HADES hā’ dez (ἅδης, etymology uncertain. It is thought to come from the negative α, G1, +ἰδεῖν, to see; that is, that which is not seen, abode of the dead).
Outline
I. Pagan background. According to Homer, Hades was the name of both the underworld where the departed spirits dwell and the god of that underworld, also called Pluto, the son of Chronas and Rhea. Its original genitive form, Haidou, that is, “of Hades,” may reflect the idea that the underworld belongs to the god Hades. This place, according to Gr. mythology, was approached by crossing the River Styx and at its entrance three judges decided the fate of the soul.
II. OT equivalent. Hades is the Gr. equivalent of the Heb. Sheol (see Sheol), it being the tr. for Sheol in the LXX sixty-one times (in every instance except in 2 Sam 22:6). In the OT, Sheol was the place where the dead existed. The Heb. concept was quite similar to that of the other peoples of the ancient Near E. Sheol was a gloomy underworld where the godly and the ungodly dwelt together, with little distinction between them, on a level of existence far below that of life on earth. Toward the end of the OT period, there emerged a few inklings of hope for the rescue of God’s people from Sheol, expressed by Job (19:25-27), by the psalmist (Pss 16:9-11; 17:15; 49:15) and by Daniel (12:2).
III. Intertestamental developments. The lit. of the intertestamental period reflects the growth of the idea of the division of Hades into separate compartments for the godly and the ungodly. This aspect of eschatology was a popular subject in the apocalyptic lit. that flourished in this period. Notable is the pseudepigraphical Enoch (written c. 200 b.c.), which includes the description of a tour supposedly taken by Enoch into the center of the earth. There Enoch sees four hollow places, one is for the saintly martyrs, the next for ordinary righteous people, a third is for the wicked who were insufficiently punished in this life, and the final compartment is for sinners who suffered a violent death, which apparently was a sufficient punishment for leaving them in this intermediate state forever. In another passage in Enoch, he sees at the center of the earth two places—Paradise, the place of bliss, and the valley of Gehinnom, the place of punishment.
The above illustrates that there was a general notion of compartments in Hades that developed in the intertestamental period, but that there was diversity of details regarding these compartments. Some scholars interpret this division into compartments as the result of foreign influences, such as that of Pers. Zoroastrianism with its pronounced dualism; but a more likely explanation is that the OT faith (with its strong emphasis on the justice of God leading to the blessings of the godly and the punishment of the ungodly, and with its teaching that the true meaning of life is fellowship with God) could not conceive of a common fate for the wicked and the righteous as the final word on the subject.
Whatever the original sources of this development of distinct sections in Hades, it was confirmed by the teachings of Christ. The apocalyptic lit., however, included detailed and grotesque descriptions of the nature of the existence in the compartments of Hades inhabited by the damned which go far beyond a legitimate development of the faith of the OT. For example, the Fourth Book of the Sibylline Oracles (prob. the work of Alexandrian Essenes) says, “His angels will scourge them with fiery chains, and cast them before the fierce monsters of hell, and fiery wheels will turn them round about.”
IV. NT usage. The word Hades is used only ten times in the NT (eleven times if one includes 1 Cor 15:55, which had the word Hades in the tr. but which prob. should be Thánate, as in the more reliable MSS). Hades is tr. “hell” in the KJV, which leads to confusion by also using “hell” to tr. the Gr. word Gehenna, which refers to the place of eternal punishment. The RSV maintains the transliteration “Hades” in all but one instance, where it tr. “powers of death” for “gates of Hades” (Matt 16:18).
1. In Matthew 11:23 (and in the parallel passage, Luke 10:15) Hades is used to describe the tragic fate awaiting unrepentant Capernaum. That city will be “brought down to Hades,” in marked contrast to being “exalted to heaven.” Apparently Hades is here considered to be a place of punishment.
2. Christ promises that the “gates of Hades” will not prevail against His Church. Although this text has usually been interpreted otherwise, prob. because of the influence of the tr. “hell” for Hades, the promise prob. means that even death itself will not be able to prevent God’s people from sharing in the victory of Christ.
3. Hades is the place to which the rich man went when he was buried, in contrast to “Abraham’s bosom,” to which poor Lazarus was transported by angels when he died (Luke 16:23). This passage (a parable by Jesus) gives far more information about Hades than any other in the NT, but to what extent the language describing Hades in this passage is parabolic and to what extent it is to be taken literally is a question upon which commentators are not agreed. Hades is described here as “a place of torment” in which the wicked dwell in flames, a condition which produces “anguish” and specifically a desire to have one’s tongue cooled by water. Furthermore, although presumably in a disembodied state, the rich man could “lift up his eyes” and see Lazarus, and believed that Lazarus could “dip the end of his finger in water.” In the parable, conversation is possible between the inhabitants of Abraham’s bosom and of Hades, although “a great chasm” that cannot be crossed exists between the two realms described as “far off” from each other.
4. Hades is mentioned twice by Peter in his sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:27, 31). In the first instance, Peter quotes Psalm 16:10, where Hades is a tr. of Sheol, and in the second instance he applies this Psalm as a prophecy of the resurrection of Christ; because of His resurrection, Christ was not detained in Hades, as the prophecy had predicted.
5. The word Hades is used four times in the Book of Revelation. Jesus describes Himself as possessing “the keys of Death and Hades” (Rev 1:18). In 6:8 John sees a pale horse whose rider is named Death, “and Hades followed him.” The term “Hades” is twice used coupled with Death (20:13, 14). At the final judgment, Death and Hades “gave up the dead in them” and then Death and Hades “were thrown into the lake of fire” (v. 14). This last reference apparently teaches that Hades is a temporary place that will be destroyed at the end of the world.
As one considers these instances of NT usage, there appears to be some variation in the way the term Hades is used. Sometimes it seems almost to be equated with death itself, and therefore to be the condition into which both the godly and the ungodly enter. Elsewhere it appears to be the temporary abode of the ungodly prior to the final judgment, whereas the godly go immediately to be with the Lord in glory. G. Vos seeks to solve this problem by distinguishing between Hades as a place and as a state. According to him, only the ungodly go to the place called Hades, whereas the godly and Christ Himself went into the state of disembodied existence, which is also designated by the word Hades.
Other passages of the NT are sometimes interpreted as referring to Hades, although they do not mention the word itself. Ephesians 4:9, which says of Christ “he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth,” was interpreted by the Church Fathers and some later commentators as describing a descent into Hades by Christ after His death. However, other commentators claim that this passage simply speaks of Christ’s coming down from heaven to earth. 1 Peter 3:19, speaking of Christ, says “he went and preached to the spirits in prison.” This v. was also interpreted by some to refer to a descent of Christ into Hades at His death.
V. The Early Church. Whereas the ante-Nicene fathers were somewhat vague in their statements on the subject, the post-Nicene fathers were in rather general agreement that believers who died before Christ were kept in Hades until Christ, after His crucifixion, descended to their abodes and brought them up to Paradise, which was considered to be either a higher part of Hades or the lower regions of heaven. That part of Hades where the OT believers dwelt before Christ rescued them was later named the Limbus Patrum. According to the fathers, after Christ’s descent into Hades, believers at death went directly to Paradise, which was, however, not the highest heaven where the vision of God could be enjoyed, but was rather a place of preparation and further development which in later Roman Catholic theology became “purgatory.”
In the phrase of the Apostles’ Creed, “he descended into hell,” hell is a tr. of the Gr. Hades, the Lat. creeds using the term “infernos.” The article about the descent into hell was the last to be added to the Creed, being found in Arian creeds about a.d. 360, in the Creed of Aquileja about a.d. 390, and not being added to the final form of the Apostles’ Creed until about a.d. 750. See Hell.
Bibliography W. Whiston, The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus (n.d.), 743-745; G. Bartle, The Scriptural Doctrine of Hades (1869); J. P. Lange, A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, The Revelation of John (1874), 364-377; W. O. E. Oesterley, Immortality and the Unseen World (1921); J. Jeremias, “ἅδης,” TDNT, I (1964), 146-149.