Topic

Hades

The Greek term for the realm of the dead, used in the New Testament and in the Greek Old Testament, where it usually renders the Hebrew Sheol. It is the state of the dead before the resurrection.

Also called: hades, the realm of the dead, the grave, haides

Hades is where the dead are. It is not where the last judgment is carried out. In the account of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man is in Hades in torment while his five brothers are still alive on earth, which places the whole scene before the resurrection and before the judgment.

Revelation makes the point unmistakable. Death and Hades give up the dead who are in them, and are then themselves thrown into the lake of fire. Whatever Hades is, it is emptied and abolished, so it cannot be anyone’s final state.

What Hades is not: it is not Gehenna, the word Jesus uses for final destruction; it is not the lake of fire, into which Hades itself is thrown; and it is not what most modern readers mean by hell. Rendering it hell collapses a temporary condition into a final one.

What this is not

Terms in this dispute are routinely collapsed into one another. These distinctions are what keep the argument honest.

Hades is not Gehenna. They are different words used of different things, and Luke 16 uses the former.
Hades is not the lake of fire. Revelation 20:14 has Hades thrown into the lake of fire.
Hades is not the English word hell, which does duty for Sheol, Hades and Gehenna at once.
Hades is not permanent. It gives up its dead at the resurrection and is then destroyed.
Torment in Hades is not evidence about the final state, because Hades precedes the judgment.

Principal passages

Luke 16:19-31
Revelation 20:13-14
Acts 2:27-31Listed in the Scripture index
Matthew 16:18Listed in the Scripture index
Revelation 1:18Listed in the Scripture index

Where this is argued in the case

S05 The Rich Man and LazarusWhy this passage describes the intermediate state rather than final punishment, and why it therefore supports neither view directly.
S09 Why Final Judgment Is DelayedWhy continued existence before judgment is evidence of God sustaining, not of inherent immortality.
S03 Revelation 20: The Lake of Fire and the Second DeathWhere the clause about unending torment sits in the passage, what the lake of fire does to Death and Hades, and how much weight the placement can carry.

S33 What About Near-Death Experiences?A methodological argument about how experience relates to Scripture, kept separate from empirical claims about what such accounts contain.

Sources for this topic

Joseph Dear. The Bible Teaches Annihilationism. 1st edition, PDF version. 2016. approximately 590 pages View original of The Bible Teaches Annihilationism (opens in a new tab) Details

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