Question: If the translators of the Septuagint considered that “Hades” was a fair representation of the Hebrew word “Sheol,” is it true, in view of the universal application of “Hades” in the contemporary Greek world, to means “the grave”?
Answer: It is of course admitted that the Septuagint translation of the O.T. (the LXX.) invariably renders Sheol by the Greek word Hades. It is also true that Sheol in the O.T. is rendered Hades in the N.T. in citations from the O.T., as in Acts 2:27 and 31. In the Authorised Version of the English Bible (the A.V.) Sheol is rendered hell, grave and pit more or less indiscriminately; hell and grave 31 times in each case, and pit 3 times. The revisers have on the whole done well in indicating, in either the text or the margin, every occurrence of Sheol in the Hebrew. This does at least put the ordinary reader in possession of the facts so thoroughly hidden in the A.V.; but the revisers have themselves been guilty of some degree of unfairness in stating, in their Preface, that “Sheol signifies the abode of departed spirits.” Their marginal note to Genesis 37:35 is, however, accurate and fair: “Heb. Sheol, the name of the abode of the dead, answering to the Greek Hades, Acts 2:27.”
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Author: W. J. Young
Keywords: Soul, Kill the body, Heaven going, Going to heaven, After death, After life, Afterlife, Cast to hell, Cast down to hell, Chains of darkness, Damned go to hell, Death, Death state, Departing soul, Departing spirit, Destroyed in hell, Dieing, Dominion of the grave, Do the wicked go to hell, Eternal fire, Eternal judgment, Eternal judgement, Eternal punishment, Eternal torment, Eternal hell, Eternal pit, Everlasting fire, Everlasting judgment, Everlasting judgement, Everlasting hell, Everlasting hellfire, Everlasting hell fire, Everlasting pit, Everlasting punishment, Everlasting torment, Everlasting torture, Ever lasting fire, Ever lasting judgment, Ever lasting judgement, Ever lasting hell, Ever lasting hellfire, Ever lasting hell fire, Ever lasting pit, Ever lasting punishment, Ever lasting torment, Ever lasting torture, Eternal hellfire, Eternal hell fire, Eternal torture, Eternal soul, Fable hell, Fabled hell, Fiery hell, Fire not quenched, Fire unquenched, Gehenna, Gehena, Gehenna fire, Gehena fire, Go to hell, Grave, Gravedom, Hell, Hele, Hellfire, Hell fire, Hell forever, Hell real, Hades, Hinnom, Immortal spirit, Immortal soul, Immortality of the soul, Immortality of the spirit, Kill the soul, Lake of fire, Life in hell, Lost souls in hell, Never ending fire, Never ending hell, Placed in hell, Punished in hell, Punished for eternity, Punished in hell for eternity, Reserved in hell, Rich man Lazarus, Rich man Lazaras, Roasting in hell, Send to hell, Sent to hell, Sheol, Sleeping in hell, Soul's immortality, Soul in hell, Soul punished in hell, Soul sleep, Soulsleep, Spirit in hell, Tartarus, There is no hell, Torment in hell, Tormented in hell, Underworld, Under world, Undieing worm, Undying worm, Unquenchable, Unquenchable fire, Waiting in hell, Wicked punished in hell, What happens when I die, What is hell, What is Gehenna, What is Gehenea, What is Sheol, What happens when we die, When the roll is called up yonder, Where is hell, Where do the lost go when they die, Where do the wicked go when they die, Where do we go when we die, Wicked hell, Worm does not die, Worm won't die, Worm will not die, Worm dieth not, Worm do not die, LXX, Septuagint
Bible reference(s): GEN 37:35, GEN 42:38, GEN 44:29, GEN 44:31, NUM 16:30, NUM 16:33, DEU 32:22, 1SA 2:6, 2SA 22:6, 1KI 2:6, 1KI 2:9, JOB 7:9, JOB 11:8, JOB 14:13, JOB 17:13, JOB 17:16, JOB 21:13, JOB 24:19, JOB 26:6, PSA 6:5, PSA 9:17, PSA 16:10, PSA 18:5, PSA 30:3, PSA 31:17, PSA 49:14, PSA 49:15, PSA 55:15, PSA 86:13, PSA 88:3, PSA 89:48, PSA 116:3, PSA 139:8, PSA 141:7, PRO 1:12, PRO 5:5, PRO 7:27, PRO 9:18, PRO 15:11, PRO 15:24, PRO 23:14, PRO 27:20, PRO 30:16, ECC 9:10, SON 8:6, ISA 5:14, ISA 14:9, ISA 14:11, ISA 14:15, ISA 28:15, ISA 28:18, ISA 38:10, ISA 38:18, ISA 57:9, EZE 31:15, EZE 31:16, EZE 31:17, EZE 32:21, EZE 32:27, HOS 13:14, AMO 9:2, JON 2:2, HAB 2:5, Matthew 11:23, Matthew 16:18, Luke 10:15, Luke 16:23, Acts 2:27, Acts 2:31, Revelation 1:18, Revelation 6:8, Revelation 20:13, Revelation 20:14, Wisdom of Solomon 1:14, Wisdom of Solomon 2:1, Wisdom of Solomon 16:13, Wisdom of Solomon 16:14, Wisdom of Solomon 17:14, Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 21:10, Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 28:21, 2 Maccabees 6:23
Source: “Readers’ Problems,” The Testimony, Vol. 6, No. 69, September 1936, pp. 357-8.
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