III.
THE STATE OF THE DEAD IN SHEOL
Under a column headed "With the Lord," a
weekly church newsletter recently noted the deaths of two ministers of their particular
denomination. Are these two ministers really in the presence of God, in a conscious state?
If so, they most certainly must be joyfully
praising the Lord with all who preceded them! But what does the
Scripture say of those who have died? King David wrote:
The dead praise not the Lord, neither
any that go down into silence. (Psa. 115:17, KJV)
David tells us plainly that they do not praise the Lord, because they go down
into a place of silence. The Septuagint [LXX] rendering of this verse is
also illuminating:
The dead shall not praise Thee, 0 Lord, nor any that go down to HADES.
In the original Hebrew of the Old Testament the dead are said to go down into SHEOL.
In the Aramaic (or Syriac) translations of both the Old and New Testaments SHYUL
is used with exactly the same meaning as SHEOL. But what of the Greek
word HADES?
Around 280 BCE Jewish scholars in Alexandria, Egypt translated the Hebrew Bible into
Greek for the use of Greek speaking Jews of the diaspora and Gentile proselytes. This
version is known as the Septuagint [LXX]. Whenever these translators came upon the Hebrew
word SHEOL they rendered it by the Greek word HADES,
which simply means the unseen.
(5) Later, when
the early Greek translators/writers
of New Testament literature quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (or their Aramaic versions:
the "Targums") they followed the LXX in rendering SHEOL by the
Greek word HADES. For instance, in Psa. 16:10, King David says:
For Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell [SHEOL].(KJV)
As part of his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter quoted Psalm 16:10
(see Acts 2:27). As this sermon was probably delivered in Aramaic, Peter used the word SHYUL.
Later, when Peter's sermon was included in the Book of Acts, which Luke penned in Greek,
the Greek word HADES was substituted on the basis of its usage in the
LXX. Our point is that whether the Semitic words SHEOL or SHYUL
are used, or the Greek word HADES is substituted, the meaning is exactly
the same. HADES is also simply a reference to the common grave of humanity or
"gravedom."
(6) We emphasize this fact
because many Christians read into the word HADES meanings imported from
its pagan Greek usage. In his classic study The Fire That Consumes, evangelical
scholar Edward William Fudge summarizes the pagan Greek view of HADES:
In Greek mythology Hades was the god of the underworld, and then the name of the
netherworld itself. Charon ferried the souls of the dead across the rivers Styx or Acheron
into his abode, where the watchdog Cerberus guarded the gate so that none might escape.
The pagan myth contained all the elements of the medieval eschatology: there was
the pleasant Elysium, the gloomy and miserable Tartarus, and even the plains of Asphode
l, where ghosts could wonder who were suited
for neither of the above."(p.205)
In medieval Catholic eschatology, the Biblical Paradise coalesced with the
"pleasant Elysium." "The gloomy and miserable Tartarus" and "the
plains of Asphodel" survived in the Catholic conceptions of hell and purgatory. With
the exception of Purgatory, these unscriptural concepts were passed down, via mainline
Protestantism, to the evangelica
l churches of today. These still have a ways to go before they have finished casting
off medieval superstition and complete the Reformation.
We will now turn from human traditions to the inspired
Scriptures, and allow them to instruct us concerning the state of the dead in SHEOL-HADES.
As noted above, in Psalm 16:10 King David recognized that he would go to SHEOL, but he
had faith that God would not leave him there permanently. We also saw in Psalm 115:17 that
King David regarded SHEOL as a place of "silence."
Now the reason SHEOL is called a place of "silence"
is because there all mental activity ceases.
David further instructs us:
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts
perish. (Psa. 146:4, KJV)
(7)
The Hebrew word rendered "perish" here is ABAD,
which means destroyed or lost.
(8) David is saying here that at death man loses consciousness.
The condition of the dead in SHEOL-HADES is further described as
non-being or nonexistence:
While I live I will praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my
God while I have any being.(Psa. 7 46:2, KJV)
In this fine example of Hebrew parallelism, the phrases
"while I live" and "while I have any being" have the same meaning.(9) As long as David is alive he has being. When he dies he will no
longer have being! The LXX confirms this interpretation. It renders the final clause of
Psalm 146:2 "as long as I exist."(10) This indicates that, like us, the ancient Jewish translators of the
LXX understood death to be a state of non-existence. For if "while I
live" equals "as long as I exist," then,
conversely, when David ceased to live he also ceased to exist!
King David was well aware that he had to do all his praising of God before he died,
because he knew that there could be no remembrance or consciousness --- and therefore no
praising of God --- in SHEOL-HADES.
For in death there is no remembrance of Thee [God]; in the grave [SHEOL]
who shall give Thee thanks? (Psa.6:5, KJV)
The righteous patriarch Job also knew that he would have to wait in SHEOL
until his resurrection:
If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time shall I wait
until my change come.(Job 14:14, KJV)
The LXX rendering of this verse is enlightening:
For if a man should die, shall he live again? I will wait till I EXIST
again.
(11)
In other words, Job believed that he would have to wait in SHEOL
until he existed again at the resurrection. In the interim between Job's death and
his resurrection he would be non-existent
! Once more Job:
If I wait, the grave [SHEOL] is my house. I have made my bed in
the darkness.(Job 17:73, KJV)
Notice here that Job did not say that his body would go to a place of
darkness, but 'I have made MY bed in the darkness." it is
Job himself, in his psycho-physical entirety"
(12) who will descend into the darkness,
which, as we have seen, is also described as a state of unconsciousness, silence
and non-existence.
Scripture tells us that David's son, King Solomon, was the wisest man who ever lived.
Naturally, Solomon confirms his fathers' teaching:
For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything.
(Eccl.9:5, KJV)
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor
device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave [SHEOL], whither thou goest.
(Eccl.9: 10, KJV)
(13)
We will conclude this portion of our study of SHEOL with a testimony
from good King Hezekiah:
... the grave [SHEOL] cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate
Thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth. The living, the
living, he shall praise Thee as I do this day.(Isa.38:18-19, KJV)
Hezekiah was not saying that there is no hope of resurrection. He simply says that the
dead cannot hope because they are dead. Note how he contrasts "the living"
with those who are in "the grave [SHEOL]." Our point is that those
who are living are not in SHEOL and those who are in SHEOL are not living! Could
anything be plainer?"