What's Sheol?

Answer 1

In Hebrew [1], Sheol (שאול, Sh'ol) is the "abode of the dead", the "underworld", "the common grave of mankind" or "pit".[2] In the Hebrew Bible, it is a comfortless place beneath the earth, beyond gates, where both the bad and the good, slave and king, pious and wicked must go after death to sleep in silence and oblivion in the dust. Sheol is the common destination of both the righteous and the unrighteous dead, as recounted in Ecclesiastes and Job.

Sheol originated from the ancient Sumerian view that after one dies, no matter how benevolent or malevolent he or she was in life, in Sheol he or she is destined to eat dirt to survive. Sheol is sometimes compared to Hades, the gloomy, twilight afterlife of Greek mythology. In fact, Jews used the word "hades" for "sheol" when they translated their scriptures into Greek. The New Testament (written in Greek) also uses "hades" to mean the abode of the dead (sheol).

By the first century, Jews had come to believe that those in sheol awaited the resurrection either in comfort (in the bosom of Abraham) or in torment. This belief is reflected in Jesus' story of Lazarus and Dives.

Protestants, who do not share a concept of "hades" with the Eastern Orthodox, have traditionally translated "sheol" (and "hades") as "hell." Unlike hell, however, sheol is not associated with Satan. Catholics generally translate "sheol" simply as "death."

It is also transliterated Sheh-ole, in Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries and Strong's Concordances.

Answer 2

Another word for hell, or "the pit" (but what the guy said above is something I had not read before, so he better explains it)
But this is in the OT...many described Sheol as a bad place--like the grave or outer darkness. It was not a place one wanted to go. That is why you often see the phrase "Saved my soul from Sheol"

Answer 3

To my understanding it was the place of the dead - an almost type of limbo before one moves on to eternity.

All people go there - whether bad or good. Depending on what you did on your life - you may not be in sheol for a very long time.

Most people tend to confuse this with the idea of Hell - trying to find links between the Christian version and the NT to the older Jewish scriptures. But in reality the Jewish concept is far different then the Christian. To many, it is not meant as an eternal punishment - but rather a type of purging. And all people go there - because all have at done at least something wrong.

*edit*

I'm not trying to pick on the guy above me - but the wikipedia version is pretty out there. And it says on the definition that the entry is being contested. The Saducces believed that there was no eternal life - no ressurection of the soul. But the majority of the Jewish people, including the Pharisees of Jesus' time do believe in eternal life.

Also keep in mind, if comparing Sheol to hell, that the Jewish concept of Satan is much, much different then the Christian version. Read the begining of Job to see where Satan is and what he actually does. Satan is not in Sheol, and does not lead people there.

Answer 4

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament written in Greek. So, Sheol = Hebrew word and Hades = Greek word for the abode of the dead. When Jesus died and resurrected His blood cleansed the sins of the people who loved and obeyed God, therefore Jesus decended into Sheol, a 2 compartmentalized place where people who died's spirits went. No one could enter heaven before Jesus died and washed our sins away. Sin could not enter heaven. These 2 compartments were divided by a chasm where the good people on one side were awaiting the resurrection in comfort and went to heaven when Jesus decended into hell after He died and set the captives free (2 Peter). The other side was for the people's spirits who did not love and follow God. Their spirits remain there. Read the story of Lazarus and the Rich man in Luke. The good side is gone as it was emptied when they went to heaven and since Jesus' resurrection, our spirits washed by the blood of Jesus go directly to Heaven when we die. The eternal hell is the Lake of eternal fire where Sheol/Hades will be cast into along with satan, demons and all that denied Christ in their life.

Answer 5

The root of the Hebrew word for sheol is "question." Therefore, when one goes down to "sheol" (grave), one goes down to the *unknown.*
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Answer 6

The Grave