Another figurative expression used to designate the happy part of Hades is "Abraham's bosom," 6 koXttoq 'Al3paai.i, Luke xvi, 22. (St. Augustine, who says [Qncest. Evang. ii, 38 ] " Sinus Abrahaj requies est beatorum pau- perum .... in quo post hanc vitam recipiuntur," yet doubts whether hades is used at all in N. T. in a good sense. He says [£/j. clxxxvii. Works, ii, 689], " Wheth- er the bosom ofAb?-aham,vfheTQ the wicked Dives was, when in his torment he beheld the poor man at rest, were either to be deemed the same as Paradise, or to be thought to pertain to heU or hades, / cannot define [non facile dixerim] ;" so also he writes on Psa. Ixxxv [ Works, iv, 912]). For an explanation of the phrase, see Abra- ham's Bosom.
3. We need not linger over the Biblical sense of our last word Thvva, Gehenna. We refer the reader to a " Discoiurse" by the learned Joseph Mede ( Works, p. 31- 33) on Gehenna, which he shows was not used to-desig- nate " hell" before the captivity. He, in the same trea- tise, dwells on certain Hebrew words and phrases, which were in use previous to that epoch for designating Hades and its inhabitants — among these he especially notes D'iN3"l and "1 ^Jlp, on which we have obscr%-ed above. As ViapnctKJOQ is not limited to the finite liappiness of Hades, but embraces in certain passages the ultimate blessedness of heaven, so there is no violence in sup- posing that Tiivva (from the finite signification which it possibly bears in Matt, v, 29, 30; xxiii, 15, equivalent to the Tdprapoc referred to by Peter, 2 Epist. ii, 4, as the place where the fallen angels are i-esei-ved untojudg- 7nent, or " until sentence," comp. Jude v, C) goes on to mean, in perhaps most of its occurrences in the N. T., the final condition of the lost, as in Matt, xxiii, 33, where the expression )'/ Kpiaig rrjc yesvvrjg probably means the condemnation [or sentence] to Gehenna as the ultimate doom. See Gehenna.
IV. Synonymous Words and Ph?-ases. — (Most of these are given by Eisenmenger, Entd<'ck.Jud. ii, 324, and Gal- atinus, De Arcanis, vi, 7, p. 345.) 1. il7af|1, Dumdh, in Psa. cxv, 17, where the phrase T ■^'!1'^"'~^3, " all that go down into silence," is in the Sept. iravriQ oi Kurajiai- vovTEQ tig ^Sov, while the Vulg. has " omms qui descen-^ dunt in inferum" (comp. Psa, xciv, 17). 2. 'pinx, A bad- don, in Job xxvi, 6, is in poetical apposition with VlXlU
HELL
169
HELL
(comp. Prov. xxvii, 20 [Kethil)], where N is in conjunc- tion with a, forming an hendiadj's for destructive hell; S^])i." \iSi]Q Kai c'tTTwXeia; YulQ.Infurtius etperditio; A. V. "HcU and destruction"). 3. nnd "iNS, Beer Sha- chath, Psa. Iv, 24 ; A. V. " pit of destruction ;" Sept. <I>pt- ap dia(p^opa(; ; ViUg. Puteus intei-itus (see also passages in which "113 and nnd occur separately). 4. riT^b^, Tsalmavet/i, with or without T^'jn, in Psa. cvii, 10, and other passages ; Sept. 2/cia Savaroi; ; Vulg. Umbra mor- tis; A.V."shadow of death." 5. ^'iX-ni^nnri, Tach- Hyuth Erets, in Isa. xliv, 23; A.V. '"lower parts of the earth" \_Sheol or //acfcs, Gesen. ] ; Sept. Ta Sren'tXia rijg yj/e ; Vulg. Extrema terrce (comp. Ezek. xxvi, 20, etc., where the plurase is inverted, m^nnn"1^"iN); of simi- lar meaning is nT^rinPl "113, Psa. Ixxxviii, 6 (7). 6. nPlSn, Tophtch, in Isa. xxx, 33 [accorduig to Eisen- menger] ; for another application of this word, see Ge- senius, Tkes. s. v. ; and Rosenmliller, ad loc. 7. The phrase first used of Abraham, Gen. xxv, 8 (where it oc- curs, in the solemn description of the holy patriarch's eiiil, midi'-di/ between death and burial), "He was gath- ered to his fathers," is best interpreted of the departure of the soul to J fades to the company of those who pre- ceded him thither (see Cajetan, ad loc, and Gesen. Thes., s. V. rOX [Niphal], p. 131, col. 1). 8. To okoto^ to l^- (iiTipov, "the outer darkness" of IMatt. viii, 12, et pas- sim, refers probably to what Josephus ( IT^ar, iii, 25) calls ^5r)Q aKOTiwTtpoQ, " the darker Hades."
V. Biblical Statements as to the Condition of those in " Hell." — The dreadful natine of the abode of the wick- ed is impUed in varioiLS tigiu'ative expressions, such as " outer darkness," " I am tormented in this flame," " fur- nace of fire," "unquenchable fire," "where the worm dieth not," " the blackness of darkness," " torment in fire and brimstone," " the ascending smoke of their torment," " the lake of fire that burnetii with brimstone" (Jlatt. viii, 12 ; xiii, 42 ; xxii, 13 ; xxv, 30 ; Luke xvi, 24 ; comp. Matt, xxv, 41; Mark ix, 43-48; Jude 13; comp. Rev. xiv, 10, 11 ; xix, 20; xx, 14; xxi, 8). The figure by which hell is represented as burning with fire and brim- stone is probably derived from the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as that which describes the smoke as ascending from it (comp. Eev. xiv, 10, 11, with Gen. xix, 24, 28). To this coincidence of description Peter also most probably alludes in 2 Pet. ii, 6. See Fire.
The names which in many of the other instances are given to the punishments of hell are doubtless in part fig- urative, and many of the terms ^vhich were commonly ap- plied to the subject bj' the Jews are retained in the New Testament. The images, it will be seen, are generally taken from death, capital punishments, tortures, prisons, etc. And it is the obvious design of the sacred writers, in using such figures, to aA\ akon the idea of something terrible and fearful. They mean to teach that the pun- ishments beyond the grave •will excite the same feelings of distress as are produced on earth by the objects em- ploj-ed to represent them. We are so little actjuainted with the state in which we shall be hereafter, and with the nature of our future body, that no strictly literal representation of such ])unishments could be made intel- ligible to us. IMany of the .Jews, indeed, and many of the Christian fathers, took the terms employed in Scrip- ture in an entirely literal sense, and supposed there woidd be actual fire, etc., in hell. But from the words of Christ and his apostles nothing more can with cer- tainty be inferred than that they meant to denote great and miendmg miseries.