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Bible, Christianity, Death, Eschatology, Eternal Punishment, God, Hell, Jesus Christ, Judgment, Theology
This is part two in a five-part series on the biblical doctrine of hell as eternal punishment. For part one, follow this link.
The Biblical Words for “Hell”
The Old Testament witness to the doctrine of hell and eternal punishment is scarce, which is one of the reasons critics of the traditional view have attacked it as being unbiblical. The common critique is that the Old Testament does not contain the word “hell.” In the King James Version of the bible, the word “hell” is found 31 times in the Old Testament; and it translates the Hebrew word Sheol. The word basically means “underworld, grave, pit.” Conceptually speaking, Sheol refers to the “place of the dead,” it is where people go when they die. The Old Testament does not seem to discriminate who goes to Sheol, both the wicked and the righteous go there when they die. Since Sheol does not refer to the concept of eternal punishment, modern bible translations have ceased translating Sheol as “hell” and have simply transliterated that word.
This is not to say that the Old Testament is completely devoid of any conception of eternal punishment for the wicked. We will examine an Old Testament passage that states the doctrine more explicitly when we consider the biblical evidence for the traditional view of hell. For our purposes at the present, it is enough to say that the doctrine of eternal punishment is not as clearly stated in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament. This is owing to the progressive nature of Scripture. Many doctrines that find a more full expression in the New Testament are only found in seed form in the Old Testament (e.g., the Trinity, the Christ, eternal punishment, etc.). What we can say regarding the word Sheol, is aptly summed up by Harry Buis:
The Old Testament clearly teaches a life after death, commonly in the form of and existence in Sheol, where good and evil alike share a similar dreary fate. However, there are also passages of inspired hope in a better life beyond death for the believer, a life of glorious fellowship with his God. Although there is in these passages no direct teaching with regard to the eternal punishment of the unbeliever, there is the beginning of a differentiation between the lot of the unbeliever and that of the believer. While the believer is rescued from Sheol, no such hope is expressed for the unbeliever.[1]
In the New Testament, there are two Greek words that were commonly translated as “hell.” The first one is Hades, and this word roughly corresponds to the Hebrew word Sheol (in fact, Hades is the Greek translation of Sheol in the Septuagint). Like Sheol in the Old Testament, modern English translations have stopped translating Hades as “hell” and have simply transliterated it. There is one interesting use of the word Hades in Luke 16:23. This is in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). In this story, both the rich man and Lazarus die. Lazarus, because of the hardships of his life, was taken to “Abraham’s bosom,” which is a place of peace and bliss. The rich man, because he was wicked, was taken to Hades (the Authorized Version translates Hades as “hell” in this verse). What is interesting regarding this passage is that here we are presented with a scene in which in the afterlife, prior to the day of resurrection and final judgment, there are rewards for the righteous and torments for the wicked. This has eventually led to the development of the doctrine of the Intermediate State. This doctrine teaches that upon death, believers in Christ are immediately ushered into his presence to be with the Lord, while unbelievers are sent to Hades to remain in a state of torment until the Day of Judgment.[2]
The second Greek word that is translated into English as “hell” is the word Gehenna. This word is a transliteration from Hebrew into Greek for the Valley of Hinnom. In the Old Testament, the Valley of Hinnom was a place south of Jerusalem where the wicked kings, Ahaz and Manasseh, practiced child sacrifice to the pagan god, Moloch (cf. 2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6). By New Testament times, the Valle of Hinnom was used as the Jerusalem garbage dump. In order to consume all of the garbage and dead bodies that were deposited there, fires were kept continually burning. This perpetual burning is the image Jesus means to invoke when he says things such as, “And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell [Gehenna], where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”[3] Whereas the words Sheol and Hades represent the temporary residence of the dead (especially the unrighteous dead), Gehenna clearly denotes, from the context in which Jesus uses the word, the concept of eternal punishment for the wicked.
So, far from the concept of hell and eternal punishment “leaving” the bible based on a correct translation of words like Sheol and Hades (transliterating them instead of translating them as “hell”), this concept is abundantly clear in the word Jesus uses most frequently to connote eternal punishment, Gehenna. Furthermore, the doctrine of eternal punishment is more widely taught in Scripture than just in the places where the word “hell” is found. Let us now turn to a biblical survey of the doctrine of eternal punishment.
Next: Biblical Teaching on Eternal Punishment
[1] Harry Buis, The Doctrine of Eternal Punishment (Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1957), p. 12.
[2] This doctrine is taught in the aforementioned passage (Luke 16:19-31) as well as 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 and Philippians 1:23. It is also confessed in the Westminster Confession of Faith (chapter 32, article 1).
[3] Mark 9:47-48 (English Standard Version).
