Sheol

Sheol (Biblical Hebrew: שְׁאוֹל, romanized: Šəʾōl; Tiberian Hebrew: Šŏʾōl) in the Hebrew Bible is the underworld, or the unseen world of the dead to which departed spirits go. It was said to be a place of stillness and darkness in the subterranean regions. The state of existence is shadowy and silent, where the inhabitants are in weakened forms having an inactive remnant of humanity. The word 'Sheol' is almost exclusive to the Old Testament, with exception in Elephantine papyri from the Jewish community residing in southern Egypt. Its etymology is contested and considered to be unknown. However, propositions that have scholarly support include potential roots in Hebrew words meaning 'be desolate' or 'desolate place', or a link to Akkadian loanwords from the goddess Shuwala. Within the Hebrew Bible, there are few—often brief and nondescript—mentions of Sheol, seemingly describing it as a place where both the righteous and the unrighteous dead go, regardless of their moral choices in life. The implications of Sheol within the texts are therefore somewhat unclear; it may be interpreted as either a generic metaphor describing "the grave" into which all humans invariably descend, or an actual state of afterlife within Israelite thought. Though such practices are forbidden, the inhabitants of Sheol can, under some circumstances, be summoned by the living, as when the Witch of Endor calls up the spirit of Samuel for King Saul. While the Hebrew Bible appears to describe Sheol as the permanent place of the dead, in the Second Temple period (c. 500 BCE – 70 CE), a more diverse set of ideas developed. In some texts, Sheol is considered the home of both the righteous and the wicked, separated into respective compartments; in others, it was considered a place of punishment meant for the wicked dead alone. When the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek in ancient Alexandria (c. 200 BCE), the word "Hades" (i.e., the Greek underworld) was substituted for Sheol owing to its similarities to the Underworld of Greek mythology. The gloss of Sheol as "Hades" is reflected in the New Testament, wherein Hades is both the underworld of the dead and the personification of the evil it represents.

Hebrew Bible

Sheol is mentioned 66 times throughout the Hebrew Bible. The first mentions of Sheol within the text associate it with the state of death and a sense of eternal finality. Jacob avows that he will "go down to Sheol," still mourning the apparent death of his son Joseph. Later in the book of Genesis, the same formula is repeated when describing the sorrow that would befall Jacob should another of his sons, Benjamin, not return to him with his remaining brothers. Sheol makes its next appearance during the episode of Korah in the book of Numbers. After Korah attempts to rouse the Israelites to rebel against Moses, Moses vows that Yahweh will prove his legitimacy by splitting open the earth to hurl Korah and his conspirators into Sheol. Sure enough, as he finishes his speech, Yahweh splits the earth open, causing Korah, his family, and all of his possessions to, as the text describes it, "enter Sheol alive." In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses sings that the anger of Yahweh is a flame which burns in the "depths" of Sheol, consuming the entire earth from the bottom up. Subsequent mentions of Sheol in the Tanakh depict it as a representation of death, suggesting that entry into Sheol is an unavoidable consequence of dying. 1 Samuel describes Yahweh as the one who brings souls down to Sheol, and 2 Samuel further cements Sheol as humanity's ultimate postmortem destination. 1 Kings uses "going down to Sheol" as a metaphor for death, describing those who go down to it both "in peace" and "in blood". The prophet Isaiah expounds on Sheol at great length during some of his sermons, personifying it as possessing an ever-increasing hunger for living people, with a great propensity for the souls of sinners, and where pleas to Yahweh cannot escape. Ezekiel, during his prophecy of Egypt's downfall, describes Egypt metaphorically descending into Sheol as a dead person would, where all the spirits of the dead, as well as other fallen empires, such as Assyria, jeer and mock its fall from might. The remaining mentions of Sheol lie in the poetic literature of the Hebrew Bible. Job mentions Sheol in several of his laments, calling it his "home" as he lies in anguish, and yearning for death to take him there to put an end to his suffering. Sheol is also mentioned in several Psalms—again, as the grave of humanity. Other biblical names for Sheol were ’Ăḇaddōn (אֲבַדּוֹן, 'ruin'), found in Psalm 88:11, Job 28:22 and Proverbs 15:11 and Šaḥaṯ (שַחַת, 'corruption'), found in Isaiah 38:17 and Ezekiel 28:8. The synonyms for Sheol included terms for 'pit' (bôr, b'ēr, šaḥaṯ) and 'destruction' (ăḇaddôn) which are used in similar contexts when referencing the underworld.

Interpretation

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