The Sheol Contradiction

The word hell is used 31 times in the King James version of the Old Testament.  Each one of those times the word hell is translated from the Hebrew word Sheol.  The problem is that there should be some correlation between the number of times that hell is used and the number of times Sheol is present.  The word Sheol shows up in the Old Testament a total of 65 times.  Okay here is the issue, if Sheol is translated hell then how do we have hell 31 times but Sheol 65 times.  Shouldn't there be a closer reconciliation?

Let us at this time define the meaning of the word Sheol.  Sheol is defined as: a place to which people descend at death, a grave.  This is cause for concern.  Consider how the word was used at its first mention in the bible:

Genesis 37:35
Then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, “Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son.” So his father wept for him.

This passage is talking about the time when Jacob thought that he had lost his son.  It tells us that Jacob lamented that he will go down to Sheol in mourning.  What is more interesting is that the King James version translates Sheol in this instance as grave and herein is the contradiction.  Research will show that the word Sheol is translated hell in some instances and grave in others; but does this even make sense?  Look at the definition of the word grave:

A place where a dead body is buried. It is essentially a hole in the ground where a dead body is buried

Okay let's get a definition of the word hell:

A place of everlasting fiery punishment in the afterlife

Now there are instances where a word can have more than one meaning, but can ANYONE tell me how ONE word can mean a hole in the ground AND AT THE SAME TIME mean a place of fire and burning and punishment no end!!!!  Are these concepts even interchangeable? The first person to tell me that these things are ONLY understood in the spirit will get a VIRTUAL SLAP!!!  Consider:

Where is John Smith? He died and we buried him. (Grave)

Where is John Smith? He died and he is burning forever in a fiery hell hole. (Hell)

One question, was there a shortage of words that necessitated the Hebrews to cause the word Sheol to do double duty?  How would they EVER be able to communicate?  How would they ever know to what the other person was referring; heaven help us if it was written down and used in a sentence because a whole council would have to be called just to interpret!

The King James interpreters ran up against this problem pretty early on as they now had a dilemma.  If Sheol is to be translated as hell (a place of everlasting burning) then how could it be used in connection with the righteous of the Old Testament:

2 Samuel 22:6
The cords of Sheol/HELL surrounded me (David); The snares of death confronted me.

Here is a funny one:

1 Kings 2:6
So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray hair go down to Sheol in peace.

According to this verse it is possible to go down to HELL in PEACE.  Seriously?

Oh and don't forget Job:

Job 14:13
“Oh that You would hide me in Sheol/HELL, That You would conceal me until Your wrath returns to You, That You would set a limit for me and remember me!

How bad was Job's trials that he BEGGED God to send him to a place of everlasting burning and torment!  DOES THIS EVEN MAKE SENSE???  Job's plea was, Oh God I am in a bad place now but I beg you to send me to an even worse place.  Not only that but it appears that you could escape hell:

Psalms 86:13
For Your lovingkindness toward me is great, And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol/HELL.

I guess this isn't strange since Jonah went there for three days:

 Jonah 2:2
...and he said, “I called out of my distress to the Lord, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol/HELL; You heard my voice.

So which is it? Can we finally put to rest this contradiction?  Is Sheol a place of everlasting fiery punishment or is it the grave?

How would they know?
If Sheol was a place of everlasting torment how would the Hebrews come to know this?  THINK ABOUT IT. There is no account where some Hebrew had a near death experience and came back and said 'hey you guys, that Sheol, let me tell ya that place is no joke'.  Seriously, how would they know?  Since this is a place that wicked people supposedly went to after death how would the know?  The only way for them to know is for God to tell them.  Well, did God EVER DESCRIBE Sheol as a place of torment?  Where did God ever clue the Hebrews into the fact that Sheol is a place of fiery torment? Remember that this word was first used in the bible by Jacob, but when was it first used by God?

Isaiah 5:14
Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure; And Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it.

Okay this is ridiculous.  This is the first time that God utters the word Sheol. He used it in connection with Jerusalem's splendor.  Now this is important; can we deduce from the way that God uses this word that he is talking about some fiery place filled with burning wicked?  On top of this he WAITS THOUSANDS OF YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF MAN TO EVEN MENTION THE WORD!  It would be a matter of great importance for man to know that when he dies in his sin that he would go to a fiery hell hole forever dontcha think?  Wouldn't God WANT TO WARN people of their fate?  Or does he say upon death when he is casting them into fire 'oh did I forget to mention that you are going to be tormented here for EVER and EVER.

The concept of hell is NOT articulated by God or ANY of his prophets in the Old Testament.  So how did the translators come to substitue Sheol in some places for the word hell?  The world knew what a grave was, they had been digging them since the fall of man.  It would require knowledge BEYOND what could be seen in the natural to grant an understanding of hell.  The Hebrews, by the time God used the word, had been using it for thousands of years.  To them it meant a hole in the ground to put the dead, nothing more.  It is used THROUGHOUT the Old Testament to mean just that; you can prove this by just substituting the King James usage of hell in the Old Testament for grave and IT MAKES SENSE EVERY TIME.

What is the wages/ punishment for sin?
In my post 'The mystery of the second death' I show clearly God's ultimate punishment for sin.  He NEVER told Adam that the punishment for sin would be an eternity in a fiery pit.   God said that the punishment for sin is the cessation of life.  That's IT; the price for sinning is DEATH.  The translators who translated the word Sheol to hell will have much to answer for on the day in which God will judge the world and so will the purveyors of this teaching.

(PLEASE DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND ME, God will further judge the wicked when he submits them to the second death.  This second death is where the wicked will undergo God's obedience program (see my post on The purpose of the Lake of Fire))

What are the implications of this understanding?
If Sheol can ONLY mean the grave then we have been duped.  We have been conveying to the world the idea that God punishes sin with an eternity of burning, and we have been using Sheol as a vehicle to do it.

But doesn't the New Testament talk about hell?
Let me ask you a question.  Jesus shows up on the scene about four thousand years after the fall of man.  By this time MILLIONS of people have died.  Could he at this time introduce to mankind a fresh new idea of how God punishes sin?  At some point he would have to say to the crowd 'Oh by the way, we didn't get to mention this earlier but when you die you don't REALLY die but you go to a fiery pit where you burn forever'.  WHAT, YOUR JUST TELLING US THIS NOW!!!!!  Remember that to them Sheol was the grave, could Jesus now come on the scene and CHANGE this definition?

True to form the translators continued their destructive tactics in their work in the New Testament, but we can now see their error.  Since we now know Sheol to be the grave can we use this information to offer clarity in the New Testament? 

Acts 2:27
...Because You will not abandon my soul to Hell, Nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.

Oh you translators, this passage of scripture is taken from the book of Psalms and there the word Sheol is used.  In the New Testament where it is written in Greek the word is Hades.  Based on this then we can conclude that whenever the New Testament mentions Hades it is synonymous with the Hebrew word Sheol.  Now just how many times is the word Hades used in the New Testament?  Ten times; and do you know that the KJV rendered the word HADES as HELL each of these times?

See what is happening here is that there was and effort to transmit a doctrine and not a translation.  This is important to know because in doing so we have LOST a great understanding.  Consider:

Matthew 16:18
I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hell will not overpower it.

Upon reading this most Christians have fanciful ideas of Satan seeking to overcome the church with the gates of hell.  What is lost here is Jesus telling the church that the gates of HADES/SHEOL/GRAVE will not be able to overpower his church.  This was no rallying cry to beat back the forces of the devil, but it was a reassurance that death will not be a PERMANENT STATE for the church.  It was a promise that the power of God will rob the grave of its power over the saints by RESURRECTION.

We also lose an essential understanding here:

Revelation 20:14
Then death and Hell were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

Again Christians have ideas of God taking up hell, filled with the wicked, and throwing it into a supposedly bigger fire.  But if you understand that HADES=SHEOL=GRAVE you realize that this is a wonderful picture of God bringing an END to death.

When you understand the equation HADES=SHEOL=GRAVE you can come to see just how specific the word of God is.  Consider:

Revelation 20:13
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.

Has everyone who has ever died on the earth buried in the earth?  No, because some people died at sea.  Therefore the scripture says that the sea gives up its dead and Hades which is the grave which is a HOLE IN THE GROUND gave up its dead.
 
It is based on the fact that HADES=SHEOL=GRAVE that we can finally conclude that the story that Jesus gave of the rich man and Lazarus was indeed a PARABLE.  This is evident because to the hearers of this story they knew immediately that Sheol meant the grave and since one is dead in a grave  one could not LITERALLY lift up ones eyes and see anything! (see my post 'You shall not surely die...')

God inspired the use of the word Hades to be synonymous with Sheol, because he wanted New Testament followers to understand them to mean the same thing.  The only word left that the translators translate as hell is the word Gehenna (Oh what a versatile word HELL is). In my paper 'The mystery of the second death' I tried to show where Jesus' use of the concept of Gehenna is in fact the book of Revelations Lake of Fire.  In my post 'The purpose of the Lake of Fire' I prove where the lake of fire is the place where ALL the enemies of God are MADE TO BE OBEDIENT TO CHRIST.

I am made to wonder about this doctrine of hell when I consider the following:

2 Thessalonians 2:11-12
For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.