The word "hades" does not appear in the King James Version of the Bible. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word most commonly translated "hell" is sheol, the grave. Thus many people say that the Old Testament had no conception of an afterlife. In the New Testament there are two Greek words that the King James Version often translated as "hell"—hades and gehenna (geennan). Hades is used eleven times, and gehenna twelve times.
The term "hades" comes from Greek mythology. (Hades belongs to the first generation of OLYMPIANS, being the brother of Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter. After the war agains the TITANS, the three brothers divided the world, and Hades was allotted the dominion of the Underworld, while Poseidon ruled the sea and Zeus the Heavens. ) It was the world of the dead and Hades was the God of the underworld (Pluto was the Roman equivalent). Most of the times the word is used in the New Testament it can be translated as "the grave." (Matt 11:23; Lk 10:15; Acts 2:27, 31 where it is a translation of an Old Testament passage using "sheol") In 1 Cor 15:55 the KJV actually translates it as "grave": "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" If this is the common meaning, then that may give a different slant on Matt 16:18, "upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." That would make it read, "the gates of the grave will not prevail." Carrying through with that idea are the four times in Revelation where the word is used (1:18, 6:8, 20:13, 14), where it is always used with the word "death." Hades is cast, with death, into the lake of fire (Rev 20:14), so is not equivalent to the final punishment.
The term "hell" in the New Testament is generally from the word "gehenna", which is a variation on the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom. This was a valley outside the walls of Jerusalem where, in the years shortly before the Babylonian captivity, some people burned their children to "Molech", the King of the Gods. It later became a city dump, and fires were constantly breaking out there. In the New Testament it is often associated with fire. (Matt 5:22; Matt 18:9; Mk 9: 43, 45, 47; Jas 3:6) It is spoken of as a place of destruction of the body and soul (Matt 5: 29, 30; Matt 10:28; Matt 18:9; Matt 23:15, 33; Mk 9:43, 45, 47; Lk 12:5). Although the word is not specifically used in Revelation, it may be that it could be equated with the lake that burns with fire.
The other instance of the word "hades" is Luke 16:23, in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Here it is a place of torment, and the only time it is mentioned in connection with fire. It is contrasted with "Abraham's bosom," where Lazarus was taken. It is clearly distinct from the pleasant place of the dead. It is pictured as a place of the dead while there are still others on Earth—therefore before the final judgement. Because of this and the passage in Rev 20:14 it has been theorized that when a man dies he goes either to hades or to "Abraham's bosom" . Then when Christ comes again for the final judgement those who are in "Abraham's bosom" will be judged and taken to heaven, while those in hades will be sentenced to eternal punishment in the lake of fire, which they then call hell.
So the essential difference between hades and hell is that hades is generally associated with death and the grave while hell is generally associated with burning and punishment. For all practical purposes in our lives here on Earth there is possibly no real major distinction between the two. They are both characterized as places we don't want to go.
Taken from Minutes with Messiah
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This is a good example of what happens when one is trying to make what the Bible says conform to a doctrine, instead of just letting what is in the Bible speak for itself, and the doctrinal chips fall where they may.
ReplyDeleteAll these different terms--Hell, Hades, Gehenna, Sheol--only make sense once one lets go of the ideas that the modern Bible is consistent, inerrant, and every word of it inspired directly by God.
The fact is that it's full of contradicting ideas, and as it pertains to Hell, an evolution of ideas.
I've actually written an entire book on this topic--"Hell? No! Why You Can Be Certain There's No Such Place As Hell," (for anyone interested, you can get a free Ecopy of my book at my website: www.ricklannoye.com), but in a nutshell, here's what these terms really mean:
Sheol was the place where, in the Old Testament days, everyone's soul or "shade" went to after death. It was basically a large, underground cave. The upper part of the cave was a place of rest for those who had been buried properly, and whose descendents kept their memory alive. Those improperly buried, who were childless and forgotten went to the "Pit" or the lower part of Sheol, not because they were evil or unbelieving.
Hades was the place of the dead imported from Greek converts to Christianity, and it is, indeed, often translated as "Hell" in the King James Bible.
The 2 concepts were mashed together by the time of Jesus, when the lower part of Sheol took on a punitive purpose, thanks to Greek influence.
What's interesting, though, is that there's substantial evidence contained in the gospels to show that Jesus opposed the idea of Hell. For example, in Luke 9:51-56, is a story about his great disappointment with his disciples when they actually suggested imploring God to rain FIRE on a village just because they had rejected him. His response: "You don't know what spirit is inspiring this kind of talk!" Presumably, it was NOT the Holy Spirit. He went on, trying to explain how he had come to save, heal and relieve suffering, not be the CAUSE of it.
So it only stands to reason that this same Jesus, who was appalled at the very idea of burning a few people, for a few horrific minutes until they were dead, could never, ever burn BILLIONS of people for an ETERNITY!
True, there are a few statements that made their way into the gospels which place Hell on Jesus lips, but these adulterations came along many decades after his death, most likely due to the Church filling up with Greeks who imported their belief in Hades with them when they converted.