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Very few, it is probable, of the habitual readers of the Unitarian have any faith in the place denoted by the term hell, or any uncomfortable fears concerning it; yet the word is found in our Bible, and to some, perhaps to many, it will be a gratification to know what it means.
Having suffered in my early life more than I can tell, and having seen others in my father's family suffer more, at least with results more sad, I early gave attention to this subject, till I was satisfied that the term had been grievously misunderstood and misrepresented, to the discomfort and ruin of thousands of sincere and honest souls, who placed implicit confidence in all they heard from the orthodox pulpit.
When the late revisers were engaged in their work on the Bible, Canon (now Archdeacon) Farrar said: "If the revisers do their duty, when their work is completed, the word hell will not be found in the Bible." The ground of this remark is that there is no word in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures which has the meaning of our English word hell. But, as this word is still found in our Bible, it seems to follow that the revisers failed of their duty. The truth is that they lacked courage. They feared blame for going too far; when almost the only thing they have been blamed for, is that they did not go far enough. It was perhaps too much to expect of them. They have gone a good way in the right direction. They have lessened the number of passages containing this word about one-half: and in the rest they have put the right word in the margin. It is more than some of us expected. Let us be thankful for what we have, and wait patiently for the rest.
Should there be an American edition in a few years, as it was agreed among the revisers, we shall have but little cause for complaint, for the American revisers were far ahead of their British associates.
Four words in the Bible are translated hell in the old version; three are so translated in the new. The four are sheol, hades, gehenna, and tartarus. In the revised version the word hell for hades is left out, and hades is put in its place. The first of them, sheol, occurs sixty-five times in the Old Testament, and, being a Hebrew word, is found only in that part of the Bible. Hades is Greek, and is found only in the New Testament; there it is found eleven times in the old version and ten in the new, one of the eleven being regarded as spurious by the revisers.
Gehenna occurs twelve times, and in the New Testament only, though its equivalent occurs a few times in the Old. Tartarus is found but once.
Sheol of the Old Testament, and hades of the New, are corresponding terms; hence, in the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, the latter is used for the former in almost every instance. Since the idea has been given up that these words have the meaning of hell, the meaning substituted and generally accepted has been that of a place of spirits, an underworld, the residence of departed souls. That this meaning came to be entertained by the Jews, at a late day, after the Captivity of Babylon, and their intercourse with the Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, there can be no doubt.
The opinions on such subjects, among either the Jews or the Pagans, did not remain stationary. But it is quite certain that the idea of a place of departed spirits for both the good and bad, with a separate department for each, was first adopted by the heathen, and by them communicated to the Jews. Jesus constructs one of his parables out of this theory (Luke xvi.), which implies that this view prevailed to some extent among the Jewish people. This is the only passage in the whole Bible which has the slightest appearance of favoring the theory in question. No one can pretend that it is a doctrine of divine revelation; nor did Jesus give it his sanction by the use he makes of it. Parables were generally made up for the occasion; and no one supposed it necessary for them to be literally true.
At the time of the revision of the Bible, it was well understood that the men engaged in that work generally held the theory above stated. They gave as a reason for not translating the words in accordance with this theory, that there was no English word that expressed the exact sense of these terms. This is not satisfactory. How is it in other cases? Surely this is not a solitary example in the matter of translating. I suppose the general rule is, if one word does not answer the purpose, to take two or three; or, what might have been better, let the original stand in the place of a translation. This is the plan adopted by the New Testament revisers; and their example ought to have been followed by those of the Old Testament. Instead of this, they have given all the old renderings, hell, grave, and pit, in a part of the passages, and done the sensible thing with the rest, namely, left sheol in the text.
As will probably be inferred, I do not endorse the common opinion. Sheol means the grave, hades means the grave. The only exception is the one given above, where the heathen theory is assumed the time for being.
A few passages from the Old and New Testaments, where sheol and hades occur, will, I think, sustain the definition I give of these words. The patriarch Jacob says, "I will go down to the grave to my son mourning." "Ye will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave." (Gen. 37: 35; 42: 38; 44: 29. 31). Here sheol is used four times in the same connection, and can mean only the grave.
It is said of Korah and his company, who rebelled against Moses, "They and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit." (Num. 16: 30, 38).
This pit in the earth was their grave, sheol. That a place of spirits is not intended, is proved by the fact that all that appertained to them (tents and goods) went to the same place.
We read of being brought down to sheol with blood (1 Kings 2: 9); of being hidden in sheol (Job 14: 13); of sheol being in the dust (Job 17: 16; we read that sheol consumes those who go there (Job 24: 19); that in sheol there is no remembrance, no giving thanks (Ps. 6: 5); that some are consigned to sheol like sheep (Ps. 49: 14); that our bones are scattered at the mouth of sheol, etc. (Ps. 141: 7).
Even in Isaiah 14: 11, 15, where the revisers have used the word hell, we find the words, "Thy pomp is brought down to sheol, and the noise of thy viols; the worm is spread under thee; and the worms cover thee." So in Ezekiel 32: 27, we read of those "which are gone down to sheol with their weapons of war; and they have laid their swords under their heads." That a place of spirits is not meant, a single passage ought to suffice as proof,—" There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in sheol, whither thou goest" (Eccl. 9: 10).
I find that sheol is put in the text thirty times, grave and hell fifteen times each, and pit five times. This is easily remembered,—30 + 15 + 15 + 5 = 65.
In the New Testament, hades is used as sheol is in the Old. Capernaum,is threatened with being brought down to hades (Luke 10: 15; Matt. 11: 23). Nothing surely is meant but its utter destruction. In like manner it is said, "The gates of hades shall not prevail against the church" (Matt. 16: 18). An abode of spirits, having twenty or one hundred saints to one sinner, would not be likely to make war on the church. A hundred years ago when these figures were reversed, such a warfare might seem more probable. The meaning is that the church should never die, never pass through the gates of the grave.
Jesus was not left in hades; nor did he remain long enough to see corruption (Acts 2: 27, 31). It is certain the grave is here referred to. The expression, "his soul," means himself, as it often does. Jesus had the keys of hades and of death (Rev. 1: 18). The resurrection of Lazarus is proof that he had the keys of the grave; and that of the widow's son and others, that he held the keys of death.
Death sits on a pale horse; and hades follows with him (Rev. 6: 8). The reference is to a plague or pestilence, when the burial follows death so suddenly that it is said to follow with death rather than after. Hades is to be destroyed (Rev. 20: 13, 14). There is propriety in this, as death is to be destroyed at the same time: the grave is needed only while men continue to die. Not so the abode of souls. But the passage is highly figurative.
It will be observed that sheol and hades are spoken of as being down. If it is a place of spirits, it is down in the earth. This no sensible man believes. It follows, therefore, that a place of spirits is not called sheol nor hades.
Tartarus is found but once, namely, in 2 Pet. 2: 4: "If God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to tartarus." The reference is to an apocryphal book, called the "Book of Enoch." The author argues that if these things occurred, and other things named with them (verses 4-9), then it follows that "the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly," etc. It is a just conelusion from hypothetical premises; he does not say that the things occurred, but if they did, such a conclusion followed.
I will now speak of gehenna, as briefly as possible. The word literally means the valley of Hinnom, the last word being the name of an owner, then long dead. Its location was south of Jerusalem, where it ran along under the ancient city wall, nearly half a mile south of the present wall ( Jeremiah 7 and 19).
It was a noted spot, once the place of human sacrifices; after that, of capital punishment; and still later, the place to which the carcasses of animals, and other refuse of the city, were carried. That it might not be destructive to the health of the people, a perpetual fire was kept burning to consume the foul deposit; hence, the expression, "Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Isaiah 66:24; Mark 9: 49).
If one will bear in mind what is said above, he will find no difficulty in understanding every passage where gehenna is found in the New Testament, without any resort to the future life to help his investigations.
In Matthew 5: 22, the reference is to capital punishment by fire, in the valley of Hinnom, in a distant dark age of Jewish history. In Matthew 5: 29, 30, and 18: 8, 9, there is a comparison of two evils, one much greater than the other. No matter how hard it is to withstand temptation, and do right, though it be like the loss of the right hand, or the eye, we may rest assured that doing wrong will be worse—as much worse as the loss of the whole body is a greater evil than the loss of an eye, hand, or foot. This illustration did not necessarily require a reference to gehenna; but, as that was the place where bodies were destroyed by capital punishment, the reference to the place rendered the illustration more complete and impressive.
As Jesus illustrated his teachings by figures, and compared the foul characters of the Scribes and Pharisees to the sepulchers, "full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness," we might expect him to use gehenna in the same way. He does do this. Hence the converts made by Jewish zealots were twofold more than themselves, the children of gehenna; in other words, more corrupt. To be the child of a thing, was a figure for likeness, or resemblance (Matt. 23: 15). So, in the epistle of James 3: 6, the foulness of the tongue is indicated by its being set on fire by the polluted flames arising from the filth of gehenna.
When God is said to be "able to destroy soul and body in gehenna" (Matt. 10: 28), the meaning is—in a foul condition, represented by gehenna. In any case, gehenna, be it a place, or a condition represented by a place, is where the body can be destroyed: and, therefore, not in the future life. Take gehenna in any sense you will in this passage, it belongs to the present life, where the body as well as the soul can be killed or destroyed. The reference is to the death of the body, which is physical, and to the death of the soul, which is moral. There are many passages that allude to the death of the soul. The soul can not be dead without being killed; but this last is not often mentioned, though it is a few times. Paul says that the letter killeth not the body, but the soul. He says again that sin deceived him and slew him his soul, of course, not his body.
Luke 12: 4, 5, refers to casting the body into gehenna, after it had been killed, and says not a word about the soul. There is reference to a peculiar custom among the Jews. In cases of any aggravated murder, or other capital offense, the penalty of death was inflicted, generally by stoning: and. in addition, the body was thrown into the filth of gehenna and left unburied, as a disgrace to the name of the criminal. This at length came to be a figure of speech denoting disgrace after death, in whatever form it came about. Jesus holds this motive before his disciples, to keep them faithful to his cause in the face of persecution and death.
The "judgment of gehenna"' (Matt. 23: 33) seems to refer to the overthrow of the Jews predicted by Jeremiah, under the figure of Tophet, a part of the valley of Hinnom (Jer. 7 and 19).
In Mark 9: 43-50, there is a reference to the same comparison we have had before; but here it is applied to the faith of the Gospel. The faithful believer would suffer serious afflictions, like the loss of an eye or a hand; but the unbeliever or apostate would suffer worse. The fire that is not quenched is called eternal; and it was so, in the Bible sense of that term. But the purpose sought was a good one; and the punishment represented by it, can not be other than beneficent. The fire was to burn up the filth of the city. It was all the better for being eternal, that is, perpetual. So the fire of divine judgment consumes sin, and will not go out so long as the fuel is supplied.
I will add in conclusion that the evidence is entirely wanting that gehenna was used in the time of Christ to denote a future hell. The Pharisees had no need of the term for such a purpose. With their view, the wicked were punished in hades. And here I would remind the reader that he must distinguish between the New Testament usage of hades, and the heathen usage, which the Pharisees (some of them, if not all) had adopted. The hell of hades was tartarus and not gehenna, though in process of time they adopted the latter term. The Jewish Rabbis say it was two or three centuries after our era. The Christians used it before the Jews did; but in the early days of the church they taught that the punishment of gehenna is salutary and limited, and would end in the purification and salvation of all souls. Such was the teaching of Origen, of Clement of Alexandria, of the Gregories, and other eminent men. But when the dark ages came on, this state of things was changed and the church became very corrupt.
W. E. Manley, D. D.
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