Basic HTML Version
665
simply identified sheol and the grave; others regard it as the place where the souls of the dead
are retained; and still others, of whom Shedd, Vos, Aalders, and De Bondt may be mentioned,
maintain that the word sheol does not always have the same meaning. It would seem that the
last opinion deserves preference, and that the following can be said respecting its different
meanings:
a. The words sheol and hades do not always denote a locality in Scripture, but are often used in
an abstract sense to designate the state of death, the state of the separation of body and soul.
This state is frequently locally conceived as constituting the realm of death, and is sometimes
represented as a stronghold with gates, which only he who has the keys can lock and unlock,
Matt. 16:18; Rev. 1:18. This local representation is in all probability based on a generalization of
the idea of the grave, into which man descends when he enters the state of death. Since both
believers and unbelievers at the termination of their life enter into the state of death, it can
very well be said figuratively that they are without distinction in sheol or hades. They are all
alike in the state of death. The parallelism clearly shows what is meant in a passage like I Sam.
2:6: “Jehovah killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to sheol, and bringeth up.” Cf. also
Job 14:13,14; 17:13;14; Ps. 89:48; Hos. 13:14, and several other passages. The word hades is
evidently used more than once in the nonlocal sense of the state of the dead in the New
Testament, Acts 2:27,31; Rev. 6:8; 20:28. In the last two passages we have a personification.
Since the terms may denote the state of death, it is not necessary to prove that they never
refer to anything that concerns the righteous and the wicked alike, but only that they do not
denote a place where the souls of both are gathered. De Bondt calls attention to the fact that in
many passages the term sheol is used in the abstract sense of death, of the power of death, and
of the danger of death.
b. When sheol and hades designate a locality in the literal sense of the word, they either refer
to what we usually call hell, or to the grave. Descent into sheol is threatened as a danger and as
a punishment for the wicked, Ps. 9:17; 49:14; 55:15; Prov. 15:11; 15:24; Luke 16:23 (hades). The
warning and threatening contained in these passages is lost altogether, if sheol is conceived of
as a neutral place whither all go. From these passages it also follows that it cannot be regarded
as a place with two divisions. The idea of such a divided sheol is borrowed from the Gentile
conception of the underworld, and finds no support in Scripture. It is only of sheol as the state
of death that we can speak as having two divisions, but then we are speaking figuratively. Even
the Old Testament testifies to it that they who die in the Lord enter upon a fuller enjoyment of
the blessings of salvation, and therefore do not descend into any underworld in the literal sense
of the word, Num. 23:5,10; Ps. 16:11; 17:15; 73:24; Prov. 14:32. Enoch and Elijah were taken
up, and did not descend into an underworld, Heb. 11:5 ff. Moreover, sheol, not merely as a
state, but also as a place, is regarded as in the closest connection with death. If the Biblical