WHAT IS HELL? Welcome to Hell Three: "Hades"

Welcome to Hell Three: “Hades”
By F. Ellsworth Lockwood
November 4, 2007

Welcome to Hades (Or Hell Part Three), in which an amateur bible student pokes around scriptures looking for The Devil in Hell, but the creature he finds in charge may surprise you!


My "Grandpa" Thomas John was really my great-grandfather, not my grandfather, but he raised my mom, and we lived with him too, so we all called him Grandpa. I can still see Grandpa’s cabin in my mind’s eye, sitting at a pine table, wearing a tattered sport coat and a gravy-stained necktie, his usual attire. I like to remember him making tea with real tea leaves, and then using those tea leaves to tell our fortunes.


Too polite for hell? 

Grandpa never cussed but he could still get his point across. For example, if someone left quickly he might say, “He took off like a bat out of Hades!"

That bat-line was one of his favorite expressions for anything that happened rapidly.

Today Grandpa is in Hell, having died in 1963, and I trust that in hell he will remain until the Resurrection.

Yes, Grandpa is in Hell! But that does not necessarily mean he is in torment: According to the bible, Hades (or Hell) is the place that welcomes all, saint and sinner alike, after death.

“Hades” (AKA "Hell") is the Hebrew word for "the common grave," according to all recognized bible translators. As the bible was translated from language to language, the Greek word Hades replaced the Hebrew word "Sheol" and both words mean "the grave" but were translated as “Hell” in the King James Version of the Bible. Hell in most references means simply, "the common grave." (If that sounds confusing, it is just because The KJV was an English translation of Greek translations which were translations of Hebrew or Aramaic translations.)

As noted in Word-Study Part Two, the word Hades was used in Greek translations such as the Septuagint, Septuagint meaning “Seventy” because supposedly seventy translators had worked to produce this Greek translation. The Seventy probably searched for a translation of the word “Sheol” and found no identical Greek counterpart, because the Greek concept of an afterlife was somewhat different from the Jewish concept. The two notions of an afterlife may have been similar in some ways, but different in others. So “Sheol was rendered “Hades,” because, without the extra connotations, both words can carry the same literal meaning as the present English word “grave.“

When both words are translated literally (stripped of the mythologies of their respective afterlife concepts), the words are the same: Hades is the Greek word for “the grave, “just as “Sheol” is the Jewish word for the grave.

The big shocker: Hades was not ruled by Satan or any Devil but by the Greek God Hades himself! Furthermore, although Hades was not a "warm and fuzzy" guy, neither was he actively seeking to destroy souls: Hades was pretty much neutral concerning the sins of Hell's inhabitants!

According to Wikipedia:

“Despite modern connotations of death as "evil", Hades (the god of the
underworld)was actually more altruistically inclined in mythology. Hades was
often portrayed as passive rather than evil; his role was often maintaining
relative balance.”

In spite of the similarities between Sheol and Hades, the two words have different connotations. In the early Greeks' notions of Hades, there were no ideas of special rewards or special punishments. (The idea of judgment in Hades came later in Greek mythology, and I am not sure whether it was present at the time of Christ.) Nevertheless, with or without the blessing and cursing, the place, Hades, is somewhat gloomy. Bible translators formerly used the word hell rather than to resort to translations closer to the original, but that has changed now.

This is not much comfort to an old liberal like me, however, seeing as by the time of Christ the Jewish notion was that some people in the grave awaited in comfort while others (the unrighteous) were in ... let's say ... a great deal of discomfort. And even the Greek version was just much too claustrophobic for comfort. (Well, I said I was going to study the biblical versions of hell, not that I was going to like what I read. Nor that I would necessarily accept them at face value.)

As noted in Wikipedia:

“Hades ruled the dead, assisted by others over whom he had complete authority. He strictly forbade his subjects to leave his domain and would become quite enraged when anyone tried to leave, or if someone tried to steal the souls from his realm. His wrath was equally terrible for anyone who tried to cheat death or otherwise crossed him…”

(As an aside: Perhaps the above quote is a key to understanding the bible verse that says the “gates of hell shall not prevail against” the church. Could this refer to the idea of the resurrection, when Christ will invade Hades and do a "rescue operation?"
Like the Pharisees, the biblical Jesus probably believed in the resurrection from the dead. Furthermore, one bible verse specifically says that those that are in the grave shall arise, another verse claims that those who are “asleep” (in the Greek netherworld?) will hear the trump of God and arise from the dead. It seems that Christianity originally taught that Jesus would empty the graves, perhaps literally raising people from the grave.)

At any rate, Hades is not the same as Sheol. The place, Hades, is ruled by a God of the same name, Hades, who is part of a gross Greek pantheon and is stuck in the underworld as a result of his conflicts with Zeus.

Also according to Wikipedia,

Jews had come to believe that those in Sheol awaited the resurrection either in comfort (in the bosom of Abraham) or in torment. This belief is reflected in Jesus' story of Lazarus and Dives.

Protestants, who do not share a concept of "hades" with the Eastern Orthodox, have traditionally translated "Sheol" (and "hades") as "hell" (for example in the King James Version). However, to avoid confusion of what are actually quite separate concepts in the Bible, modern English versions of the Bible tend either to transliterate the word Sheol or to use an alternative term such as the "grave" (eg. NIV). Roman Catholics generally translate "Sheol" simply as "death."

When used in a scriptural manner, Hell, or Hades, means the common grave. Perhaps all of this gives new meaning to the old expression, “I will see you in Hell first.” However, Hades in Christian scriptures adds some disconcerting content.

As to taking off “like a bat out of Hades,” if that door swings open, don't be the last one out! I wish you Godspeed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades

Author’s note: For convenience’ sake, I have used Wikipedia’s free encyclopedia extensively as a reference, but any good Bible Encyclopedia carries basically the same information as indicated in these word studies.

(As an aside: Both the Greek Septuagint and the KJV included translations of other languages too, such as Aramaic! Aramaic, not Hebrew, was most probably the native language of Jesus.)



Next lesson: (Don't go to) Gehenna: http://peddlersack-religion.blogspot.com/2007/11/biblical-hell-word-study-part-four.html