Sheol
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Sheol (שאול) is the Hebrew language word denoting the "abode of the dead"; the "underworld", "the common grave of mankind" or "pit". It is also transliterated Sheh-ole, in Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries and Strong's Concordances. In the Hebrew Bible it is portrayed as 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.
In some sources, for example in Deuteronomy 32:22, Sheol seems to be synonymous with the "depths of the earth". Sheol is sometimes compared to the gloomy, twilight afterlife of Hades or Tartarus from Greek mythology. Sheol is the common destination of both the righteous and the unrighteous dead; the righteous Job sees it as his destination (Job 3). In the Book of Job, while Satan is portrayed as tormenting and testing the living, he does not appear to have any particular presidency over Sheol, or to dwell in Sheol.
Indeed, Sheol in many cases does not seem to be an afterlife destination or a location at all, but merely "the grave". In Ecclesiastes, for example, it is stated that "...the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten." and "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave [Sheol], where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom." (Ecc. 9:5-10, NIV)
Jacob, not comforted at the reported death of Joseph, exclaims: "I shall go down to my son a mourner unto Sheol" (Genesis 37:35). Sheol may be personified: Sheol is never satiated (Proverbs 30:20); she "makes wide her soul," (Isaiah 5:14).
Psalm 18:
- 5 The breakers of death surged round about me; the menacing floods terrified me. 6 The cords of Sheol tightened; the snares of death lay in wait for me. 7 In my distress I called out: LORD! I cried out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry to him reached his ears.
Psalm 86:13: "Your love for me is great; you have rescued me from the depths of Sheol."
The Hebrew concept is paralleled in the Sumerian Netherworld to which Inanna descends. See also Ereshkigal..
The English word hell comes from Germanic mythology, now used in the Judeo-Christian sense to translate the Hebrew word "Gehinnom," which was a valley outside Jerusalem used for burning refuse (basically a landfill), and the Greek Hades and Tartarus.
The New Testament seems to draw a distinction between Sheol and "Gehinnom", or Gehenna (Jahannam in Islam). The most "hellish" notion in Jewish tradition is the Biblical word Gehinnom, later interpreted to refer to a place of condemnation. But the source of the word is most interesting. Gei Hinnom was the valley of Hinnom (Joshua 15:8, 18:16; II Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31; Nehemiah 11:30), a place where children were sacrificed to the Canaanite god Moloch. In Islam, this same word became Jahannam, an Islamic term for Hell.
The prominent Biblical scholar William Foxwell Albright points out that the Hebrew root for SHE'OL is SHA'AL, which normally means "to ask, to interrogate, to question." Sheol therefore should mean "asking, interrogation, questioning." John Tvedtnes, also a Biblical scholar, connects this with the common theme in near-death experiences of the interrogation of the soul after crossing the Tunnel.
Differentiating Sheol from a "grave" in the Hebrew Bible
Notwithstanding metaphorical usage (Jonah 2:2), and the common practice of translating Sheol as "the grave", Sheol is differentiated from a simple "grave" in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word "qeber" or "qeburah" (Strongs #6913 and #6900) is universally used to denote a grave, whereas "sheol" is "the grave," as in the common "place of the dead." Sheol is never used to describe any grave in particular, as in "his grave" or "Jacob's grave." In the Hebrew Bible Sheol is always far beneath (Job 11:8, Amos 9:2), is a gathering of the dead (Genesis 37:35, Ezekiel 31:17), is even enlarged to accommodate newcomers (Isaiah 5:14), is occasionally entered bodily, or while still alive (Numbers 16:30-33, Psalm 55:15), is to some (the righteous) a place of rest and comfort (Job 14:13), and to others a place of pain and even burning (Deut. 32:22, Psalm 116:3). Allusions to Sheol metaphorically as the concept of "death" or the ultimate finality of this life, primarily in poetic literature (Ecclesiastes and non-Davidic Psalms), do not alter the scriptural Hebrew concept of a gathering place of dead souls, waiting for judgment.
Old Testament holding
Sheol, as described in the book Tabernacle Gifts, is a place where all the Old Testament righteous went after they died. It is known as Abraham's bosom. Jesus went to Sheol when He died, to tell the Old Testament righteous about Himself.
In popular culture
In the Robert Heinlein science fiction novel Starship Troopers, Sheol is also the name of an Arachnid colony planet, decimated by a Terran military attack. Likewise in the Walter Jon Williams novel "Voice of the Whirlwind" Sheol is the name of a planet on which a terrible war is waged.
Sheol also may be the inspiration behind Shelob and the earlier Ungoliant, which are the names of ancient evil spiders in the J.R.R. Tolkien novels The Lord Of The Rings and The Silmarillion.