HADES THE PLACE OF THE DEAD
By
PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D.
Notwithstanding
the amount of distinct revelation, the whole subject of Hades is obscured to
the reader of the English Version of the Bible by the erroneous rendering of
the Hebrew term Sheol and its Greek equivalent Hades.
These words which in the original
Scriptures have a fixed and definite meaning, indicating a place in the
Unseen World distinct from both Heaven and Hell [the lake of fire]
(regarded as the place of final punishment), are constantly rendered by either
grave or Hell. By this mistranslation
an idea proper to the Word of God is completely blotted out from the English
Version; and, not only so, but the texts which present that idea are
distributed amongst those which set forth two entirely distinct ideas - thus
obscuring the teachings of Scripture concerning both the grave and Hell [Hades]. But the obscuring and confusing influence
of this erroneous translation does not terminate upon those who study only the
English Version. The first and most
enduring conceptions of the doctrines of Scripture are derived from the Version
we read in childhood - conceptions which, even when false, subsequent study
often fails to eradicate. And beyond
this, every Version, especially the one in common use, is, to a certain extent,
a Commentary, and as such exerts a powerful influence over the minds of
students of the original Scriptures. Had
the word Hades been reproduced in our Version, much of the confusion that now
embarrasses this subject could never have found existence.
As
to the mode of the investigation conducted in this study, all the passages in
which Hades occurs were tabulated and compared together with the view of
determining whether, consistently with the contextual requirements of each,
some uniform meaning might not be given to the term. The experiment was successful beyond most
sanguine expectation. It resulted in the
conviction that by Hades is designated (1) not the grave; (2) not Hell; (3) not
the Unseen World, including Heaven and Hell; (4) not the state of death: (5)
but - (a) a place in the Unseen World
distinct from both Heaven and Hell; (b) having two compartments - one of comfort, the other of misery.
Hades
is spoken of with expressions of comparison utterly inconsistent with the idea
of the literal grave. Thus we read of -
"The lowest Hades"
(Deut. 32: 22; Psa. 86:
13) "the depths of
Hades" (Prov. 9: 18
); "the midst
of Hades" (Ezek. 32: 21). It is in two instances clearly distinguished
from the grave. In Gen. 37: 35, where it first appears in the Bible,
Jacob declares- "I will go down
into Hades unto my son";
but from verse 33 we learn that the
Patriarch was under the impression
that Joseph [as regarding his body] had not, and could not have, a grave; he is there
represented as exclaiming, "An evil beast hath devoured him." And in Isaiah 14:
15 it is declared that Lucifer shall be "brought
down to Hades," who, verse
19, is represented as being "cast out of
his grave." It is used in
antithesis with Heaven under circumstances which show that the literal grave
cannot be intended. "It is as high as Heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than Hades, what canst thou know?"
(Job 11: 8). "If I ascend up
into Heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in Hades, behold, thou art there
" (Psa. 139: 8). "Though
they dig into Hades, thence shall mine hand take them: though
they climb up to Heaven, thence will I bring them down"
(Amos 9: 2).
The
New Testament idea of Hades as distinct from the grave may be most clearly
perceived in the declaration concerning Dives in Luke
16: 23; and in the didactic teaching of the Apostle Peter (Acts 2: 27-31) concerning the soul of
Jesus between His death and His resurrection.* The Apostle, manifestly, spoke of both the body
and the soul of our Lord (comp. verses
27 and 31, asserting that the former
did not see corruption (although it was placed in a sepulchre) and that the
latter was not left in Hades - implying, of course, that it went to Hades. Unless we adopt the conclusion that the
soul sleeps with the dead body in the tomb - in the face of the manifest
implications of the Apostle and the whole tenor of the Word of God - Hades must
be distinct from the tomb.
[* The soul
is the person, and the body is the tent or the
flesh of the soul; and, most important of all,
the spirit from God, gives life to both body
and soul. The spirit
leaves the body and returns to God at the time of death: As the body without the spirit is dead
]
The
underlying thought in the Lord's narrative of Dives seems to be that Hades is a
world to which the spirits *[souls] of all the dead are consigned, having two
compartments - one of comfort, and the other of misery - separated by an
impassable gulf or chasm, but within speaking distance of each other. That our Lord did not intend to represent Lazarus
as in Heaven seems to be evident. The
place of his abode is not styled Heaven, but Abraham's
bosom;*- he is not represented as being carried up to it
(the general form of expression when Heaven is the terminus), he is simply
carried; it is within speaking distance of Dives, being separated from him only
by a chasm - but Heaven and Hades are represented as being poles apart:
It is as high as Heaven - deeper than Hades (Job 11: 8) its central figure is not God, but
Abraham. God is not there in His glory,
nor angels save as ministers of transportation; it is not represented as a
place of perfect bliss - Lazarus is merely comforted - a
term never used in descriptions of the blessedness of Heaven. The
hypothesis that Jesus contemplated Lazarus as in Hades not only gives force and
consistency to the whole narrative, but is directly in accordance with the
natural interpretation of the brief and scattered teachings of the Old
Testament concerning the abode of the righteous dead.
[* The narrative itself suggests
the idea that the phrase Abrahams Bosom might
have been a Jewish name for the place of departed souls.]
It
is a well known fact that there are two words in the Greek Testament which in
the English Version are rendered Hell - Hades and Ghenna. Our
Lord is represented as employing the former of these only three times - in
reference to the humiliation of Capernaum (Matt.
11: 23; Luke 10: 15); to the deliverance of the Church from its power (Matt. 16: 18); and to the imprisonment of the disembodied
spirit*[soul]
of Dives (Luke 16: 23). When he uttered His fearful threatenings
concerning the casting of both body and soul into Hell, into unquenchable fire,
the term employed by him was Gehenna; see Matt. 5: 22, 29, 30; 10: 28; 18: 9; 23: 15, 33; Mark 9: 43-47;
Luke 12: 5.
Directly
in line with the teachings thus developed are those of the Apostles. Peter and
Jude (2 Pet. 2: 4; Jude 6) agree in
declaring that the angels who kept not their first estate are "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the
judgment of the great day." Are
they not in the pit of the abyss (with the exception of those permitted for a
season to come forth with their leader), reserved for that awful day when, with
Satan, they shall be cast into that everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and
his angels? The "everlasting destruction" threatened in 2 Thess. 1: 9, is to be
inflicted after Jesus has come in flaming fire taking vengeance - after His
advent for judgment. Until that time
also, when "the Lord cometh with ten, thousand of
His saints to execute judgment upon all," "is reserved the blackness of darkness forever"
which the Apostle Jude teaches us is reserved for the ungodly, Jude 11-15. That the ungodly are in Hades all admit, but
they are not yet in their place of final and everlasting* punishment - they are
not yet in Hell [the lake of fire].
[Note. The word everlasting (Gk. aionios) should also be translated age-lasting
where the context indicates. See Heb. 5: 9.]
The Hades of the good is not
Heaven.
This
is evident from the following considerations:
(1)
God, angels, Jesus Christ (save during the time between His death and
resurrection), are never represented as abiding therein. This is scarce
explicable on the hypothesis that Hades is a general term for the Unseen World.
It may be said, however, that the term is employed only in reference to the
spirits *[souls] of deceased men. This
answer, it will be observed, exceedingly limits the hypothesis we are
considering.
(2)
Hades, as an entirety, is distinguished from Heaven. This is done in two distinct modes. (a) By
being placed in antithesis therewith, as in Job 11:
8 - "It is as high as Heaven; what canst
thou do? deeper than Hades; what canst thou know?"
See also Psa. 139: 8;
Amos 9: 2. (b) By being localized
as beneath the surface of the earth. Thus
it is described by the synonym "nether parts of
the earth"; and approach to it is universally described as a
descent - thus (Num. 16: 33)
Korah and his company are described as going "down alive into Hades" through the opening earth. (3) Not only is the idea of situation
beneath the earth presented when the wicked are spoken of, but also when the
entrance thereinto of the righteous is described. Not only is it declared that Korah and his company "went
down alive into (the pit)
Hades"; but, also, Jacob exclaimed (Gen. 37: 35), - "I
will go down into Hades unto my son..." Not only did Saul ask the witch of Endor "to bring up Samuel"
(1 Sam. 28: 8), thus testifying to the
popular belief as to the descent of the spirits *[i.e.,
disembodied souls] of the good; and not only
did the terrified woman exclaim (verse 13)
"I saw gods ascending out of
the earth," but the spirit* of Samuel (unquestionably his spirit *
raised, not by the incantations of the woman, but by the power of God) is
represented as saying to the King (verse 15)
"Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up?"
Of Elijah [and Enoch] alone of all the
Old Testament saints it is said that he ascended, and of him alone it is said
that he went into Heaven. - [This could not
have been the highest Heaven - the throne of God. See John 3: 13.]. Unquestionably, the idea of the Hades of the
good presented in the Old Testament, is that of a
subterranean place distinct from Heaven. In strict accordance with the uses loquendi of the Old Testament, our Lord when
He referred to His own abiding in Hades spoke of it as remaining "three days and nights in the heart of the earth"
(Matt. 12: 40); and the Apostle Paul in
referring to the same event (Eph. 4: 9)
wrote of Jesus as "descending into the lower parts of the earth"
- a well-established Old Testament synonym for Hades.
The
real grounds of the opinion that Hades is a state, and not a place,
are, as it seems to the writer, philosophical and theological, and not
exegetical. There are those whose
psychological views cause them to shrink from any localization of a pure spirit
* and who, therefore, affirm that Hades must indicate a state. The same views,
it may be remarked, should lead, and in many cases do lead, to the affirmation
that the terms Heaven and Hell are indicative, not of places, but of mere
conditions of the soul. Another ground
is what may be styled the pseudo-scientific. It seems plain that if the language of
Scripture is to be interpreted normally, the location of Hades is in the heart
of the earth. There are many who
shrink from this opinion as though it must be false. Why false? If Hades be a place, it must be somewhere;
and if somewhere, why not in the centre of the earth as well as elsewhere? True Science, which confesses its ignorance
concerning the internal condition of our globe, can, on this question, neither affirm nor deny.
-------
FOOTNOTE
[* It is
true to say there are spirits in Hades. However, these angelic creatures and are not disembodied
human souls.
It
would appear also that there are those described as spirits in prison. These are described as the Nephilim or giants (Gen. 6.),
who were judged in the flesh like men, they might live
in the spirit like God (1 Pet. 4: 6).
They were born as a result of intercourse between the
sons of God (angels), and the daughters of men. These may have be the spirits in prison, preached to by Christ/Messiah before
His resurrection, (2 Pet. 3: 19, 20).]