ANSWER: In the Old Testament the Hebrew word Sheol was often translated as “hell.” Other times it was translated as “grave.” This does not mean that Hell is the grave; nor does it mean that the grave is Hell, in the sense that the question is asked! Sheol is the place of disembodied spirits, not a hole in the ground. The equivalent of Sheol in the New Testament is Hades. This Greek word in the King James Version is most often translated as Hell, but is also translated as the grave (1 Corinthians 15:55). It often does not refer to the place of eternal torment! For example (Acts 2:27): In reference to Jesus, the passage says, “Because thou will not leave my soul in hell (Hades) . . .” Jesus did not go to the place of eternal torment, but rather He went to a place called Paradise (Luke 23:43).

Sheol/Hades is the place where all spirits go when death occurs. The righteous go to a place within Hades called Paradise or Abraham’s Bosom (Luke 16:22); the unrighteous go to a different place in Hades; a place of torments (Luke 16:19- 31). In 2 Peter 2:4, this place of torments is also called hell. The Greek word for hell in this passage is Tartarus. Both the righteous and the unrighteous will remain in the Hadean world (in either Paradise or Tartarus) to await the resurrection and final Judgment. After Judgment, the righteous will go to heaven (the new heavens and new earth-2 Peter 3:13) and the unrighteous will go to hell, the place of eternal punishment (Matthew 25:46). The Greek word translated “hell” that denotes this final place of the wicked is Gehenna!

When the words Sheol/Hades are translated as “grave,” the root meaning remains the same. It is the place of all departed spirits! It is nowhere suggested in God’s Word that the piece of earth into which our bodies are placed upon death is the “hell” to which we refer above! This is to say that the grave is neither Tartarus, nor Gehenna!