THE FATE OF "HELL."

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1184, 30 September 1885, Page 4

THE FATE OF "HELL."

The revisers make the following explanaation as to the liberties which they have taken with " hell" :—

The Hebrew "sheol," which signi6es the abode of departed spirits, and corresponds to the Greek hades, or the under* world, is variously rendered in the Authorised Version by " grave," " pit," and "hell." Of these readings, "hell," if it could be taken in its original sense as used in the creeds, would be a fairly adequate equivalent for the Hebrew word ; but it is so commonly understood of the place' of torment that to employ it frequently would lead to inevitable misunderstanding. The revisers, therefore, in the historical narratives, have left .the rendering " the grave" or " the pit" in the text, with a marginal note, " Heb. Sheol," to indicate that it does not signify " the place of burial" ; while in the poetical writings they have put most commonly "sheol" in the text and "the grave" in the margin. In Isaiah xiv., however where " hell" is used in more of its original Bense, and is less liable to be understood, and

where any change in so familiar a passage which was not distinctly an improvement would be a decided loss, the revisers have contented themselves with leaving " hell" in the text, and have connected it with other passages by putting "sheol" in the margin.

The result is that instead of "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Psalm ix. , 17), we have " The wicked shall return to i heol, even alt the nations that forget God." And in Proverbs v., 5, instead of being told that "The feet of a strange woman go down to death, her steps take hold on hell," we read " Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on sheol." In like manner the ancient Hebrew proverb in the old version said of the houses of illfame of its epoch : " The dead are there, and her guests are in the depths of hell." Now it reads ; •• The dead are there, and her guests are in the depths of Bheol." Of the disobedient 3on, in Proverbs xxiii., 14 : " Thou shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from hell," becomes "and deliver his soul from sheol."