The Gaelic Revisers’ Notes on Sheol¹ and Hades

WE live in the days of revision. It is not so many years since the English Authorised Version of 1611 came under a thorough and scholarly revision, but the result of the learned labours of the revisers was by no means such as to create a desire for such work in the future. Moved by the spirit of the age, and under the influence of the revival of Gaelic scholarship, a movement was set on foot for the revision of the Gaelic Scriptures. The revisers, who went about their work leisurely, were men thoroughly competent to deal with the great work they undertook. That work, as far as Gaelic scholarship is concerned, has received unstinted praise from those whose standing gives them a right to speak. But the New Version has defects that to a great extent neutralise any gain that the version has received through changes in grammatical construction and idiom. The text of the New Testament is practically that of the English revisers, but as this subject has already been so ably treated in these pages, it remains for us to direct attention to another serious objection to the new Gaelic version of the Bible.

In their preface the revisers have the following note:—”The Hebrew Sheol, which signifies the abode of departed spirits, has been generally retained in the Old Testament, thus removing a grave cause of misunderstanding. In the New Testament the Greek Hades has been uniformly explained in a foot-note as the abode of the dead.” This is practically the substance of the English revisers’ note on the same subject. In the opinion of not a few the revisers, instead of removing a grave cause of misunderstanding, have taken the very means of increasing any misunderstanding that may have existed. Had they simply given Sheol in the Gaelic as the transliteration of the Hebrew word, without adding this explanatory and somewhat vague and misleading note in their preface, one could not find any more fault with them than with the American revisers who adopted this method. But if Sheol means more than the abode of departed spirits, and the revisers themselves seem to acknowledge this, for they translate it in Deut. xxxii. 22 as “ifirinn,” then their note must be regarded as the cause of the gravest misunderstanding in the future to multitudes who may use the Gaelic Revised Version. But if their note about Sheol is unfortunate, their note on Hades is no less so. The word is always translated in G.R.V. as “ifirinn,” with one exception, Rev. xx. 13, where it is translated “uaigh” (grave), but an asterisk always directs our attention to the foot of the page, where we are told:—”Anns a’ Ghreigis Hades, is e sin ionad nam

¹ Sheol is the Hebrew for the word invariably translated hell in the Old Testament; hades is the Greek for the word almost always translated hell in the New Testament.

marbh” (in the Greek Hades, that is the place of the dead). It is the purpose of this article to show that Sheol and Hades in many places mean much more than the “abode of departed spirits,” or “the place of the dead” (ionad nam marbh). Sheol occurs 65 times in the Old Testament. It is translated as “hell” 30 times in the Authorised Version (A.V.), 15 times in the English Revised Version (R.V.) ONCE in the Gaelic Revised Version (G.R.V.), viz., Deut. xxxii. 22, in which place it is rendered “pit” in the English R.V. In Hosea xiii. 14, where Sheol occurs twice in the Hebrew, the G.R.V. has rendered it first as “Sheol,” and in the second place as “uaigh.” In the Septuagint, Sheol is generally rendered Hades. Exceptions to this are to be found in 2 Sam. xxii. 6, Provs. xxiii. 14, where it is rendered “thanatos” (death), and possibly in one or two places by some other word.

From this it appears evident that the translators of the Septuagint regarded Hades as the equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol, and in order to arrive at the true meaning of Sheol attention must first of all be directed to the significance of the Greek word Hades. It occurs ten times in the New Testament (Matt. xi. 23, xvi. 18; Luke x. 15, xvi. 23; Acts ii. 27, 31; 1 Cor. xv. 55; Rev. i. 18, vi. 8, xx. 13, 14), and in the A.V. it is always translated “hell,” with the exception of 1 Cor. xv. 55, where it is translated “grave.” It occurs three times in the teaching of Christ, first in reference to Capernaum, that was exalted to heaven, which was to be brought down to hell (Hades), Matt. xi. 23; secondly, in reference to His Church, against which the gates of hell (Hades) will not prevail, Matt. xvi. 18; and, thirdly, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, In hell (Hades), we are told, the rich man lifted up his eyes, being in torments (Luke xvi. 23). The word in classic Greek, according to Dr. Salmon, means first the king of the invisible world, and then the nether world over which he reigns. According to the pagan conception, Hades consisted of two departments, Elysium and Tartarus. This conception of Hades, under Hellenizing influences, passed into the Christian Church, and is found in some of the patristic writings, though, as Shedd points out, it is not found in any of the primitive creeds. It is only right, however, in dealing with such terms that have been transferred to Christian theology from classical sources, such as “pistis,” “pneuma,” and “logos,” to make allowance for the altered standpoint from which Christianity views the matters designated by these terms, and in dealing with the New Testament use of Hades it is but just that its treatment should come under the almost universally acknowledged and extremely safe canon—the analogy of the faith. At the outset, I may as well acknowledge my great indebtedness to Dr. Shedd’s “Doctrine of Endless Punishment,” and his “Dogmatic Theology,” vol. II., for many of the facts about to be presented. From a careful consideration of New Testament passages, it appears that Hades has two meanings—(1) the grave, (2) the place of punishment. As the matter of

dispute, however, turns on the second point, it remains now for us to give some proof that in many passages in the New Testament

HADES MEANS THE PLACE OF PUNISHMENT.

1. In proof of this, the impressive and solemn language used in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus seems convincing enough: “The rich man died and was buried; and in hell (Hades) he lifted up his eyes, being in torments. And he cried and said: Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame” (Luke xvi. 22-24). The whole imagery of this dread scene has haunted the Christian imagination in every age. The torment, the flame, the great gulf fixed, the yearning desires unsatisfied, and the utter hopelessness that broods over the whole scene, present as vivid and awful a picture of retributive suffering as will be found in the New Testament. To say that this is a parable, and that it is unfair to appeal to what is evidently its mere drapery for a dogmatic conclusion, does not rob the parable of its teaching on the state of the lost. To interpret Hades here as the place of the dead (ionad nam marbh), as the Gaelic revisers do, is to rob the parable of its very strength. Again, the utter vagueness of the expression—place of the dead—makes one wish that they had left Hades in the text without their misleading foot-note. Does it mean, as the place of the dead, that only the wicked are there? or does it mean that all the dead are there, good and bad? If all the dead—the good as well as the wicked—then such an interpretation runs directly in the face of the long and rightly-cherished Christian belief that in the world beyond, where moral issues are for ever righted, there is no torment for the righteous. To speak of Hades—such a Hades as we have in this parable, with its torments, flame, and impassable gulf—as the abode of any of the righteous dead is shocking to every believer.

2. In Matt. xi. 23, Hades is contrasted with heaven: “Thou Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell” (Hades). And it is worthy of note that connected with this threat reference is made to the day of judgment: “It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.” The contrast is striking; it loses its force if we read: “Thou Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be brought down to the ‘place of the dead.'” Such an interpretation robs the sentence of its force, and makes the threat almost meaningless. Something more dreadful than the mere dissolution that is to overtake all things was threatened against Capernaum.

3. The next reference to Hades in Christ’s teaching is to be found in Matt. xvi. 18, in connection with the promise given to His Church: “The gates of hell (Hades) shall not prevail against it.” The language, it is true, is symbolical; but there is here again a contrast between Christ’s kingdom and the kingdom of

Satan, which loses all its significance if Hades be only the place of the dead. Let us read it as the Gaelic revisers instruct us: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of ‘the place of the dead’ shall not prevail against it.”

It may be asked, however, if Hades means hell, then why is another word, Gehenna, used in the New Testament, and is there any distinction between them? Dr. Shedd explains the matter as follows:—On the death of the wicked, their souls pass to their own place—such a place as the Hades of the parable—a place of retribution, awful and hopeless; but on the day of judgment, hell (Hades) gives up its disembodied spirits, and after they are re-embodied and receive their final sentence, they are cast into hell (Gehenna), and hell without the body (i.e., Hades) becomes hell with the body (i.e., Gehenna).

From the discussion, as far as it has gone, it will be seen that Hades in many passages in the New Testament means a great deal more than the place of the dead; that in some passages it is evident that it means the place of everlasting woe, and to say without a single qualifying word that it is simply the place of the dead, as the Gaelic revisers do in their prefatory note and footnotes, is most misleading, and fitted to give a very false impression.

It now remains to show that Sheol in many places, like Hades, has quite a different signification than that given to it by the revisers. Our purpose might be attained by simply pointing out that the word Sheol is almost invariably translated Hades in the Septuagint; but as there is sufficient material to establish our contention from the context of passages in which the word occurs, it may be as well to lay these under contribution. As the revisers inform us, Sheol has been generally retained in the Old Testament Gaelic Version for its Hebrew equivalent, or to be more definite, it occurs 52 times in the Gaelic Version as Sheol, 9 times as uaigh, once as ifrinn (Deut. xxxii. 22), once as ionad iochdrach (Ez. xxxi. 16), twice as slochd (Nums. xvi. 30 and 33), that is, of the 65 times that Sheol occurs in the Hebrew, it is transliterated 52 times into Gaelic and 13 times translated by the other words given above. Now, in this question of translation and transliteration the revisers do not seem to have been guided by any well defined rule, if we may judge from their rendering of Hosea xiii. 14. “Fuaiglaidh mise iad o laimh Sheoil (Heb. Sheol). Saoraidh mi iad o’n bhas: O bhhais c’ait am bheil do phlaighean? O uaigh (Heb. Sheol) c’ait am bheil do sgrios.” Here the Hebrew word is first transliterated Sheol and then translated uaigh.

But without dwelling longer on these preliminary points, it seems evident, from a careful study of passages in the Old Testament, that in many places

SHEOL SIGNIFIES THE PLACE OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT.

i. It is used as a threat against the wicked—”The wicked shall be turned into hell (Sheol) and all the nations that

forget God” (Ps. ix. 17). To say that the wicked shall be turned into the “abode of departed spirits,” where the righteous too must go, is as pithless a threat as was ever directed against the wicked. “The wicked,” we are told, “in a moment go down to hell (Sheol)” (Job, xxi. 13). “Thou shalt beat thy child with a rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell (Sheol)” (Provs. xxiii. 14), that is, according to the Gaelic revisers, “Thou shalt beat thy child with a rod, and shalt deliver his soul from the abode of departed spirits.”

Again, the Lord says: “A fire is kindled in my anger, and it shall burn to the lowest hell (Sheol)” (Deut. xxxiii. 22). This is the only passage where Sheol is translated ifrin by the Gaelic revisers. Commenting on these passages, Shedd has well said—”There can be no natural doubt that in this class of Old Testament texts the wicked are warned of a future evil and danger. The danger is that they shall be sent to Sheol. . . . To give it a meaning that makes it the common residence of the good and evil is to destroy its force as a Divine menace. If Sheol be merely a promiscuous under-world for all souls, then to be turned into Sheol is no more a menace for the sinner than for the saint, and consequently a menace for neither. In order to be of the nature of an alarm for the wicked Sheol must be something that pertains to them alone. If it is shared with the good, its power to terrify is gone. If the good man goes to Sheol, the wicked will not be afraid to go with him. It is no answer to this to say that Sheol contains two divisions, Hades and Paradise, and that the wicked go to the former. This is not the Biblical text, or in its connection. The wicked who are threatened with Sheol, as the punishment of their wickedness, are not threatened with a part of Sheol, but with the whole of it. Sheol is one undivided and homogeneous in the inspired representation. The sub-division of it into heterogeneous compartments is a conception imported into the Bible from the Greek and Roman classics. The Old Testament knows nothing of a Sheol that is partly an evil and partly a good. The Biblical Sheol is always an evil, and nothing but an evil. When the human body goes down to Sheol, in the sense of the grave, this is an evil. And when the human soul goes down to Sheol, in the sense of ‘hell and retribution,’ this is an evil. Both are threatened, as the penalty of sin, to the wicked, but never to the righteous” (Endless Punishment, p. 23).

1. That Sheol is not the place of the righteous, who, if the revisers’ note stands, must also go to Sheol, is evident from the description of the place as given in the Old Testament. Principal Salmond’s summary of the Old Testament presentation of this dread and gloomy abode may well be quoted. “Sheol,” he says, “in contrast with the upper realm of light and life, is the under realm of gloom and death. It is described as in the deeps of the earth; in the deepest deep, in the land of deeps, lower than the earth and its denizens; it is the place of desolations, as far beneath

earth as earth is beneath heaven. As the under-world it is the land of darkness, where chaos reigns, and even the light is as darkness; and—last horror in the Semitic feeling toward the world of the dead! It is the land of dust—dust that speaks of the waste of things and the barrenness of the scene—that deepens the dread stillness and chokes the creeping light. Personifications, such as the monster with the open mouth, figures like that of the prison with the gates and bars, bespeak the sense of its unwelcomeness and terror. It is conceived to be a locality, but no topography of it is attempted. It is simply all that the world of the living is not—the land of silence, gloom, cessation, destruction, and disorder, unvisited by God’s wonders, wrapped in a sleep lasting as the enduring heavens. . . . Worst of all the miseries of Sheol, darkest of all fears in the anticipation of Sheol, is the loss of God’s fellowship. His omnipotence reaches that dire realm of the dead. His eye searches it. Sheol and Abaddon are before Him. Sheol is naked before Him, and Abaddon hath no covering. If one makes his bed in Sheol God is there” (Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 3rd Ed.). Contrast this with the Old Testament representation of the state of the blessed dead. Balaam’s prayer was, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.” If the last end be such as Principal Salmond describes it, then Balaam’s prayer adds another mystery to Balaam’s somewhat inexplicable character; but if it be such as David describes it to be, then the prayer can be well understood. David looks forward to the end—the gloom and darkness of Sheol do not rob him of joy when he looks before him. “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness” (Ps. xvii. 15). “My flesh shall rest in hope. Thou wilt show me the path of life; in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm xvi. 2). “Thou shalt guide we with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee” (Ps. lxxvii. 24). It seems evident from these passages that the place of the righteous and the place of the wicked are diametrically opposed, and that to speak of Sheol as the abode of departed spirits (presumably including the righteous and the wicked) is most misleading.

Enough has now been written to show the Gaelic revisers’ notes on Sheol and Hades stand in much need of revision themselves. The whole subject of Old Testament eschatology is beset with difficulties, and he who would discuss the subject with anything like the thoroughness that its importance requires would require more space and time than the writer has at his disposal; but from this brief discussion of the subject one point stands out as evident—viz., that Sheol and Hades in many passages in the Old and New Testament mean nothing less than hell. And if this be the case, then the sooner the revisers’ notes on Sheol and Hades be expunged from their preface the better. This may appear to many

simply a question for scholars; but if it be true, as Dr. Shedd says, that Universalism receives strong support from all versions and commentaries which take the idea of retribution out of the term Sheol, it becomes a question of deepest interest to every believer, and it is not too much to hope that their earnest prayer will be that the Gaelic Revised Version will, like its English companion, die an unlamented death.

D. B.