Now, I will readily admit that hell, heaven, and end times are not my strongest subjects. While I do assent and recognize that their place in the Bible obliges us to learn what God has revealed to us concerning them, I cannot help but feel the matter of investigating the significance of all these things to be markedly less important than others. Therefore, I know as little as the next, and will rely upon the Spirit of God for illumination, and the writings of the godly men come before us for their wise insights.
I think the most important place to start is with a word study of the significant words in focus. These are the Hebrew
Sheol, and the Greek
Hades, and
Gehenna. Let us first examine the New Testament words.
It is very important to understand the distinction between Hades and Gehenna. That this distinction exists in the Bible is no accident, of course. Of the 11 occurances of Hades in the KJV, 10 of them are translated hell, as opposed to the Analytical-Literal Translation, which
never translates it as hell. The Literal Translation is divided between the two, having 6 Hades and 5 hell. One instance of Hades being translated hell is when Jesus refers to Is. 14:13, 15 in Luke 10:15. The passage in Isaiah has Sheol. Also in Luke 16:23, where the rich man sees Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham. Here, the rich man is said to be in hell (Hades). In Rev. 20:13, 14, the LITV has death (Gr. thanatos) and hell (Gr. Hades). Thus, it reads "death and hell gave up the dead," where the ALT has "death and the realm of the dead gave up the dead."
Sheol is translated "hell," "grave," or "pit." My understanding is that it is translated Hades in the Septuagint (LXX), which is the term used for the place of the dead or where souls go upon death, as opposed to Gehenna, which is hell, that is, eternal fire. Gehenna comes from the Hebrew phrase meaning "Valley of Hinnom," which is the valley outside the Gate of Hinnom in Jerusalem where all the garbage was dumped. Fires burned there continuously in an effort to dispose of the filth and to keep the smell surpressed. This is what is commonly expressed as being what we consider "hell" (everlasting fire). Intestingly, this "version" of hell is nowhere to be found in the Old Testament. Their understanding of hell was limited to Sheol, which is the underworld, the place of the dead.
In Acts 2:27 and 2:31, the ALT has "realm of the dead" and the LITV has "Hades," which means "realm of the dead." Both of these verses are quotations of Psalm 16:10.
(Psalm 16:10 LITV) For You will not leave My soul in Sheol; You will not give Your Holy One to see corruption.
In the Psalm, David uses Sheol. The LXX translates Hades in this verse. On this passage, John Gill says this.
Meaning, not in the place of the damned, where Christ never went, nor was; for at his death his soul was committed to his Father, and was the same day in paradise: but rather, "sheol" here, as "hades" in the New Testament, signifies the state of the dead, the separate state of souls after death, the invisible world of souls, where Christ's soul was; though it was not left there, nor did it continue, but on the third day returned to its body again. (John Gill, Commentary on the Whole Bible, Ps. 16:10).
Adam Clarke also makes some observations concerning this passage.
As to leaving the soul In hell, it can only mean permitting the life of the Messiah to continue under the power of death; for sheol signifies a pit, a ditch, the grave, or state of the dead. . . . All human beings see corruption, because born in sin, and liable to the curse. The human body of Jesus Christ, as being without sin, saw no corruption. (Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, Ps. 16:10).
And, we should also consider Keil & Delitzch:[That] which the apostle in the above passage [1 Th. 5:23] desires for his readers in respect of all three parts of their being, David here expresses as a confident expectation; for [it] implies that he also hopes for his body that which he hopes for his spirit-life centred in the heart, and for his soul raised to dignity both by the work of creation and of grace. He looks death calmly and triumphantly in the face, even his flesh shall dwell or lie securely, viz., without being seized with trembling at its approaching corruption. David's hope rests on this conclusion: it is impossible for the man, who, in appropriating faith and actual experience, calls God his own, to fall into the hands of death. For Ps. 16:10 shows, that what is here thought of in connection with . . . dwelling in safety under the divine protection (Dt. 33:12, 28, cf. Prov. 3:24), is preservation from death. . . . Ps. 16:10 - where to see the grave (Ps. 49:10), equivalent to, to succumb to the state of the grave, i.e., death (Ps. 89:49; Luke 2:26; John 8:51) is the opposite of "seeing life," i.e., experiencing and enjoying it (Ecc. 9:9, John 3:36), the sense of sight being used as the noblest of the senses to denote the sensus communis, i.e., the common sense lying at the basis of all feeling and perception, and figuratively of all active and passive experience (Psychol. S. 234; tr. p. 276) - shows, that what is said here is not intended of an abandonment by which, having once come under the power of death, there is no coming forth again (Böttcher). It is therefore the hope of not dying, that is expressed by David in Ps. 16:10. for by [Holy One] David means himself. [Note: And of course, David prophesied the future fulfillment of this in Christ Jesus as evidenced in Acts 2:27, 31.] (Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, Ps. 16:10).
We see a unifying understanding of the passage taking shape, viz. that by hell (Sheol) David meant death or the realm of the dead, i.e. the underworld. With this understanding of the original verse, it behooves us to turn to the New Testament citation and to attempt to understand it in context with its Old Testament basis.(Acts 2:27, 31 KJV) Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
Here, the word translated "hell" is Hades. Before we look into the verse in greater detail, it would be fitting to read A. T. Robertson's comments on the word Hades.Hades is technically the unseen world, the Hebrew Sheol, the land of the departed, that is death. . . . It is not common in the papyri, but it is common on tombstones in Asia Minor, "doubtless a survival of its use in the old Greek religion" (Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary). The ancient pagans divided Hades (a privative and idein, to see, abode of the unseen) into Elysium and Tartarus as the Jews put both Abrahams bosom and Gehenna in Sheol or Hades (cf. Luke 16:25). Christ was in Hades (Acts 2:27, Acts 2:31), not in Gehenna. We have here the figure of two buildings, the Church of Christ on the Rock, the House of Death (Hades). "In the Old Testament the gates of Hades (Sheol) never bears any other meaning (Is. 38:10; Wisd. 16:3; 3 Maccabees 5:51) than death," McNeile claims. See also Ps. 9:13; Ps. 107:18; Job. 38:17. . . . (Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament, Matt. 16:18).
From this premise, his comments on Acts 2:27 become more clear.Hades is the unseen world, Hebrew Sheol, but here it is viewed as death itself "considered as a rapacious destroyer" (Hackett). It does not mean the place of punishment, though both heaven and the place of torment are in Hades (Luke 16:23). "Death and Hades are strictly parallel terms: he who is dead is in Hades" (Page). The use of eis here = en is common enough. The Textus Receptus here reads eis Haidou (genitive case) like the Attic idiom with domon (abode) understood. "Hades" in English is not translation, but transliteration. The phrase in the Apostles Creed, "descended into hell" is from this passage in Acts (Hades, not Gehenna). The English word "hell" is Anglo-Saxon from helan, to hide, and was used in the Authorized Version to translate both Hades as here and Gehenna as in Matt. 5:22. (ibid. Acts 2:27).
Albert Barnes entreats this same verse masterfully, and I would quote him at length were he not so lengthy. Instead, I will give his two footnotes concerning common misunderstandings drawn from this verse.That nothing is affirmed here about the destination of the human soul of Christ after his death. That he went to the region of the dead is implied, but nothing further. It may be remarked that the Scriptures affirm nothing about the state of his soul in that time which intervened between his death and resurrection. The only intimation which occurs on the subject is such as to leave us to suppose that he was in a state of happiness. To the dying thief he said, "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." When Jesus died, he said, "It is finished"; and he doubtless meant by that that his sufferings and toils for mans redemption were at an end. All suppositions of any toils or pains after his death are fables, and without the slightest warrant in the New Testament. (Albert Barnes' Notes on the New Testament, Acts 2:27).
The full text of his comments can be viewed here: http://www.studylight.org/com/bnn/view.cgi?book=ac&chapter=002.
Thus, the resolution of this matter is that Christ did indeed die, which is inferred from his descending to Hades, where the souls of the dead go. Of course, Christ really did have to die for our sins, for this is the threat made to Adam by God and he must be true to his word. Only Christ's true death would suffice as propiation, and Jesus's descent into Hades was proof of that. Hades does not refer to Gehenna, that is, hell, which is the place of eternal torment. That place is reserved for the devil, his angels, and all who in their folly should follow after him.
So, what we see is that Hades is not a "place," but a state of the soul, i.e. the soul disembodied. Jesus could consistently say that the thief would be with him in paradise, for when Jesus died, he did immediately see paradise. The English phrase that Christ "descended into hell" is a terrible one, for it conjures images of our Lord suffering the flames of eternal torment. This is not the case at all. Jesus died, that is, entered the realm of the dead (Hades), but he was not cast into Gehenna. After three days in Hades, his soul was rejoined with his body and he was resurrected. And all this was done to fulfill the law and the prophets.
Soli Deo Gloria
Jon
