Sheol

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Sheol ( Hebrew שְׁאוֹל Šəʾōl ) occurs 66 times in the Tanach and is a place of darkness to which all dead go, both the righteous and the unjust, a place of silence and darkness that is cut off from life.

meaning

Scholars are still discussing today whether Sheol means only grave or also the world of the dead or even hell . The Hebrew word has no equivalent in many other Semitic languages . In Amharic , however, there is the word siol (sich), in Syriac the word schiul and in Tigrigna (Ethiopia, Eritrea) the term schaul . The Hebraist and theologian Ludwig Köhler derives Scheol from a root that means to be devastated . As Roger Liebi , a Bibelexeget explains, the word derives from Sha'al from that require calling means. Its etymology remains unclear. It is always used in the Tanach without a specific article and is therefore probably a proper name . In the Bible, Sheol is invariably associated with death, never with life. The Greek translation of the Old Testament , the Septuagint , uses the Greek word Hades (Ἅδης, e.g. in Ps 16.10  ELB ) in the appropriate places . The Greek New Testament takes up this choice of translation, e.g. B. in ( Acts 2:27  ESV ).

Old Bible translations into German mostly used the word "hell", see z. B. Psalm 16:10 in the Luther translation of 1545. Newer German language translations of the Bible mostly use terms from the word field “Kingdom of the Dead”.

Interpretations

YHWH God rules over Sheol and can bring the dead back from there ( 1 Sam 2,6  ELB ):

“The Lord kills and gives life; it leads down into Sheol and leads up. "

Sheol lies in the depths of the earth and, together with Abaddon and Gehinnom, represents one of the divisions of the underworld .

In the book of Daniel, the dead are simply "those who sleep in the dust of the earth" ( Daniel 12: 2  ESV ). Dust of the earth is another expression for Sheol here . In the psalms, Sheol often stands in poetic parallel to death - with a synonymous meaning ( Psalm 6,6  ELB ); ( Psalm 89.49  ELB ); ( Psalm 116 :ESV ). The Sheol death is not an end of existence, but a waiting for a resurrection ( Psalm 16:10  ESV ); ( Psalm 49:16  ESV ).

In the Christian faith, Sheol (Greek Hades) is also seen as the abode of the dead. It is divided into two areas, a place for the redeemed and one for the lost ( Luke 10.15  ELB ), which are separated from each other ( Luke 16.26  ELB ).

  • The place for the redeemed is called Paradise or, metaphorically, the “womb of Abraham” ( Luke 16 : 11–31  ESV ). Since Abraham is considered the "father of all believers" ( Rom 4:16  ELB ), the "bosom of Abraham" is a place of rest in Sheol for those who believed in faith in God's prophetic sacrifices before Christ's resurrection and died justified by this.
  • In the place for the lost, the damned wait for their final judgment.

Jesus Christ is Lord of the dead and the living and has the keys of death and the kingdom of the dead ( Romans 14 :ELB ); ( Revelation 1:18  ESV ). So this place is not the final destination of the dead, because according to the Christian faith the Sheol (Hades) will be emptied after the millennium and finally destroyed ( Revelation 20 : 13-14  ELB ).

Web links

Wiktionary: Scheol  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. Ecclesiastes 9,10  EU : "Neither working nor planning in Sheol."
  2. Encyclopædia Britannica , Vol. 11, page 276, keyword Sheol, year 1971
  3. ^ Theology of the Old Testament, 4th edition, editor: Rudolf Bultmann, p. 74
  4. The Bible and the Hereafter, a treatise on death
  5. ^ Wilhelm Gesenius : Hebrew and Aramaic concise dictionary . 17th edition 1915/1962; Wächter, ThWAT, VII, pp. 901-910.
  6. online ( Memento from July 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  7. Gerhard J. Bellinger (Ed.): Lexicon of Mythology. 3100 key words on the myths of all peoples . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1997.