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warnings referred to under (b) have any point. Sheol is actually sometimes contrasted with
shamayim (heavens) as in Job 11:8; Ps. 139:8; Amos 9:2. Scripture also speaks of the deepest or
lowest sheol in Deut. 32:22. The same expression is also found in Ps. 86:13, but in that passage
is evidently used figuratively.
e. Finally, it should be noticed that there was a difference of opinion among scholars as to the
exact subject of the descent into sheol. The prevailing opinion is that man as a whole is the
subject. Man descends into sheol and in some obscure fashion continues his existence in a
world of shadows, where the relations of life still reflect those on earth. This representation
would seem to be most in harmony with the statements of Scripture, Gen. 37:35; Job 7:9;
14:13; 21:13; Ps. 139:8; Eccl. 9:10. There are some which point to the fact that the body is
included. There is danger that Jacob’s “gray hairs” will be brought down to sheol, Gen. 42:38;
44:29,31; Samuel comes up as an old man covered with a robe, I Sam. 28:14; and Shimei’s
“hoar head” must be brought down to sheol, I Kings 2:6,9. But if sheol is a place whither all the
dead go, body and soul, what then is laid in the grave, which is supposed to be another place?
This difficulty is obviated by those scholars who maintain that only the souls descend into sheol,
but this can hardly be said to be in harmony with the Old Testament representation. It is true
that there are a few passages which speak of souls as going down into, or as being in, sheol, Ps.
16:10; 30:3; 86:13; 89:48; Prov. 23:14, but it is a well known fact that in Hebrew the word
nephesh (soul) with the pronominal suffix is often, especially in poetical language, equivalent to
the personal pronoun. Some conservative theologians adopted this construction of the Old
Testament representation, and found in it support for their idea that the souls of men are in
some intermediate place (a place with moral distinctions and separate divisions, however) until
the day of the resurrection.
3. SUGGESTED INTERPRETATION OF SHEOL-HADES.
The interpretation of these terms is by no
means easy, and in suggesting an interpretation we do not desire to give the impression that
we are speaking with absolute assurance. An inductive study of the passages in which the terms
are found soon dissipates the notion that the terms sheol and hades are always used in the
same sense, and can in all cases be rendered by the same word, whether it be underworld,
state of death, grave, or hell. This is also clearly reflected in the various translations of the Bible.
The Holland Version renders the term sheol by grave in some passages, and by hell in others.
The St. James or Authorized Version employs three words in its translation, namely, grave, hell,
and pit. The English Revisers rather inconsistently retained grave or pit in the text of the
historical books, putting sheol in the margin. They retained hell only in Isa. 14. The American
Revisers avoid the difficulty by simply retaining the original words sheol and hades in their
translation. Though the opinion has gained wide currency that sheol is simply the underworld
to which all men descend, this view is by no means unanimous. Some of the earlier scholars