The Synonymous Words

for "Hell", etc.

This Is Appendix 131 From The Companion Bible.

"Hell" is the English rendering of two different Greek words in

the New Testament

The English word is from the Anglo-Saxon hel, Genitive case

helle = a hidden place, from the Anglo-Saxon helan = to hide.

It is in the New Testament used as the translation of two Greek

words :-

I. Gehenna. Greek geenna. This is the transliteration of the

Hebrew Gai' Hinnom, that is to say the Valley of Hinnom or

"the Valley" of [the sons of] Hinnom, where were the fires

through which children were passed in the worship of

Moloch.

In the Old Testament Tophet was the Hebrew word used,

because it was a place in this valley.

In our Lord's day the idolatry had ceased, but the fires

were still continually burning there for the destruction of the

refuse of Jerusalem. Hence, geenna was used for the fires of

destruction associated with the judgment of God.

Sometimes, "geenna of fire". See 2Kings 23:10. Isaiah

30:33. Jeremiah 7:31, 32; 19:11-14.

Geenna occurs 12 times, and is always rendered "hell",

videlicet Matthew 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33. Mark

9:43, 45, 47. Luke 12:5. James 3:6.

II. Hades. Greek hades, from a (privative) and idein, to see

(Appendix 133. I. i); used by the Greeks for the unseen

world.

The meaning which the Greeks put upon it does not

concern us; nor have we anything to do with the

imaginations of the heathen, or the traditions of Jews or

Romanists, or the teachings of demons or evil spirits, or of

any who still cling to them.

The Holy Spirit has used it as one of the "words pertaining

to the earth", and in so doing has "purified" it, "as silver

tried in a furnace" (see notes on Psalms 12:6). From this we

learn that His own words "are pure", but words belonging to

this earth have to be "purified".

The Old Testament is the fountain head of the Hebrew

language. It has no literature behind it. But the case is

entirely different with the Greek language. The Hebrew

Sheol is a word Divine in its origin and usage. The Greek

Hades is human in its origin and comes down to us laden

with centuries of development, in which it has acquired new

senses, meanings, and usages.

Seeing that the Holy Spirit has used it in Acts 2:27, 31 as

His own equivalent of Sheol in Psalm 16:10, He has settled,

once for all, the sense in which we are to understand it. The

meaning He has given to Sheol in Psalms 16:10 is the one

meaning we are to give it wherever it occurs in the New

Testament, whether we transliterate it or translate it. We

have no liberty to do otherwise, and must discard everything

outside the Word of God.

The word occurs eleven times (Matthew 11:23; 16:18. Luke

10:15; 16:23. Acts 2:27, 31. 1Corinthians 15:55. Revelation

1:18; 6:8; 20:13, 14); and is rendered "hell" in every passage

except one, where it is rendered "grave" (1Corinthians

15:55, margin "hell").

In the Revised Version the word is always transliterated

"Hades", except in 1Corinthians 15:55 (where "death" is

substituted because of the reading, in all the texts, of thanate

for hade), and in the American Revised Version also.

As Hades is the Divine Scriptural equivalent of Sheol,

further light may be gained from Appendix 35, and a

reference to the 65 passages there given. It may be well to

note that while "Hades" is rendered "hell" in the New

Testament (except once, where the rendering "the grave"

could not be avoided), Sheol, its Hebrew equivalent, occurs

65 times, and is rendered "the grave" 31 times (or 54%);

"hell" 31 times (4 times with margin "the grave", reducing

it to 41.5%); and "pit" only 3 times (or 4.5 %).

"The grave", therefore, is obviously the best rendering,

meaning the state of death (German sterbend, for which we

have no English equivalent); not the act of dying, as an

examination of all the occurrences of both words will show.

1. The rendering "pit" so evidently means "the grave"

that it may at once be substituted for it (Numbers

16:30, 33. Job 17:16).

2. The rendering "the grave" (not "a grave", which is

Hebrew keber or bor) exactly expresses the meaning

of both Sheol and Hades. For, as to direction, it is

always down: as to place, it is in the earth: as to

relation, it is always in contrast with the state of the

living (Deuteronomy 32:22-25 and 1Samuel 2:6-8); as

to association, it is connected with mourning

(Genesis 37:34, 35), sorrow (Genesis 42:38. 2Samuel

22:6. Psalms 18:5; 116:3), fright and terror (Numbers

16:27, 34), mourning (Isaiah 38:3, 10, 17, 18), silence

(Psalms 6:5; 31:17. Ecclesiastes 9:10), no knowledge

(Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10), punishment (Numbers 16:29,

34. 1Kings 2:6, 9. Job 24:19. Psalms 9:17 (Revised

Version = re-turned)), corruption (Psalms 16:10. Acts

2:27, 31); as to duration, resurrection is the only exit

from it (Psalms 16:11. Acts 2:27, 31; 13:33-37.

1Corinthians 15:55. Revelation 1:18; 20:5, 13, 14).

III. Tartaroo (occurs only in 2Peter 2:4) = to thrust down to

Tartarus, Tartarus being a Greek word, not used elsewhere,

or at all in the Septuagint. Homer describes it as subterranean

(compare Deuteronomy 32:22, which may refer to this). The

Homeric Tartarus is the prison of the Titans, or giants

(compare Hebrew Rephaim, Appendix 25), who rebelled

against Zeus.