Sheol/Hades: What is it? Written by Samuel Frost Friday, 30 November 2007 17:03 The only way to answer that question is to look at the occurrences in the Bible. Sheol (lAav.) is the Hebrew term we are interested in. The first occurrences are in Genesis (Gn). All four occurrences there are utterances of Jacob (37.35; 42.38; 44.29; 44.31). Jacob saw himself, in the end of his life, as one going down to the grave (sheol). Note the directional location. The DOTTE (Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, Ed., Van Gemeren) notes that this place of the dead is a place in which the righteous and the unrighteous dwell. This is confirmed in that Jacob viewed the end of his life as one going down to sheol. Numbers (Nu) 16.30 confirms that the unrighteous go there, too. There is a connection in this passage that the earth opens its mouth and swallows them and the locational direction of down hinted at as well. This metaphor is used in Revelation 12.16. The whole scene in Nu deals with Korah's rebellion against Moses. God's wrath is said to burn to the realm of the deepest depth (sheol) (Dt Hannah's Song states that God makes alive; he brings down to sheol and he raises up (I Sa 2.6). What is of interest there is that Hannah's Song serves as an introductory psalm to I & II Samuel. The latter book closes with Psalm 18 (II Sa 22). Both are closely paralleled in vocabulary. At the end of the first book, Saul (whose name is spelled like sh'l as with the Hebrew sh'l sheol) goes to the Witch of Endor (I Sa 28). There, the witch conjures up Samuel (the Hebrew uses bring up Samuel 28.11 and I see a spirit coming up out of the ground 28.13). The direction of up indicates that Samuel is down in the ground. He is in sheol. Samuel speaks to Saul and tells him that tomorrow you and your sons will be with me (28.19). Samuel, we know, is righteous. He is a true servant of the LORD. However, Saul was pitiful. His last act was witchcraft. His death is horrible. Jonathon, the righteous son of Saul, died with him on the battlefield. Yet, Samuel says that both Saul and Jonathan will be with Samuel where he is. Clearly, then, the righteous and the wicked ended up in the same place: sheol. Hannah's Song reflects that God causes to go down to sheol and brings up from sheol as well. The Hebrew word for bring up in Hannah's Song is alah, the same word in 28.11 (whom shall I bring up?). The Witch claims to bring up but it is God that actually brings up from sheol. 32.22). The majority of occurrences of this word (and its Greek counterpart hades) are found in the Wisdom Literature of the Bible (Psalms, Proverbs, Job). In Job the place of sheol is described as a realm from which no one returns (7.9). 14.7-19 is an interesting passage. There, Job cries for God to hide him in sheol until his anger has passed. Job's hope is that God would renew him later on. However, hope is destroyed by God (14.19). At least a tree has hope, but a man has no hope. Gloomy indeed. Further, Job says that his hope is in sheol. But, even there, there is no hope. Will hope go down to the gates of sheol? Will we [Job and Hope] descend together into the dust? (17.13-16). The parallelism here is obvious: sheol and dust are synonymous. The place of the dust is the place of the grave or sheol. For Job, the wicked and the righteous end up in the same place. But, Job does have hope. It is quite foggy, but it is there nonetheless. The psalmists present the same picture. No one praises God from sheol (Ps 6.5). The wicked return to sheol (9.17). 49.14-15 states that the wicked are destined for sheol, but so is the writer of this psalm. However, `But God will redeem my soul from sheol; he will surely take me to himself.' Here, the soul (nephesh) is said to one day be `redeemed' from sheol. Now, if this righteous author's soul is to be redeemed from sheol, then, one may ask, what was it doing there in the first place? Psalm 55 is even more explicit: I am set apart with the deadwhom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care (55.5). Verse 3 mentions sheol.Psalm 89.48 asks, What man can live and not see death or save his soul from the power of sheol? What is of interest here is the phrase see death and save his soul from sheol are paralleled. Seeing death is the same as going to sheol. Jesus promised those in Jhn 8.51 that if a man believes in him, he shall not ever see death. Was Jesus looking forward to a time when sheol/hades would be no more (Rev 20.14)? I am getting ahead of myself. Eccl 9.10 states plainly that all end up in sheol. Is 5.14 states that Israel's rebellious lot will end up in sheol. The mouth" of sheol enlarges itself. This is the same imagery already seen in Nu above. The earth opened up and swallowed up the wicked rebellion into sheol. It should start becoming plain that death, sheol, dust, and grave all can be used interchangeably. Before aving the psalms, there is one more interesting use of the term. It is used in the context of those who are still physically alive. Ps 18.5 states that the cords of sheol coiled around me, the snares of death confronted me. Again, the parallel death and sheol is obvious. In 30.3-12 the parallels confirm my position. There, David stated that God `brought me up from sheol' (the Hebrew for `brought up' here is alah as well). Did David physically die? Since God so redeemed him, David asks, What gain is there in me going to the pit (another word for sheol)? Will the dust praise you? (30.9). Further, you removed my sackcloth (30.11). Sackcloth and ashes (dust) are a sign of mourning. Rising up from the dust is a sign of rejoicing and `being clothed with joy' (30.11). One set of clothes is taken away for another set of clothes. 86.13 again states that the writer's soul was delivered from sheol. 116.3 speaks of the anguish of sheol that came upon the writer. `The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of sheol came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.' What does `trouble' and `sorrow' have to do with sheol? David was confronted by death and the cords of sheol. But, the psalm there was about David being confronted with the enemies of Israel. Is sheol something that stirs up trouble and grief? Does it produce anguish and doubt, as in Job? If sheol was removed, would the grief, doubt, anguish, trouble and despair that it produced be wiped away as well? Not that all forms of trouble would cease, but at least knowing that sheol was not a place where one was going, where God remembers no more the dead, where worms, and destruction reside would seem to provide a great comfort. If I knew that my soul would never see sheol, then all of the anguish that going to sheol stirred up, and knowing that I was going to sheol caused, would disappear. No wonder Job, Jacob, David and the psalmists did not want to go to sheol. The very thought of going there was terrifying. The very knowledge of knowing that this was their lot was troubling. When situations like war or trouble caused near death incidents, the writers were in fear of drawing near to sheol. It was fear of death. This, as our survey has shown, was even a fear the righteous entertained. The Bible has a term for those in sheol. We translate is as shades. For example, Psalm 88.1 states, Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades arise and praise you? (NAB). The word for shades there is rephaim. The King James translates this as the dead in this verse. However, dead is used in the first clause, do you work wonders for the dead and the parallel, are the shades raised? The answer is no. The Greek word here in the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, used in Paul's day) is the word we translate as resurrection. Thus, shall the shades be resurrected? Further, Pr 2.18: For her house leads down to death, And her paths to the dead. (New King James). Here, death comes before dead in this translation, but the word dead is rephaim. Young's Literal translates it as shades. Pr 9.18 is But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell. (King James). The first clause has dead (rephaim) and the second phrase depths of hell is sheol! This is as clear as the Scriptures can get: theshades dwell in sheol. These are spirits or souls that dwell in sheol. not care to go there, either.I wouldOn further study, Dead they are, they have no life, shades that cannot rise; For you have punished and destroyed them, and wiped out all memory of them. (Isaiah 26.14, New American) The first word dead is the regular Hebrew word. The second word is shades in this translation. The Greek version clearly states that the `dead ones' (nekroi) are not `resurrected.' All memory of them is wiped out (from the land of the living). God knows them, though. This is interesting here, because some in Corinth were saying the same thing: `there is no resurrection from the dead ones (nekroi)' (I Co 15.12). Quite possibly, these Gentile converts of Paul, reading the Greek Old Testament, understood that the shades or the dead ones do not rise, as affirmed by David in Ps 88.1 and here by Isaiah. Were they reading these texts? The vocabulary is remarkably the same. Isaiah, however, did not stop there. A few verses later, in the same chapter (26.19), he wrote, Your dead ones shall be raised -- My dead body they rise. Awake and sing, ye dwellers in the dust, For the dew of herbs is thy dew, And the land of shades thou causest to fall. Here, the `dead ones' mentioned in 26.14 are promised that life. The next phrase `my dead body (singular) they shall awake'. `My dead body' refers to Isaiah's body? The dead shall resurrect from the dead. The translation here is extremely difficult. The NIV has their dead bodies will rise (plural) which is surely misleading. It could be Messianic: `The Lord's dead (who dwell in sheol) will be raised in my body they will live.' Thus, the dead come alive in the body of Christ. It is difficult here, but, for right now, and for our study, the `land of the shades' as it is called (sheol) God will cause to fall. Isaiah 26.20-21 speak that in that day, the Lord's wrath will be for a little time and the earth will no longer cover her slain. That is, they will be uncovered. Is 27.1-13 continues this prophetic discourse ending it with in that day Israel with the Gentiles will be gathered up and in that day a great trumpet will sound and the inhabitants of the land will come and worship in Jerusalem. Sounds like New Testament eschatology! If the souls of all men in Adam became shades in the land of the shades (sheol), and they are also called the dead ones and promised that those who hoped in the Lord their soul shall be delivered from sheol as seen in the psalms above, then has Jesus, through the resurrection of his dead body raised up those in sheol in his body of the resurrection? Is this the Pauline doctrine of the resurrection of the dead? No one could, by themselves, of their own power, raise themselves from this place. Unless Jesus died as a man, and entered sheol as a man, then no man could have ever been redeemed. I have written these things for some truths to chew on in your own studies. But, one thing must also be pointed out: the destruction of sheol/Hades. Revelation 20.14 states quite plainly that at the resurrection of the dead, hades is thrown into the lake of fire. The inhabitants of sheol are released, some to everlasting life, and others to eternal judgment. These are the nations that are spoken of in the Old Testament. God had gathered them together and he judged them before his throne. This was the great judgment. We are living on this side of the judgment. Now, one last nugget: Is 25.6-8, in the same context we have discussed above, looks forward to a day when the death will be swallowed up in victory (25.8). This is quoted by Paul in I Co 15.54. The death is clearly linked with sheol and the shades. The death ruled over these souls, all souls. Jesus, we Preterists affirm with the Bible, has destroyed the death entirely, and has raised out of sheol those who are his in his own body and made alive those on earth by his Spirit. Why make eschatology any more complicated than the simple good news that it is?