Hell, Sheol, Hades, etc...

How would you define the following using scripture to back up your thoughts:

1. Hell - what, who, when, where

2. Sheol - what, who, when, where

3. Hades - what, who, when, where

4. Lake of fire - what, who, when, where

5. Abraham’s bosom - what, who, when, where

Wow that's a hard question.. I will stick to what i am confident in and allow others to bring definitions for the others..

1) Hell .. Is a temporary holding place for the spirits of people who have not been right with the LORD.. This prison will be emptied on the day of judgement and will be cast into the eternal Lake of Fire..

4) Lake of Fire Is an Eternal place of torment for rebellious Angels and People who have rebelled against the will of God,, people who have rejected the Atonement of the LORD Jesus Christ..

5) Abraham's Bosom - Was and maybe still is? a temporary holding place separate from but adjacent to Hell.. Where the spirits of people who where / are right with the LORD spend time before the last judgement. They will be resurrected and will inherit Eternal life with God in his perfect eternal existence..


Below are thoughts that have aspects i am not 100% confident in..

I have heard some say that on the day of the execution of Jesus on the cross the LORD Jesus went down to hell and Abraham's Bosom and preached to those in hell and took all those in Abraham's bosom to heaven.. Not sure about this?? I do believe Jesus went to Hell to preach to those souls in prison but who and if he took any of them from that place to heaven i cannot say..

There is a place in the Bible called the Pit where the Angels who did not stay in their proper estate ( heaven ) but came down to earth and took for themselves wives from the daughters of men and had children with them ( the giants ) The place called Sheol or Hades might be referring to this place???

I tend to think that Hades sounds so similar to Hell that they may be just two names for the same place???

Anyway great topic John146 It will be interesting to read a few of the posts on this topic i am sure..

Thanks Adstar, on the Jonah thread, many were saying Jonah did not die and was not in hell, but a place called Sheol which is a Hebrew word. I am confused about their thoughts on Sheol. Are people still alive? Is it a place of torment? Who goes there? For how long? Is it some kind of purgatory?

I have seen Sheol interpreted as simply the grave.. The physical grave.. I do not rally know for sure about Sheol..

As for Jonah dying i am open to either His dying in the whale and being resurrected by God when the whale disgorged him onto the beach.. Or him surviving in the whale for 3 days..

Some of the scripture seems to be pointing to Jonah dying.. But where did Jonah spend that time??? No idea.. I would probably say Abraham's bosom.. I say that because God's intention was always to bring Jonah back to life.. If Jonah spent time in Hell then he would have probably came back to life in a traumatized state and would have been useless to God as a messenger. I can imagine people coming back from Hell being insane. Of course this is just me thinking out loud..

As an Ex - catholic i will Never believe in purgatory and would never call Sheol a purgatory.. That's dangerous talk and i would never go there..

The scripture states that wherever Jonah was, he was in affliction and suffered corruption. That can’t be Abraham’s bosom.

Ok update..

I looked into this Sheol in my KJV Bible search engine and the word is not in my KJV Bible.. No wonder i was unsure about it..

Looking at a few of the verses that Sheol is used in other Bibles compared with the KJV,, The King James Bible uses Hell as the word.. In one case the lowest Hell..

So my KJV Bible says in:: Jonah

(Jonah 2:2) "And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice."

So this leads me more to the position that Jonah did die in the whale and that Sheol is just another name of Hell..

Read my updated post about Sheol and the KJV ..

I thought the same thing, but others disagreed with this, yet they really couldn’t give me a straight up answer about Sheol.

(1) Hell is an English translation of usually either Sheol (Hebrew) or Hades (Greek)
(2,3) Sheol is the Hebrew (OT) and Hades is the Greek (NT) place of departed spirits - a temporary place till the final judgement. It may be that this is in the center of the Earth. Hades and Sheol are the same place.
(4) Lake of Fire - This term is equivalent to the Greek term Gehennah and is the eternal place of punishment God created for the devil and his angels (and then for all who do not believe in Jesus)
(5) Abraham's bosom was a compartment of Hades for the OT righteous dead. These were taken to heaven after Jesus died and rose again. (When their redemption was complete)

At the end of Revelation death and hell (Hades) are cast into the lake of fire.

There is the short version without all the Scriptural proofs - all I have time for right now.

Ok for now it seems we have come to the conclusion that Sheol and Hades are just other names for Hell.. And so they can be dropped and we can refine it down to 3 places..

1) Hell and 2) Abrahams Bosom related but not the same..
and
3) The Eternal Lake of Fire..

I wish some of those other people from the Jonah thread would chime in and explain why Sheol and hell are different in their view.

Yes it was all around him. Air and opportunity, a living suffering because of the curse. The suffering of the wage of sin is performed in living in a body of death. Three times by reason of suffering unto death (not dead) the pangs of hell. Jonas a parallel compared to the Son of man Jesus cried out for strength and new breath came as oxygen of the soul needed to finish the work of God. Spit Jonas out on shore and in effect said "now do my will you rebel.. . preach the gospel" .

God does not accept dead sacrifices. their lifeless spiritless blood must be poured out to show life was given .We walk by faith the unseen eternal .Not after the temporal lifeless spiritless blood.

Well they may not be able to accept Jonah spent time in Hell because a lot of churches teach that once you enter into Hell there is no possability of ever getting out of it.. It's a strong tradition..

That's what i suspect anyway..

This is exactly why the Lord could use Jonah as a type of what He was going to do.

Yes they assume hell is not the curse that Cain said he could not bear A dying creation with no sabbath rest.

Born again believers like Abel as those to do have Christs grace . They do rest in his sabbath as his works he works in us, with us, to both will and do His good pleasure. making the burden as the wage of sin lighter easier to bear.

They that appose as it would seem make a God of mercy into a God of everlasting vengeance day and night forever and ever..In that way violate the warning and rather than rejoicing against judgement. Make God rejoice with a never ending judgement. How would that serve God who is Love?

James 2:13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

Sh

• Sheol (Hebrew) = Hades (Greek) = Interim Jail (Prison) for departed souls/spirits. Ongoing present punishment until the Day of the Lord.
• Hell = Gehenna (Greek) = Geenna (Hebrew) = Lake of Fire into which represents the final judgement on the wicked. The order of those thrown in are as follows: AntiChrist and False Prophet are the first and second in, followed by Satan (3rd in 1000 years later), and then the rest of wicked mankind and fallen angels (4th Phase). Second last enemy thrown in is Hades (whether this represents all those in Hades or the spirit Hades is up for debate. And the last enemy thrown into Hell is Death.
• Tartarus (not too sure about this, but looks to be a special place in Hades for some serious fallen angels that have to be kept in chains)
• Abrahams Bosom (looks to be special place in Sheol) also known as Paradise where those in faith were kept until Jesus came to deliver them up. Jesus was the first to ascend to heaven (firstborn from among many brethren). I don't believe Abraham's bosom exists anymore, since I believe that once a person dies who is in faith, they are in the presence of Jesus in heaven (as a spirit but not yet given the glorified body.
• On the Day of Judgement the sheep and goats will be separated. Goats will go to the same place as all other unbelievers (Goats being those who masqueraded as sheep but were not).
• Saints will be given Glorified bodies (Soul/Spirit into a brand new body) that is given by Father God which has no nature of Adam
• Unbelievers I believe get a fleshly body to which their soul is attached. This is a special kind of body that continues to be burned up (but yet cannot waste away), as well as there is a special worm that eats this flesh into eternity in the lake of fire (Mark 9v48).

It cannot be for departed spirits other than the new born again ones. They are dead asleep. .Departed spirits that have not been born again. They will not rise on the last day. They return to the father for gave them under the letter of the law, making them corruptible just as the body . Nott half a curse or a remnant but the whole body, mind, soul and spirit.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

There are three words translated as Hell in the NT:

Tartartus/Tartartoo = Used once in 2 Peter 2:4 and also mentioned in Jude 1:6 referring to the place where the angels who sinned by taking wives were put into prison, into chains of darkness until the day of judgment

Sheol/Hades = This is the place where the departed spirits of the unrighteous dead go at the time of death, which is down under the earth and which is the same place that the rich man of Lazarus fame went to.

Gehenna = Is also called the lake of fire, the second death and everlasting fire. At the great white throne judgment, which takes place after the millennial kingdom, all of the unrighteous dead will be resurrected and will stand before God to be judged for all of their sins according to what is written in the books. Anyone's name not found written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire. The location of the lake of fire is never given.

Abraham's Bosom is not the name of a place, but more accurately refers to the spirit of Lazarus being taken to Abraham's side. The place that they were in was Sheol/Hades which was divided into two to parts by a great chasm. On one side was Abraham, Lazarus and all the rest of the OT saints. And on the other side was where all of the unrighteous dead were in torment and flame.

"One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham from afar, with Lazarus by his side.

The KJV clearly differentiates between hell and the lake of fire. Also, Abraham’s bosom is separated from hell/hades by a great gulf. I take it that the KJV hell is the same as Sheol and hades. Is this correct?

Hello again, John!

Well actually, the word Hell is wronly translated for all three Tartaroo, Sheol/Hades and Gehenna. Gehenna translated as hell, is used to describe the lake of fire. Here is an example:

HELPS Word-studies
1067 géenna (a transliteration of the Hebrew term, Gêhinnōm, "the valley of Hinnom") – Gehenna, i.e. hell (also referred to as the "lake of fire" in Revelation).

Gehenna ("hell"), the place of post-resurrection torment (judgment), refers strictly to the everlasting abode of the unredeemed where they experience divine judgment in their individual resurrection-bodies. Each of the unredeemed receives one at the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11-15), i.e. a body that "matches" their capacity for torment relating to their (unique) judgment.

Yes, Sheol (Hebrew) and Hades (Greek) are synonymous. Below is an example of the same scripture being quoted by Paul from the OT to the NT.

Psalm 16:10 - "For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay"

Acts 2:27 - because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.

Regarding where Abraham, Lazarus and the rich man, they were all in Sheol/Hades, which was divided by a great chasm. The side that Abraham and Lazarus were on was a place of comfort/paradise. On the other side of the chasm was the rich man and all of the rest of the spirits of the wicked, in torment in flame.

The place of paradise in Sheol/Hades was where the spirits of all of the righteous OT saints went to at the time of death. However, I believe that changed after the Lord's resurrection with their spirits being taken to heaven. For Paul states that to be present in the body is to be absent from the Lord. Likewise, to be absent from the body is to be in the presence of the Lord. In further support of this Paul said:

"For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. So what shall I choose? I do not know. I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better indeed. But it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body."

Hope this makes sense