Quote:
Originally Posted by SpeakersCorner
I disagree. Sheol is the grave but Hades is a realm of dead. In Greek mythology its lord is Hades himself. Lost souls wander in the area just outside it. Hades himself is ruler, a cold and stern ruler whose main job is to keep the dead souls in. This is not Sheol which is simply the grave.
Jesus gave Hades as a real place credence telling Peter "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against [the church]." It is possible He was merely appropriating Greek/Roman imagery but that is unlikely. I have read that when Jesus spoke these words in Caesaurea/Phillip, He was actually quite close to a place where locals believed the mouth of Hades was. (I just confirmed that with a quick google search.)
The Rich man/Lazarus story also shows Hades to be a place of activity, definitely not the dark emptiness of Sheol.
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Sheol’ in the Hebrew was translated as ‘Hades’ in the LXX.
To the reader of the LXX, Hades was Sheol. Sheol was Hades. Your assertion that they are different does not hold up given this simple fact.
The ‘gates of Sheol’ simply referred to the fact that no one leaves Sheol apart from Him who has the keys.
Mixing in Greek mythology came later. The idea that there is a ruler over Hades whose job is to keep souls is from Greek myths. Yet many of us, if not most of us, think of the Gates of Sheol as referring to Satan’s kingdom.
Yet this doctrine cannot hold up using scripture.
Earlier in this thread it was suggested that Hell was Satan’s kingdom. I challenged that statement but got no response.