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ger, shall arise after he shall have passed through the shadowy realm of Sheol. “A judgment in Hades, in which the judge will show himself his friend, in which all the tangled skein of his life will be unravelled by wise and kindly hands, and the insoluble problem of his strange and self-contradicting ex- perience will at last be solved—this is what Job still looks for on that happy day when he shall see God for himself, and find his Goel (vindicator) in that Almighty Deliverer ” (Cox, “ Com- mentary on the Book of Job”).
In the New Testament, Hades is the realm of the dead. It cannot be successfully maintained that it is, in particular, the place for sinners (so Cremer, “ Biblico-Theological Lexicon ”). The words about Capernaum (Matt. xi. 23), which it is surpris- ing to find Cremer citing in support of this position, are merely a rhetorical expression of a fall from the height of earthly glory to the deepest degradation, and have no more bearing upon the moral character of Hades than the words of Zophar (Job xi. 7, 8) about the perfection of the Almighty. “It is high as heaven—deeper than Sheol.” Hades is indeed coupled with Death (Apoc. i. 18; vi. 8; xx. 18, 14), but the association is natural, and indeed inevitable, apart from all moral distine- tions. Death would naturally be followed by Hades in any ease. In Apoc. xx. 13, 14, the general judgment is predicted, and not only Death and Iades, but the sea give up their dead, and only those who are not written in the book of life are cast into the lake of fire (ver.15). The rich man was in Hades (Luke xvi. 23), and a torments, but Lazarus was also in Hades, «+n Abraham’s bosom.” The details of this story “ evidently represent the views current at the time among the Jews. Ac- cording to them, the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life were the abode of the blessed. . . . We read that the righteous in Eden see the wicked in Gehenna and rejoice; and similarly, that the wicked in Gehenna see the righteous sitting beatified in Eden, and their souls are troubled (Edersheim, “ Life and Times of Jesus”). Christ also was in Hades (Acts ii. 27, 31). Moreover, the word yéevva, hell (see on Matt. v. 22), is specially used to denote the place of future punishment.
Hades, then, in the New Testament, is a broad and general .
96 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cn. XVI
conception, with an idea of Zocality bound up with it. It is the condition following death, which is blessed or the contrary, ac- cording to the moral character of the dead, and is therefore divided into different realms, represented by Paradise or Abraham’s bosom, and Gehenna.
The expression Gates of Hades is an orientalism for the court, throne, power, and dignity of the infernal kingdom. Hades is contemplated as a mighty city, with formidable, frowning por-’ tals. Some expositors introduce also the idea of the councils of the Satanic powers, with reference to the Eastern custom of holding such deliberations in the gates of cities. Compare the expression Sublime Porte, applied to the Ottoman court. The idea of a building is maintained in both members of the com- parison. The kingdom or city of Hades confronts and assaults the church which Christ will build upon the rock. See Job xxxvill. 17; Ps. ix. 13; evii. 18; Isa. xxxviii. 10.
19. Keys («Aeidas). The similitude corresponding to build. The church or kingdom is conceived as a house, of which Peter is to be the steward, bearing the keys. “Even as he had been the first to utter the confession of the church, so was he also privileged to be the first to open its hitherto closed gates to the Gentiles, when God made choice of him, that, through his mouth, the Gentiles should first hear the words of the Gos- pel, and at his bidding first be baptized ” (Edersheim, “ Life and Times of Jesus ”’).