What is Sheol?
The general characteristics of an afterlife in a place called Sheol was not unique to the ancient Israelites. Most ancient religions believed in a spiritual place like Sheol…. an afterlife with various descriptions.
The word Sheol appears 60 times in the Hebrew Bible.
In 14 verses in the Hebrew Bible souls were said to “gather with their people or gather with their fathers.”
14 Bible verses about Gathered To One's People
(Descriptors; Hebrew Bible vs Old Testament….the term Old Testament refers to the Christianized version of the Hebrew Bible, that includes several alterations including the removal of God’s name….or the Tetragrammaton YHWH around 6,000 times and replacing it with the generic term God or Lord. And changed all the names of persons, places, and things from Y's to J's in a thousand places?)
Although Sheol is the oldest known destination for souls, its description is inconsistent in the Hebrew Bible and the other religions of antiquity. As a whole it is not a place of punishment but rather where all souls go …. good people and bad people.
(Before the New Testament, Heaven was the abode of God, not people…. Souls.)
The existence of Sheol is mostly ignored in many Christian denominations. In some Christian beliefs Sheol appears as a shadow tradition having different characteristics.
The Catholics have a couple traditions, one where a place like Sheol is possibly a spiritual place of "temporary" punishment called purgatory, with various characteristics and connections to the physical world.
In another tradition Sheol has levels, the top of which is a good place referred to as paradise. Which would make some sense because Sheol would have been the oldest destination for souls and wyn would God make the whole thing unpleasant for souls? Since the Bible does not indicate that Yeshua went from the cross to Heaven, some believe that Yeshua’s reference to Paradise when He was on cross was the upper level of Sheol….the good part. Where Christ said to the thief on the cross next to Him…Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43 So in this tradition Yeshua and the thief went to Paradise in Sheol.
In some variations of this tradition Yeshua goes from the cross to Sheol to teach “the Gospel” to the Jews and people there, as an offering of salvation to them. Some see the reference to “spirits in prison” in the New Testament as a reference to this event….. By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 1st Peter 3:19 and 4:6 For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
As time went on Rabbinical Judaism and the Talmud further expanded on Jewish beliefs regarding Sheol.
So we are left with the question….Is Sheol real? With it being mentioned 60 times in the Hebrew Bible, it is clear that the Hebrews/Israelites/Jews believed in it and as it is they still do. The rest is traditions.
The general characteristics of an afterlife in a place called Sheol was not unique to the ancient Israelites. Most ancient religions believed in a spiritual place like Sheol…. an afterlife with various descriptions.
The word Sheol appears 60 times in the Hebrew Bible.
In 14 verses in the Hebrew Bible souls were said to “gather with their people or gather with their fathers.”
14 Bible verses about Gathered To One's People
(Descriptors; Hebrew Bible vs Old Testament….the term Old Testament refers to the Christianized version of the Hebrew Bible, that includes several alterations including the removal of God’s name….or the Tetragrammaton YHWH around 6,000 times and replacing it with the generic term God or Lord. And changed all the names of persons, places, and things from Y's to J's in a thousand places?)
Although Sheol is the oldest known destination for souls, its description is inconsistent in the Hebrew Bible and the other religions of antiquity. As a whole it is not a place of punishment but rather where all souls go …. good people and bad people.
(Before the New Testament, Heaven was the abode of God, not people…. Souls.)
The existence of Sheol is mostly ignored in many Christian denominations. In some Christian beliefs Sheol appears as a shadow tradition having different characteristics.
The Catholics have a couple traditions, one where a place like Sheol is possibly a spiritual place of "temporary" punishment called purgatory, with various characteristics and connections to the physical world.
In another tradition Sheol has levels, the top of which is a good place referred to as paradise. Which would make some sense because Sheol would have been the oldest destination for souls and wyn would God make the whole thing unpleasant for souls? Since the Bible does not indicate that Yeshua went from the cross to Heaven, some believe that Yeshua’s reference to Paradise when He was on cross was the upper level of Sheol….the good part. Where Christ said to the thief on the cross next to Him…Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43 So in this tradition Yeshua and the thief went to Paradise in Sheol.
In some variations of this tradition Yeshua goes from the cross to Sheol to teach “the Gospel” to the Jews and people there, as an offering of salvation to them. Some see the reference to “spirits in prison” in the New Testament as a reference to this event….. By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 1st Peter 3:19 and 4:6 For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
As time went on Rabbinical Judaism and the Talmud further expanded on Jewish beliefs regarding Sheol.
So we are left with the question….Is Sheol real? With it being mentioned 60 times in the Hebrew Bible, it is clear that the Hebrews/Israelites/Jews believed in it and as it is they still do. The rest is traditions.
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