HELL
HELL
on the Creed [Art. " He descended into Hell"], Works [Oxford, 1830], v, 41G, 417) of the questions which have arisen on the subject before us, wc believe that Holy Scripture warrants the most ample of all the positions suggested by that eminent writer, to the effect that the Sheol or Hell of which we treat is not merely "the place of good and happy soids," or " that of bad and mis- erable ones," but " indilferently and in common of both those." We propose to arrange the Biblical passages so as to describe, first, the state of the occupants of Sheol, and, secondly, the locality of it, in some of its prominent features. As to the first point, Sheol is (a) the recepta- cle of the spirits of all that dejmrt this life. (Among the scriptiural designations of the inhabitants of Sheol is D'^XSI [1 brip (in Prov. xxi, 16) is rendered "congre- gation of the dead" (or departed) in the A. V. This is better than the Sept. rendering (rvvaywyr/ yiydvTuiv, and Vulg. " coetus gigantum." There is force in the word h'np thus applied, derived from the use of the word to designate the great " congregatiorf of the Jewish nation ; see Congregation]. For the use of the word D'^XSI, as applicable to the dead, see especially Bottcher, De In- fer, p. 94^-10, § 193-204. The word occurs in this sense also in the grand passage of Isa. xiv. [In ver. 9 "Sheol stirs up its Rephaim^' on the entrance of the spirit of the king of Babylon.] QiXS"! is met with in six other places in the same sense of departed spirits. It is con- nected with ilS'n, " weak," which occurs in Numb, xiii, 18, and other passages [see Fiirst, Hebr. W.-b. ii, 383]. The gentile noun [mentioned in Gen. xiv, 5 and else- where, and rendered Eej^haim and Giants'] is of the same form, but probably of a different origin [see Gesenius, The^. p. 1302].) This general signification appears from Psa. Ixxxix, 47, 48, and Isa. xxxviii, 18, 19 (in which latter verse the opposition in its universal sense between sheol and the state of life in this world is to be observed). We do not hesitate, with archbishop Usher ( Works, iii, 318), to translate ^IXd in these passages "hell" or "she- ol," instead of "grave," as in the A. V. Sheol, therefore, is (b) the abode of the ivicked, Numb. xvi. 33; Job xxiv, 19 ; Psa. ix, 17 (kebr. 18) ; xxxi, 17 (18) ;' Prov. v, 5 ; ix, 18; Isa. lvii,9; and (g) of the good [both in their "dis- embodied" condition], Psa. xvi, 10, comp. with Acts ii, 27, 31 ; Psa. xxx, 3 (4) ; xlix, 15 (16) ; Ixxxvi, 13 ; Isa. xxxviii, 10, compared with Job iii, 17-19; Hos. xiii, 14, comp. with 1 Cor, xv, 55. AV'ith regard to the second point, touching some local features of Sheol, we find it described as very deep (Job xi, 8) ; da}-k (Job x, 21, 22) ; (yet confest and oj)en to the eye of God, Job xxvi, G) ; with "valleys" (Gesenius, Thes.'p. 1348) or depths of va- rious gradations (Psa. Ixxxvi, 13 [compared with Deut. xxxii, 22] ; Prov. ix, 18) ; tvith bars (Job xvii, 16, comp. with Jou. ii, 6) and gates (Isa. xxxviii, 10) ; situated be- neath us; hence the dead are said "to go down" ("IT') to Sheol, Numb, xvi, 30, 33 ; Ezek. xxxi, 15, 16, 17 (com- pared with Job vii, 9; Gen. xiii, 38). Comp. Josephus {Ant. xvii, 1, 3), who, when describing the tenets of the Jewish sects, attributes to the Pharisees the belief of a future state, in which " rewards and punishments" will be dealt out "to men in their disembodied state" (rale ^vxalc) " under the earth" (utto x^ovof SiKaiwasi^ rs Kai TijxaQ, K. T. X.). On the phrase of the creed "de- scended into heU," and sundry uses of "ini and KaTtXSftlv as not necessarily implying local descenf^hut rather " re- moval froin one place to another," see Usher {Works, ui, 392, 393). We have seen how some have derived the name of Sheol from its insatiability ; such a quality is often attributed to it : it is all-devouring (Prov. i, 12) ; never satisfied (Prov. xxx, 16 ; Isa. v, 14), and inexorable (Cant, viii, 7).
2. There is in the Hades ("Ak5»;c) of the N. T. an equal- ly ample signification with the Sheol of the 0. T., as the abode of both happy and miserable beings. Its charac- teristics are not dissimilar; it is represented as "a pris-
on" (comp. 1 Pet. iii, 19, where inhabitants of hades are called Ta iv (pvXaKtj Trvtvuara); with gates and bars {iroXai acov, Matt, xvi, 18 ; comp. with the phrase tiQ "ASov of Acts ii, 27, 31, with the ellipsis of Sw/ia or oZ- Kov); and locks (the "keys" oi Hades, a'l K\eig tov"Ai- Sov, being in the hands of Christ, Rev. i, 18) ; its situa- tion is also dou-nwards (see the sujg clSov /<:aro/?(/3aa- SrljTtj of Matt, xi, 23, and Luke x, 15). As might be ex- pected, there is more plainly indicated in the N. T. the separate condition of the righteous and the wicked ; to indicate this separation other terms are used ; thus, in Luke xxiii, 43, P«r«cZ«se (TrapdSeiaog — no doubt differ- ent from that of Paid, 2 Cor. xii, 4, which is designated, in Rev. ii, 7, as 6 Trapdceiffog too Qtov, the supernal Paradise ; see Robinson, Lexicon, N. T., p. 13, 547 ; Wahl, Claris, N.T., p. 376; Kuinol [ed. London] on N. T. ii, 237 ; and especially Meyer, Kommentar u. d. Neue Test. [ed. 4] vi, 292, and the authorities there quoted by him) is used to describe that part of Hades which the blessed dead inhabit — a figurative expression, so well adapted for the description of a locality of happiness that the inspired writers employ it to describe the three happiest places, the Eden of Innocence, the Hades of departed saints, and the heaven of their glorious rest. The dis- tinction between the upper and the lower Paradise was familiar to the Jews. In Eisenmenger's Entdecktes Ju- denthum, ii, 295-322, much of their curious opinions on the subject is collected. In p. 298 are given the seven names of the heavenly Paradise, while in the next tliree are contained the seven names of the lower Paradise of Hades. See Paradise.