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The Septuagint, the 3rd Century BC Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, almost without exception uses hades as the translation of sheol.
Dr. Luke, in quoting an Old Testament prophecy of Christ: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol” (Psalm 16:10), translates sheol as hades. (See, Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27.) But Luke’s quotation also raises this question:
Rev. 6:8 tells us:
“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”
In this usage, hades could mean the grave, since many are to be killed with the sword. It could also mean very bad things, evil, as in Mat. 16:18.
Finally, we come to Revelation 20:13-14:
“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”
This passage is very strong evidence against the notion of disembodied spirits going to straight to heaven or “Hell” when they die. This is a teaching about the resurrection of the unsaved dead, the Second Resurrection, which takes place after the millennium in heaven, when the New Jerusalem descends to earth.
Some of these dead came from the sea, meaning the sailors and passengers lost or buried at sea over the millennia. The Greek term for them is nekrous, “the dead ones.” To this day, in medical terminology, dead tissue is described as “necrotic.” Others came from thanatos, the personification of death in Greek culture, and from hades, the grave.
Q: If “Hell” meant the burning place, wouldn’t all the unsaved dead have come from there?
Dr. Luke, in quoting an Old Testament prophecy of Christ: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol” (Psalm 16:10), translates sheol as hades. (See, Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27.) But Luke’s quotation also raises this question:
Q: Does anyone really think Christ went to Hell when he died?
A: The truth, of course, is that it is neither. Sheol and hades in Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:27 simply mean the grave; Christ was in the grave from Friday evening to Sunday morning. But, praise be to God, He would not leave Christ in that grave!
In 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” death is translated from a cognate of thanatos, whereas “grave” is from a cognate of hades, yet more evidence that hades is the grave. Incidentally, 1 Corinthians 15:55 expresses much the same idea as Hosea 13:14, where sheol is again translated as “grave.”
Let’s examine each of the ten instances in which hades is translated “Hell” in the King James Bible, New Testament. In Matt. 11:23 (Luke 10:15 is a parallel passage) Jesus says,
“And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell [hades]: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.”
Jesus is condemning those cities because, although He did most of His miracles in them, their people failed to repent and believe.
A: The truth, of course, is that it is neither. Sheol and hades in Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:27 simply mean the grave; Christ was in the grave from Friday evening to Sunday morning. But, praise be to God, He would not leave Christ in that grave!
In 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” death is translated from a cognate of thanatos, whereas “grave” is from a cognate of hades, yet more evidence that hades is the grave. Incidentally, 1 Corinthians 15:55 expresses much the same idea as Hosea 13:14, where sheol is again translated as “grave.”
Let’s examine each of the ten instances in which hades is translated “Hell” in the King James Bible, New Testament. In Matt. 11:23 (Luke 10:15 is a parallel passage) Jesus says,
“And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell [hades]: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.”
Jesus is condemning those cities because, although He did most of His miracles in them, their people failed to repent and believe.
Q: Was the whole city of Caperneum going to be physically removed to heaven, but now the city will go physically to Hell? Would Sodom really still have been there fifteen hundred years later if Jesus had worked miracles there? This is obviously figurative language.
Jesus is saying that Caperneum (and Chorazin and Bethsaida) had an opportunity that almost no one else in world history had: to see the Messiah in person, working miracles. And yet they rejected Him and hence are deserving of severe punishment. Jesus is speaking figuratively to make His point.
In Mat. 16:18, Jesus tells Peter,
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell [hades] shall not prevail against it.”
Here Jesus uses hades a stand-in, not only for death and the grave, but for spiritual forces of wickedness and evil. None of these will prevail against the church built on the Stone that builders rejected, which is become the Cornerstone.
Luke 16:23 is the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Here again, Jesus is meeting people where they are, using figurative language to make a point that has nothing to do with the state of the dead.
Psalm 16:10 was indeed a Messianic prophecy and it was fulfilled by Jesus Christ who indeed was not left in the grave to rot, but was resurrected.
In Rev. 1:18, Christ says,
“I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”
Christ “has the keys” to both the grave and the burning place, but the grave fits better.
Jesus is saying that Caperneum (and Chorazin and Bethsaida) had an opportunity that almost no one else in world history had: to see the Messiah in person, working miracles. And yet they rejected Him and hence are deserving of severe punishment. Jesus is speaking figuratively to make His point.
In Mat. 16:18, Jesus tells Peter,
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell [hades] shall not prevail against it.”
Here Jesus uses hades a stand-in, not only for death and the grave, but for spiritual forces of wickedness and evil. None of these will prevail against the church built on the Stone that builders rejected, which is become the Cornerstone.
Luke 16:23 is the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Here again, Jesus is meeting people where they are, using figurative language to make a point that has nothing to do with the state of the dead.
Psalm 16:10 was indeed a Messianic prophecy and it was fulfilled by Jesus Christ who indeed was not left in the grave to rot, but was resurrected.
In Rev. 1:18, Christ says,
“I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”
Christ “has the keys” to both the grave and the burning place, but the grave fits better.
Q: Why does Christ have the keys to hades, that is, the grave?
A: Because He was alive, then dead, and now He is alive forevermore; because He died, He slept in the grave, and then He was resurrected, so He has the keys to the grave. Again, hades is simply the grave.
Rev. 6:8 tells us:
“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”
In this usage, hades could mean the grave, since many are to be killed with the sword. It could also mean very bad things, evil, as in Mat. 16:18.
Finally, we come to Revelation 20:13-14:
“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”
This passage is very strong evidence against the notion of disembodied spirits going to straight to heaven or “Hell” when they die. This is a teaching about the resurrection of the unsaved dead, the Second Resurrection, which takes place after the millennium in heaven, when the New Jerusalem descends to earth.
Some of these dead came from the sea, meaning the sailors and passengers lost or buried at sea over the millennia. The Greek term for them is nekrous, “the dead ones.” To this day, in medical terminology, dead tissue is described as “necrotic.” Others came from thanatos, the personification of death in Greek culture, and from hades, the grave.
Q: If “Hell” meant the burning place, wouldn’t all the unsaved dead have come from there?
Q: Why would some come from the sea, and some from a generalized “death”?
Clearly, the unsaved dead have not yet faced judgment; they are resurrected from wherever they lay—in the sea, in the grave, or just dead, thanatos—only then to face judgment.
--This passage is also clearly teaching us that death is real.
--This passage is also clearly teaching us that death is real.
The believers in an immortal soul do not believe in death and the.webp)
grave at all; they believe immortality is inherent and universal. No one really dies, they argue, the “dead” just go on living forever, either in heaven or in hell.
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--But Rev. 20:14 tells us that death and the grave are real, and they will not be done away with until after the second resurrection, the execution of judgment, and the second death of the unsaved. Only then will death and the grave themselves be permanently done away with, cast into the lake of fire to be destroyed forever."
F.D. Nichol
F.D. Nichol
