The question whether this is or is not the doctrine of the Scriptures is one of much importance, and has, first and last, excited no small amount of discussion. It is a doctrine received by a large portion of the nom- inal Christian Church ; and it forms the foundation of the Koman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory, for which there would be no ground but for this interpretation of the word Hades. The question, therefore, rests en- tirely upon the interpretation of this latter word. At the first view the classical signification would seem to sup- port the sense above indicated. On further considera- tion, however, we are referred back to the Hebrew sheol; for the Greek term did not come to the Hebrews from any classical source or with any classical meanings, but through the Sept. as a translation of their own word; and whether correctly translating it or not is a matter of critical opinion. The word Hades is, therefore, in no- wise binding upon us in any dassiad meaning which may be assigned to it. The real question, therefore, is, what is the meaning which sheol bears in the Old Test, and Hades in the New? A careful examination of the passages in which these words occur will jirobably lead to the conclusion that they afford no real sanction to the notion of an intermediate place of the kind indi- cated, but are used by the inspired writers to denote the fjrave — the resting-place of the bodies both of the righteous and the wicked; and that they are also used to signify hell, the abode of miserable sjiirits. But it would be difficult to prochice any instance in which they can be shown to signify the abode of the spirits of just men made perfect, either before or alter the res- urrection.
As already seen, in the great majority of instances sheol is, in the Old Test., used to signify the grave, and in most of these cases is so translated in the A. V. It can have no other meaning in such texts as Gen. xxxvii, 35; xlii, 38; 1 Sam. ii, G; 1 Kings ii, G; Job xiv, 13; xvii, 13, IG; and in numerous otiier ]iassages in the writings of David, Solomon, and the jsrophets. IJut as the grave is regarded by most persons, and was more especially so by the ancients, with awe and dread as being the region of gloom and darkness, so the word denoting it soon came to be applied to that more dark and gloomy world which was to lie tire al)iding-plaie of tlie miserable. Where our translators supposed the word to have this sense, they rendered it by "hell." Some of the i)assages in which this has been done may
SHEOL
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SHEPARD
be doubtful, but tliere are others of which a question can scarcely be entertained. Such are those (as Job xi, 8; Psa. cxxxix, 8; Amos ix, 3) in which the word denotes the opposite of heaven, which cannot be the grave nor the general state or region of the dead, but hell. Still more decisive are such passages as Psa. ix, 17; Prov. xxiii, 9; in which sheul cannot mean any place, in this world or the next, to whicii the righteous as well as the wicked are sent, but the penal abode of the wicked as distinguished from and opposed to the righteous. The only case in which such passages could, by any possibilit}', be supposed to mean the grave would be if the grave — that is, extinction — were the final doom of the unrighteous.
In the New Test, the word nhjq is used in much the same sense as PiX'J in the Old, except that in a less proportion of cases can it be construed to signify "the grave." There are still, however, iustances in which it is used in this sense, as in Acts ii, 31 ; 1 Cor. xv, 55; but in general the Hades of the New Test, appears to be no other than the world of future punishments (e. g. Matt, xi, 23 ; xvi, 18 ; Luke xvi, 23).
The principal arguments for the intermediate Hades as deduced from Scripture are founded on those pas- sages in which things " under the earth" are described as rendering liomage to God and the Saviour (Phil, ii, 10; Rev. v, 13, etc.). If such passages, however, be compared with others (as with Rom. xiv, 10, 11, etc.), it will appear that thej' must refer to the day of judg- ment, in which every creature will render some sort of homage to the Saviour; but then the bodies of the saints will have been already raised, and the interme- diate region, if there be any, will have been deserted.
One of the seemingly strongest arguments for the opinion under consideration is founded on 1 Pet. iii, 19, in which Christ is said to have gone and "preached to the spirits in prison." These spirits in prison are sup- posed to be the holy dead — perhaps the virtuous hea- then— imprisoned in the intermediate place, into which the soul of the Saviour went at death that he might preach to them the Gospel. This passage must be al- lowed to present great difficulties. The most intelligi- ble meaning suggested by the context is, however, that Christ bj- his spirit preached to those who in the time of Noah, while the ark was preparing, were diso- bedient, and whose spirits were thus in prison awaiting the general deluge. Even if that prison were Hades, yet what Hades is must be determined by other passages of Scripture; and, whether it is the grave or hell, it is still a prison for those who yet await the judgment- daj'. This interpretation is in unison with other pas- sages of Scripture, whereas the other is conjecturally deduced from this single text. See Spirits in Prison.