Question about hell?

Question

Why do Bibles translate the Greek word 'Hades' as "hell" in some places and as "grave" in other places?

Isn't this inconsistent and misleading?

Example:
'Hades' is often rendered as "grave" in Acts 2:27...

..but is rendered as "hell" in Revelation 20:14; Matthew 10:28

The same goes for the Hebrew equivalent 'Sheol" compare Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10 and Psalm 55:15

Oops!

Matthew 10:28 doesn't use the word 'Hades". Instead, it uses 'Gehenna". Instead of Matthew 10:28, see Matthew 11:23 for an example.

I may mention that the Bible speaks of "Sheol" (or hell) as being a place where people are literally dead and unconscious. Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10)

got_air: That's what I have found in my research as well.

Answer 1

It's an interesting word to research. There are four words in the original languages that have been translated into the English word hell. Two of them mean the grave, one means a garbage dump outside of Jerusalem and the other means a dark place. None of them have anything to do with a place of eternal fiery torment.

Answer 2

The word hell is a medieval word. Hades was a Greek word for under world. Since the Gospel was first written in Greek, they used the word traditionally used by the Greeks. Same goes for Jews.

FYI... Pre medieval believers had vastly different image of hell. Only when the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Virgil and Milton came around, the Hell was simply known as a place where there is no God. Since God is the source of life, void of Him gave gruesome images.

Answer 3

The context of a verse typically determines a word's meaning...much like we do today...when we encounter a word we don't know, we can usually figure it out given the way it is used in a sentence. Additionally, words may have different meanings depending on the context in which they are used. For example, I went to Germany for three and half years...when I returned I found my friends using the word "bad" in contexts where they obviously meant "good". For example, "That movie is bad...you really need to go see it." The word obviously took a different shade of meaning in my absence. Of course some of my friends had not yet acquiesced to the new idiom so when they said "bad" they always meant the opposite of "good." Your question and implied conclusion is unfair and far above the standard by which we judge our own language in its current usage.

Answer 4

I'm not sure, but my guess is Hades is translated Hell. But I wouldn't think the Greek word Hades is also translated as grave and Sheol. I'm guessing there were other words in Greek.

Answer 5

I think it is the person who did the translating. I am not sure that we have a perfect translation of the bible at any rate. I am sure that if we had a correct translation of the bible, it would read quite differently in several places and we might be mildly surprised.
Sharon

Answer 6

It is not a mistake...

"Hell"...or Hades [ Greek]...IS man's grave.

It is NOT a place of further punishment

Once we die, there is no further debt we owe to deserve further punishment.

(ROMANS 6:23) For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.

Wages is full payment. nothing further is owed.

The ' lake of fire' into which Hell/ Hades is going, is simply destruction.
Its other name is GEHENNA. again, simple destruction.

Answer 7

That's why I stick with the KJV. But the grave has always represented death, and death represents hell because those who receive Christ leave have eternal life with God in Heaven which begins as soon as they die and leave this earth.

Answer 8

Well its just understanding Hell is another meaning of death. While it creates the same reaction in our hearts that hell is real but also thats why we were told by Paul that by our faith we are alive in Christ. Without faith we are dead etc. hell

Answer 9

Hell is the grave which is eventually thrown into the lake of fire.

Answer 10

No, the unrighteous dead are very much conscious.

Revelations 20
10And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and *********shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.*************

11And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

12And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

13And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

14And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

So we see that the devil and the unrighteous shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Revelations 14
9And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,

10The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

11And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up *******for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, ****** who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

There it goes, torment forever and ever yet again.

Matthew 25
46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Whoaaa everlasting punishment mentioned again, by Jesus himself!

Jude
10But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

11Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

12These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

13Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

There it is again, forever.

Matthew 22
13Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Sounds like the whole eternal torment thing to me.