HELL must be carefully freed from the well known usage which restricts its meaning to the abode of the wicked after death,' if we would make it commensurate in signification with the original words represented by it in the O. and N. T. These terms, no less than the English equivalent, have occasioned much discussion as to their Biblical sense. Dr. Barrow (Sernz. 07t the Creed [Art. He descended into Hell'], Works [Oxford. 18301 vol.
v. pp. 416, 417) thus indicates the chief questions which have been raised on the subject : Is Hell a state of being, or a place ? if a place, is it that where bodies are reposed, or that to which sou's go ? if a place of souls, is it the place of good and happy souls, or that of bad and miserable ones ; or indif ferently, and in common of both those ; for such a manifold ambiguity these words have, or are made to have ; and each of these senses are embraced and contended for.' A solution of these questions, if indeed practicable in every instance, would require too long an examination of many passages of the sacred writings for this article ; we must be content with noticing the chief points ; but it will be con venient first to explain the words which occur in the miginal for the English word Hell.' On the Hebrew and Greek terms. —The three words, which all but monopolise the subject, are in the O. T. ; and "Aans and Pecypa. in the N. T. it.tt.*) occurs 65 times ; in 61 of these it is rendered in the LXX. by ; twice by eava-ros (2 Sam. xxii. 6, and Prov. xxiii. 14) ; and twice omitted in the common text (Job xxiv. 9 ; Ezek.
xxxii. 21). In the Vulg. 9iN,V) is translated 48 times by Infernus, and 17 times by Inferus [mostly Mien' (plur)]. In our A. V. it is represented 31 times by Grave, 31 times by Hell, and 3 times by Pit. In the N. T. our word Hell occurs 23 times ; 12 times it stands for Fleviza, and it times [perkaps the twelfth should be added, see Tischendorf and Bruder (Concora'.) on Rev. iii. 7] for 'A Sns. The Vulg. closely follows the original in its N. T. renderings ; in all the tvvelve passages recvva. is simply copied into Gehenna, while infeyznis stands for every occurrence of "Abis, except once (Matt. xvi. 18), where the phrase miXazciaott (` gates of hell') becomes portae inferi.' Since, therefore, "Aans, and rgeppa, are employed in the sacred original to designate the mysteries of HELL, we proceed to give first their probable derivation, and then their meaning-, so far as Holy Scripture assists in the discovery thereof. , Thet'r Denvation.—I. }jt•tt;') (or, as it is occa sionally written, is by most of the old writers (see Cocceius, Lex., pp. 840, 841 • Schindler, Lex. Pent., 17S2 ; Robinson, Key to Hebr. Bible, h. 217 ; and Leigh, Crit. Sactu, 23S; ii. 6) referred for its origin to to demand, seek, or ask. They are not agreed as to the mode of connecting the derivative with this root ; Cocceius suggests an absurd reason, notat eum locum in quo qui est in gin:zest/one est' (!) A more respectable tion is suggested by those who see in the insatiable ness of (Prov. ;cxx. 15, 16) a good ground for connecting it with the root in question. Thus
Fagius on Gen. xxxvii. ; Buxtorf, Lexicon, s. v., referring to Is. v. 14 ; Habak. ii. 5 ; Prov.
20. (Ernst Meier, Hebr. TV-w-b, p. 187, also adopts this root, but he is far-fetched and obscure in his view of its relation to the derived word).* Boettcher (De Infer-is, p. 76, sec. 159) finds in the root 5.1.7, to be hollow, a better origin for our word. Gesenius (Thes. 1347), who adopts the same deri vation, supposes that 3)V., means to dig out, and so contrives to unite 5I/V and 5tity, by making the primary idea of digging lead to the derived one of
sffking (see Job iii. 2t). Boettcher goes on to
connect the German words Hohl (hollow) and Hale (cavity) with the idea indicated by 3,1`1, and timidly suggests the possibility of Hone (Hell) coming fromle. Whilst decidedly rejecting this derivation, we do not object to his derivation of the Hebrew noun ; amidst the avowed uncer tainty of the case, it seems to be the least objec tionable of the suggestions which have been offered, and, to provide an intelligible sense for the word Sheol, most in hannony with many Biblical pas sages. Boettcher defines the term to mean vastus locus subterraneus' (p. 72, sec. 153). This agrees very well with the rendering of our A. V. in so far as it has used the comprehensive word Hdl, which properly signifies a covered or concealed place.' II. The universally allowed statement, that the N. T. has shed a light on the mysteries of life and immortality which is only in an inferior degree discovered in the O. T., is seldom more distinctly verified than in the uncertainty which attaches to Sheol (the difficulty of distinguishing its various degrees of meaning, which it is generally felt exist, and which our A. V. has endeavoured to express by an equal balance between Hell and Grave), in contrast with the distinction which is implied in the about equally frequent terms of Hades and Gehenna, now to be described. The "Ahr of the N. T. was suggested, no doubt, by its frequent occurrence in the LXX. The word was originally unaspirated, as in Homer's 'At5ao TA= (14 v. 646; ix. 312), and Hesiod's 'Ataela trewa xaXice6Ocovov (Theog. 311), and Pindar's 'AtSav Naxeiv (Pyth. v. 130). This form of the word gives greater credibility to the generally received derivation of it from a privat. and adv.* Plutarch, accordingly, explains it by dans abparov (De hid. et °sin, p. 382), and in the Etymol. Afagn. 4.3ns is defined
as x(oplov a