Q.-With reference to the Queries and Answers in the May issue of The Bible Treasury regarding Sheol or Hades, what are we to understand from the following scriptures—
“Who shall descend into the abyss, that is, to bring Christ up from among the dead” (Romans 10:7). Does this imply that our Lord was in the abyss?
“That through death he might annul him who has the might of death, that is, the devil; and might set free all those who through fear of death, through the whole of their life, were subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14, 15, New Translation). Is it that the setting free refers to Old Testament saints who had lived and died and went to Sheol?
“Though they dig into Sheol” (Amos 9:2). Would this teach that the locality of Sheol is in the heart of the earth?
J. C. B.
A.—1. Our Lord not only died, but was buried. His body lay in the grave (in the words of Matthew 12:40) “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” And of this the prophet Jonah was a sign, who himself confesses (2:5), “The waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the depth (or, abyss) closed me round about” (ἄβυσσος εκύκλωσέ με ἑσχἁτη, LXX.). Christ's “soul” was not left to Hades; and His “spirit” He committed into the hands of His Father.
The scripture quoted by the querist warns against saying in the heart, “Who shall descend into the abyss,” of which the signification is given, “that is, to bring up Christ again from amongst (ὲκ) the dead.” “God raised Him from amongst the dead.” Spirits and souls are not dead, for all live unto Him. “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” The inanimate “body” it is that is the subject of resurrection. It is raised, and by the union with it of “spirit” and “soul” —both immortal—becomes living, whether here or hereafter, whether for eternal felicity, or everlasting torment. Does scripture ever speak of the soul, or the spirits of men, having place in the abyss? Is it correct to say that the abyss is “the habitation of (Satan and his angels, and) the spirits of the wicked"?
Neither the metaphorical language of Ezekiel 31:15, nor the imagery of the latest prophecy, affords sufficient basis, it appears to us, for such an inference.
The “abyss” is a Greek word (ἄβυσσος), meaning, “bottomless,” which occurs in the New Testament nine times, and is rendered in our Authorized Version as follows— “deep,” in Luke 8:31; Romans 10:7; “bottomless,” in Revelation 9:1, 2; and “bottomless pit,” in Revelation 9:11; 11:7; 17:8; 20:1, 3. In the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament, out of the thirty-four occurrences of its use it is the rendering, in thirty-one instances, of the Hebrew word t'hOhm— “the deep,” “deep places,” “the depth.” We give at the foot of this page all the references in the Old Testament, from which the general sense of the word is plain. And so also the New Testament gives no warrant whatever for such a thought as a descent of our Lord into the bottomless pit! Our Lord “descended into the lower parts of the earth.” He was buried, and He raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
The setting free is not after death, but the deliverance from the fear of death in this life. Before redemption was accomplished, all was more or less dark to the pious Jew, and death had not been robbed of its terrors. Now even death is ours (1 Corinthians 3:22), for it is the gateway (if put to sleep) into the presence of the Lord. And, says the apostle, we are always confident—pleased rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
It is no question of locality. But we “dig” into the ground, as if we “climb,” we climb upwards. Whether man goes below or above therefore in his efforts to escape judgment when the lintel is smitten is alike futile (compare Psalm 139)