The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

.)-..IT-ord 'of God. The reason is that the minds of the .majority of Christians have been so confused by thetheological teaching of the past, that they cannot,discern the plain testimony of the Bible on thissubject.In the Hebrew Old Testament the word whichis used to name the grave or death-state, in which ..all the dead are at rest, is " Sheol." This wordoccurs 65 times altogether in the. Hebrew Scriptures.It is not, however, translated uniformly " grave,"Three times it is translated " pit," 31 times grave,and 31 times " hell." The word " hell " occurs inthe English ver-sion of the Old Testament exactly31 times; i.e., the only Hebrew word in the OldTestament which is translated " hell " is .this word" Sheol." 'i'he Hebrew " Sbeol " corresponds tothe Greek " Hades,': a word which appears in theNew Testament to designate the same condition,. the death-state. This' is proved by the fact thatthe Apostles Peter and Paul, in two quotationsfrom the Old Testament in which the word- " Sheol occurs, have translated it by .the Greek1- word " Hades." Compare Psalm XVI.. 10, with'- Acts II., 27; and Hosea XIII., 14, with I. CorinthiansXV., 55, and in the last named text notethat in reference Bibles the word !' grave " hasopposite to it in the margin the @ord " hell."It is very important that we should realise thatthere is no thought of eternal torment in the Bibleuse of the words " Sheol " and " Hades." Let ussee what Job said : " 0 that thou wouldest hide mein Sheo1,"-that.would be a strange desire if Sheolwas a place or condition of eternal torment !-" thatthou wouldest keep me secret "-Ah, yes! That isthe true thought; Sheol is, the hidden state-" until24