abraham in Hades, but seen “afar off” by the tormented soul that was in Hades. It is a dream of man that our Lord went to Hades and delivered any there from. Not to Hades but to paradise the Lord went. Nor does scripture give any hint of deliverance from Hades. Judges 5:12; Psalm 68:18; Ephesians 4:8 speak not of the liberating of prisoners, but of the leading captive the oppressive powers of evil, here called “captivity.” Christ has spoiled the [wicked] principalities and the powers and made a show of them openly, in His triumph over them (Col. 2:15). He led captivity captive; not a word as to setting free hell’s captives, as some would make out.
“Going down” to Sheol—the grave or the pit being ocularly beneath us.
The bottomless pit (Revelation 20) is not where man is but where Satan will be bound for a thousand years, preliminary to his being cast into the lake of fire for eternity; whereas Hades receives the spirits of those who have died—the wicked dead whose spirits once inhabited a mortal body. The soul and spirit go to Hades, whilst the body made of dust has meanwhile its part in “the grave” (whether it be sea or land), awaiting its resurrection to judgment. When “man” is raised, the earth and heavens being no more, he is cast—not into Hades (which finds place no longer), but into the lake of fire prepared (not for man but) for the devil and his angels. The believer, if put to sleep, is raised, not for judgment, but for glory (Philippians 3:20, 21).
Sheol or Hades cannot be applied to heaven, but is in contrast with heaven, as it is its opposite.