Hades a Greek word, (]σης, derived, according to the best established and most generally received etymology, from privative a and ἰδεῖν, hence often written ά‹δμς), means strictly what is out of sight, or possibly, if applied to a person, what puts out of sight. In earlier Greek this last was, if not its only, at least its prevailing application; in Homer it occurs only as the personal designation of Pluto, the lord of the invisible world, and who was probably so designated-not from being himself invisible, for that belonged to him in common with the heathen gods generally—but from his power to render mortals invisible—the invisible-making deity (see Crusius, Homeric Lexicon, s.v.). The Greeks, however, in process of time abandoned this use of hades, and when the Greek Scriptures were written the word was scarcely ever applied except to the place of the departed. In the classical writers, therefore, it is used to denote Orcus, or the infernal regions. In the Greek version of the Old Testament it is the common rendering for the Heb. שׁאוֹל, sheol, though in the form there often appears a remnant of the original personified application; for example, in Genesis 37:35, “I will go down to my son,” εἰς]δου, i.e. into the abodes or house of hades δύμους or οϊvκον being understood). This elliptical form was common both in the classics and in Scripture, even after hades was never thought of but as a region or place of abode.
1. The appropriation of hades by the Greek interpreters as an equivalent for sheol may undoubtedly be taken as evidence that there was a close agreement in the ideas conveyed by the two terms as currently understood by the Greeks and Hebrews respectively-a substantial, but not an entire agreement; for in this, as well as in other terms which related to subjects bearing on things spiritual and divine, the different religions of Jew and Gentile necessarily exercised a modifying influence; so that even when the same term was employed, and with reference generally to the same thing, shades of difference could not but exist in respect to the ideas understood to be indicated by them. Two or three points stand prominently out in the views entertained by the ancients respecting hades: first, that it was the common receptacle of departed spirits, of good as well as bad; second, that it was divided into two compartments, the one containing an Elysium of bliss for the good, the other a Tartarus of sorrow and punishment for the wicked; and, thirdly, that in respect to its locality, it lay under ground, in the mid-regions of the earth. So far as these points are concerned, there is no material difference between the Greek hades and the Hebrew sheol. This, too, was viewed as the common receptacle of the departed: patriarchs and righteous men spoke of going into it at their decease, and the most ungodly and worthless characters are represented as finding in it their proper home (Genesis 42:38; Psalms 139:8; Hosea 13:14; Isaiah 14:9, etc.). A twofold division also in the state of the departed, corresponding to the different positions they occupied, and the courses they pursued on earth, is clearly implied in the revelations of Scripture on the subject, though with the Hebrews less prominently exhibited, and without any of the fantastic and puerile inventions of heathen mythology. Yet the fact of a real distinction in the state of the departed, corresponding to their spiritual conditions on earth, is in various passages not obscurely indicated.
Divide retribution is represented as pursuing the wicked after they have left this world-pursuing them even into the lowest realms of sheol (Deuteronomy 32:22; Amos 9:2); and the bitterest shame and humiliation are described as awaiting there the most prosperous of this world’s inhabitants, if they have abused their prosperity to the dishonor of God and the injury of their fellow-men (Psalms 49:14; Isaiah 14). On the other hand, the righteous had hope in his death, he could rest assured that, in the viewless regions of sheol, as well as amid the changing vicissitudes of earth, the right hand of God would sustain him; even there he would enter into peace, walking still, as it were, in his uprightness (Proverbs 14:32; Psalms 139:8; Isaiah 57:2). That sheol, like hades, was conceived of as a lower region in comparison with the present world, is so manifest from the whole language of Scripture on the subject, that it is unnecessary to point to particular examples; in respect to the good as well as the bad, the passage into sheol was contemplated as a descent; and the name was sometimes used as aῥ synonym for the very lowest depths (Deuteronomy 32:22; Job 11:7-9). This is not, however, to be understood as affirming anything of the actual locality of disembodied spirits; for there can be no doubt that the language here, as in other cases, was derived from the mere appearances of things; and as the body at death was committed to the lower parts of the earth, so the soul was conceived of as also going downwards. But that this was not designed to mark the local boundaries of the region of departed spirits may certainly be inferred from other expressions used regarding them-as that God took them to himself; or that he would give them to see the path of life; that he would make them dwell in his house forever; or, more generally still, that the spirit of a man goeth upwards (Genesis 5:24; Psalms 16:11; 23:6; Ecclesiastes 3:21; 12:7). During the old dispensations there was still no express revelation from heaven respecting the precise condition or external relationships of departed spirits; the time had not yet come for such specific intimations; and the language employed was consequently of a somewhat vague and vacillating nature, such as spontaneously arose from common feelings and impressions. For the same reason, the ideas entertained even by God’s people upon the subject were predominantly somber and gloomy. Sheol wore no inviting aspect to their view, no more than hades to the superstitious heathen; the very men who believed that God would accompany them thither and keep them from evil, contemplated the state as one of darkness and silence, and shrunk from it with instinctive horror, or gave hearty thanks when they bound themselves for a time delivered from it (Psalms 6:5; 30:3,9; Job 3:13 sq.; Isaiah 38:18). The reason was that they had only general assurances, but no specific light on the subject; and their comfort rather lay in overleaping the gulf of sheol, and fixing their thoughts on the better resurrection some time to come, than in anything they could definitely promise themselves between death and the resurrection-morn.
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Author: McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia
Keywords: Hades
Bible reference(s): Acts 2:27, Acts 26:7, Amos 9:2, Daniel 12:2, Deuteronomy 32:22, Deuteronomy 33:13, Ecclesiastes 12:7, Ecclesiastes 3:21, Genesis 1:2, Genesis 37:35, Genesis 42:38, Genesis 49:25, Genesis 5:24, Genesis 8:2, Hebrews 11:16, Hosea 13:14, Isaiah 14:9, Isaiah 26:19, Isaiah 38:18, Isaiah 44:27, Isaiah 57:2, Job 11:7, Job 26:6, Job 3:13, Job 36:16, Job 41:23, Luke 16:23, Luke 23:43, Luke 8:31, Matthew 11:23, Matthew 16:18, Proverbs 14:32, Proverbs 21:1, Psalms 104:6, Psalms 139:8, Psalms 16:11, Psalms 23:6, Psalms 30:3, Psalms 49:14, Psalms 6:5, Revelation 1:18, Revelation 11:7, Revelation 17:8, Revelation 20:13, Revelation 6:8, Revelation 9:1, Romans 10:7
Source: John McClintock and James Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.
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