Sheol

Sheol means “the world of the dead”.  It basically refers to the place and state of dead souls after they are physically dead and before their resurrection to face God’s judgment. Hell and Sheol are referenced as two separate things; Hell being where the soul goes after God’s judgment. The aforementioned idea that Sheol is a place before one goes to Hell is a more plausible explanation than it directly being Hell. The word Sheol is mentioned sixty five times in the oldest manuscripts. Sheol is sometimes seen as a synonym for "grave", "pit", or "the abode of the dead", and that it is the underworld of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible. However this should not be taken literally because it is not a physical grave where dead bodies are laid to rest. It is a place of darkness where all of the dead go, both the righteous and the unrighteous, regardless of the moral choices made in life, it is a place of silence and darkness which is detached from God.

The dwellers of Sheol are known as the "shades" or “rephaim”, which are entities without personality or strength. There is a valley named The Valley of Rephaim which is mentioned is Joshua 15:8. Under some situations the shades could be contacted by the living, as the Witch of Endor contacts the shade of Samuel for Saul, however such practices are forbidden in Deuteronomy 18:10.The reason that contacting the dead was forbidden is because necromancy is forbidden. The dead are often referred to as “familiar spirits” in the Bible. The Old Testament writings describe Sheol as the permanent place of the dead. During the Second Temple period (roughly 500 BCE-70 CE) a more varied set of concepts developed: in some texts, Sheol is the home of both the righteous and the wicked, separated into respective sections; in other, it was a place of punishment, meant for the wicked dead alone. The idea that it is a place for the wicked and righteous is supported with the idea that Sheol is the place souls go before being judged by God. When the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek in ancient Alexandria around 200 BC the word "Hades", or the Greek underworld, was substituted for Sheol, and this is shown in the New Testament where Hades is both the underworld of the dead and the personification of the evil it represents.

According to Thayer there is a figurative sense to Sheol, which is often seen in the later scriptures of the Old Testament. When Sheol is used in the figurative sense it represents “a state of degradation or calamity, arising from any cause, whether misfortune, sin, or the judgment of God” (Thayer, 1855). This is a simple transition because Sheol was described as gloomy and grave, then the word Sheol began to take on the description of its self. There is always some sort of ailment involved when Sheol is referenced in the Bible, but they never specifically mention what is causing the pain just that Sheol/Hell is the source.  One example would be Psalms 116:3 "The sorrows of death compassed me, the pains of hell got hold on me: I found trouble and sorrow."

 According to McLaughlin’s quote of Johnston, “those destined for Sheol are predominantly the ungodly… identification of the underworld with the wicked is paramount” (McLaughlin, 2005). This quote is discussing the idea that Sheol, or Hell, is where the sinners are destined to go.

Wyatt’s article “The Concept and Purpose of Hell” suggests that contemporary Greek and Roman cosmology are recipients of the ideas such as the Lake of Fire from some Jewish influences. He does go on to say that he does not know how much the Greeks and Romans are in debt of the Jews for their influence because they may not have been the only influence. “At all events, there is no certain corroboration of Iranian influence, even if it was perhaps catalytic, and the old Judahite cultic associations give an independent source for the fiery image”(Wyatt,180).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S781snPVQ4Q

Sources Cited

Seeman, Chris. "Shades Of Sheol: Death And Afterlife In The Old Testament (Book)." Catholic Biblical Quarterly 65.4 (2003): 609-611. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.

McLaughlin, John. "Review of Philip S. Johnston, Shades of Sheol: Death and Afterlife in the Old Testament." Journal of Hebrew Scriptures. 5. (2005): n. page. Print. <http://www.jhsonline.org/reviews/review190.htm>.

Wyatt, N. Th e Concept and Purpose of Hell: Its Nature and Development in West Semitic Th ought. Numen 56. Brill Academic Publishers, 161-184. Print.

Thayer, Thomas. The Biblical Doctrine of Hell. 1855. Print.

Mitchell, David C. "‘God Will Redeem My Soul from Sheol’: The Psalms of the Sons of Korah." Journal for