You misrepresent me AGAIN. I have explained before and again today (post #76 above) that I spent over two years in the KJV to DECIDE which afterlife theory was correct. Now "...you started out with preconceptions and you guided your "study" so that you ended up supporting what you had already decided." is something you cannot possibly know, but you plow ahead as if your opinion was carved in stone.
I think YOU are the one with preconceptions.
Oh, and as ever, I reject those biased Jewish sources...well, the Jewish Encyclopedia is sometimes useful.
You want to steer me toward what I'm sure you consider to be good scholarship, but I have seen enough of both scientific and scholarly literature to know that both are divided into bickering camps. The science is NOT settled, and neither is the scholarship. Both are populated by petty, argumentative humans, and what else would anyone expect?
In that 2 year study did you consult either a Hebrew or a Greek lexicon? If you didn't and I am certain you didn't then your "study" was faulty from the start.
Your opinion of the three Jewish sources I cited is meaningless. You did not do a credible study on anything.
†שְׁאוֹל S7585 TWOT2303c GK8619, שְׁאֹל n.f. ψ 86:13 (appar. m. Jb 26:6 cf. Is 14:9, v. Albr xvi (1896), 51) Sheʾôl, underworld (√ dub.; שׁאל, i.e. place of inquiry (ref. to necromancy) Jastr xiv. 170, xix (1900), 88 ff. (JeremLeben n. d. Tode 109 ‘Ort der Entscheidung’); Thes BöDe § 158 Di al. cp. √ שׁעל, whence שֹׁעַל hollow hand, etc.; שׁ׳ then = hollow place, ‘Hölle’, hell; other conj. v. Hup Ps. 6:6; De Is. 5:14 BeerBibl. Hades in HoltzmannFestgabe, 1902, 15; most now refrain from positive etymology (e.g. Buhl); Old Aramaic שאול, Syriac ܫܝܽܘܠ (šyul); Assyrian šu-alu is dub.: so read and interpr. Dl 121; . 47, 145 Jastr xiv. 165 ff. Ency. Bib.s.v.; opp. by Bertin viii. 269 JenKosmol. 223 ff. Zim 3. 636 al.; v. also Muss-Arnolt xi (1892), 169 and reff.);—always abs., שְׁאוֹל Dt 32:22 + 52 times, ה—ָ Gn 42:38 ψ 9:18; שְׁאֹל 1 K 2:6; Jb 17:16, ה—ָ Gn 37:35 + 7 times; + Is 7:11 (so read for שְׁאָ֫לָה Aq Σ Θ Du Che and now most);— 1. the underworld, שׁ׳ תַּחְתִּית Dt 32:22, מִתַּחַת Is 14:9; מִשּׁ׳ מָ֑טָּה Pr 15:24; || מָוֶת 5:5; 7:27; Ct 8:6 ψ 89:49; whither men descend at death, Gn 37:35 (E), 42:38; 44:29, 31 (J), 1 S 2:6; 1 K 2:6, 9; Jb 7:9; 21:13; Is 14:11, 15 ψ 88:4, and Ḳoraḥ and associates go down alive by י׳’s judgment, Nu 16:30, 33 (J), cf. ψ 55:16; under mts. and sea Jb 26:6 (cf. v 5), בֶּטֶן שׁ׳ Jon 2:3 (cf. v 7); with bars Jb 17:16 (si vera l.: v. Du); פִּי שׁ׳ ψ 141:7; שַׁעֲרֵי שׁ׳ Is 38:10; personif. Is 28:15, 18 (|| מות) as insatiable monster 5:14; Hb 2:5; Pr 1:12; 27:20; 30:16; as said (fig.) to have snares, חֶבְלֵי שׁ׳, ψ 18:6 = 2 S 22:6, cf. מְצָרֵי שׁ׳ ψ 116:3; opp. (height of) שָׁמַיִם Am 9:2; Jb 11:8 ψ 139:8 + (opp. לְמָ֑עְלָה) Is 7:11 (v. supra); dark, gloomy, without return Jb 17:13 (cf. v 16; 7:9; 10:21; 16:22; all being alike 3:17–19; 21:23–26); without work or knowledge or wisdom according to Ec 9:5, 6, 10 (cf. Jb 14:21, and v. רְפָאִים sub רפה; yet cf. Is 14:9 f.). 2. condition of righteous and wicked disting. in שׁ׳ (later than 1 S 28, especially in WisdLt): a. wicked יָשׁוּבוּ לִשְׁא֑וֹלָה ψ 9:18, יִדְּמוּ לִשׁ׳ 31:18; death is their shepherd, without power and honour they waste away 49:15(); שׁ׳ consumes them as drought water Jb 24:19; righteous dread it because no praise or presence of God there (as in temple) ψ 6:6 (cf. 88:6), Is 38:18; deliverance from it a blessing ψ 30:4; 86:13; Pr 23:14. In Ezek. שׁ׳ is land below, place of reproach, abode of uncircumcised Ez 31:15, 16, 17; 32:21, 27. b. righteous shall not be abandoned, לשׁ׳ ψ 16:10 (|| שַׁחַת q.v.; opp. אֹרַח הַיִּים, etc., v 11, cf. 17:15), is ransomed from שׁ׳ 49:16 (cf. 73:23, 25; Is 57:1, 2); cf. Job’s expectation and desire Jb 14:13; 17:13 (cf. 10:21; 19:25 f.). 3. later distinction of places in שׁ׳: a. depths of שׁ׳ for sensualist Pr 9:18. b. שׁ׳ וַאֲבַדּוֹן Pr 15:11, v. אֲבַדּוֹן. [שַׁחַת and בּוֹר, q.v., when || שׁ׳, are usually in bad sense (ψ 88:4); prob. = pit in שׁ׳, > שׁ׳ itself as pit; words at least prepare for local distinctions of postB. Judaism and NT.] 4. שׁ׳ fig. of extreme degradation in sin Is 57:9; as place of exile for Israel Ho 13:14() (cf. Is 26:19).
Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 982–983.
