So what is the New Testament concept of hadēs? This idea does not match the modern concept of hell, for in this first-century way of thinking, the people who go to hadēs do not stay there forever. Though hadēs would be emptied through the resurrection of all people, the righteous would go away to everlasting life with God, while the rest would go away to everlasting death with the devil (cf. At some point in the future, when the resurrection occurred, hadēs would be emptied because all of the dead within it would be raised to life.īut this was not an endorsement of Universalism. Instead, hadēs was a “holding tank” for people while they waited for the resurrection. Yet those who believed that hadēs was an actual realm in which the dead consciously existed, also believe that the dead would not exist there forever. Just as someone today might tell a story about meeting Peter at the Pearly Gates without believing that this is actually what will happen, so also, Jesus could tell a story about Abraham’s bosom in hadēs (Luke 16:22-23) without actually endorsing the concept. But Jesus’ use of this imagery should not be seen as an endorsement of it. This concept is seen in the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. Instead, people in the days of Jesus believed that all the dead went to the same place, though with different “compartments” for the righteous and the wicked (Josephus, Antiquities, 18.14). Therefore, those who believed in life after death also believed that people continued to exist somewhere and somehow after death while they awaited resurrection.īut they did not have a “heaven and hell” concept as many do today. Peter used these texts to defend the idea of the resurrection, and to explain why God raised Jesus from the dead. Those who did not believe in a future resurrection (such as the Sadducees), continued to teach that after death, all people went to the grave ( sheol or hadēs) and that was the end.īut those who believed in the resurrection (such as the Pharisees), began to think that there was some sort of conscious existence for the dead as they awaited the future resurrection.įor example, the apostle Peter quotes David (Psalm 16:8-11) as saying that God would not allow his body to see corruption in hadēs, but would raise Him up (Acts 2:26-27, 31). So while most Old Testament texts which refer to sheol can be understood as only referring to a grave in which dead bodies were laid, the New Testament texts about hadēs seem to show an evolution in thinking about what happens to humans after they die. The idea of a future resurrection was gaining prominence, and with this idea, people were beginning to speculate about what might happen to humans after they died but before resurrection. In the days of Jesus and the apostles, Jewish teachers were rethinking the concept of the afterlife. And since we have already seen that sheol is best translated as “grave” or “pit,” then this hints that the word hadēs should be understood in a similar fashion (cf. In the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (the LXX), the Hebrew word sheol is most often translated as hadēs. But the word hadēs is the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew word sheol. One of Greek words that is commonly translated as “hell” in the New Testament is hadēs. In this study, we will consider the word hadēs and whether or not it refers to hell as a place of eternal suffering and torment for unbelievers. In previous studies, we have looked at the words sheol, gehenna, abyss, tartarus, and the ‘ outer darkness.’ In each case, we have seen that none of these words describe a place of everlasting torment for unbelievers in a place of burning fire.īut what about the New Testament Greek word hadēs? If you want to learn the truth about hell and what the Bible actually teaches about hell, make sure you get a copy of my book, What is Hell?Īlso, if you are part of my discipleship group, there will be an online course about hell as well. The studies look at the eight key terms that are often equated with hell, and about a dozen key passages that are thought to teach about hell. I am doing a series of podcast studies that focus on some of the content from the book. My book, What is Hell? is now available on Amazon.
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