*Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this series are not intended as an official statement of CBTS or a uniform position of its faculty. This material is offered in the spirit of faith seeking understanding and to encourage further theological reflection. As more installments of this series are released, they will be linked here.
Second Explanation of Sheol: A Netherworld with Compartments of Paradise and Punishment
As was said in the first post of this series, “the word sheol is used in the Old Testament of a place to which, in some sense, both the righteous and the wicked descend at death.” We are considering two contrasting explanations of this word’s use in the Old Testament. Each of these explanations fits some instances of the word sheol, but not others. We have already seen evidence for interpreting Sheol as a general word for death and the grave. As we begin to examine the idea of Sheol as a holding place for departed spirits, I concede that the Old Testament concept of Sheol sometimes overlaps with the New Testament concept of Hades as a place where departed spirits are confined. Still, I object to this as the main connotation of the Hebrew word sheol, and I further object to the teaching that deceased Old Testament saints were confined in Sheol prior to Christ’s death and resurrection.
The Old Testament certainly lays the foundation for the clearer revelation in the New Testament concerning where the spirits of the unrighteous dead go, a prison of punishment until the day of judgment, and Sheol in that particular sense still seems conceptually associated with the depths of the earth. Beyond that, as has been stated, another component to this concept has ebbed and flowed through church history (and in Jewish thought before that), the understanding that (at least before Christ’s resurrection) both the righteous and the unrighteous went at death to compartments of Sheol (or Hades, the Greek equivalent).
It must be said at the outset that this interpretation is bound up with a certain understanding of Christ’s descent into Hades (or “Hell”, as English translations of the Apostles’ Creed usually speak of it). I will refrain from directly tackling that topic until a later post, though of course some of what I say here will tie into that topic. Though I disagree with the compartmental theory of Sheol/Hades, I will say that one of the most valiant and thoughtful arguments for the theory is a book titled Crux, Mors, Inferi: A Primer and Reader on the Descent of Christ.[1]
In the old Western church, the Latin phrase for such a compartment in Hades for Old Testament saints was Limbus Patrum. Consider this helpful explanation by twentieth-century Reformed scholar Loraine Boettner:
Roman catholic theology holds that Old Testament believers at their death were gathered into a region called the limbus patrum, where they remained without the beatific vision of God, and yet without suffering, until Christ had accomplished His work of redemption. The word limbus is from the Latin, meaning fringe or outskirts, and the limbus patrum was one of the several compartments into which first Jewish theology and then later Medieval theology divided the unseen world. After His death on the cross, and while His body remained in the grave, Christ is supposed to have descended to this region, delivered the souls held captive there, and led them in triumph to heaven.[2]
In harmony with Boettner’s explanation, Geerhardus Vos before him notes the connection between the doctrine of limbus patrum and the Roman Catholic doctrine of the sacraments:
The limbus patrum (limbo of the fathers) is the place where the believing fathers of the Old Testament had to stay in a state of expectation before the coming of the Messiah. After His death on the cross, Christ descended into Hades and freed the fathers. This goes with the Roman Catholic doctrine of the sacraments of the Old Testament, to which they do not attribute power to save, as they do to the sacraments that the Church now administers. The limbus patrum is a part of Hades, of Sheol, about which more will be said below.[3]
Here it may be helpful to note that, contrary to the assumptions of some, the limbus patrum was not an unchanging teaching since the beginning of the ancient church. Significant development and pendulum swinging occurred over the course of centuries. Charles E. Hill has written a scholarly book titled Regnum Caelorum: Patterns of Millennial Thought in Early Christianity. This book posits two competing systems of thought in the ancient church regarding the last things. Hill credibly demonstrates that the original logic for expecting an earthly millennium after Christ’s return (a chiliast or premillennial position) was often that the saints had to be “conditioned” in a lesser paradise before being fit to enter God’s presence in heaven. Related logic was often used by the same people (Irenaeus, for example) to say that the righteous dead (with some possible exceptions such as martyrs) still go to a holding place beneath the earth, since they are not yet ready to enter God’s presence. Over the centuries, such strands of thought seem to have morphed into something closer to the Roman doctrine of purgatory. On the other hand, others in the ancient church believed that Christian believers go immediately to heaven when they die, and that there is no need for an earthly millennium after Christ’s return.
Today, Christians do not expect to go to a Limbo under the earth when they die (though Roman Catholics teach Purgatory, which is a related but different concept). Still, there is a resurgence of the view that the Old Testament saints went to a subterranean place of rest and expectation when they died. Let us examine the scriptural evidence for this view.
First, the Old Testament does speak of both the righteous and the wicked entering Sheol at death. Second, some Old Testament texts might suggest that the abode of deceased spirits is inside the earth. Here is one example in which the spirit of a righteous man seems to rise out of the earth:
11 Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” He said, “Bring up Samuel for me.” 12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul.” 13 The king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.” 14 He said to her, “What is his appearance?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped in a robe.” And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage.
(1 Samuel 28:11–14)
In verse 19, Samuel tells Saul, “Tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me.” Though this could be taken as a general reference to Saul and his sons joining Samuel in death or the afterlife, the compartmental theory of Sheol sees here a reference to a specific place of confinement for departed spirits (though with different compartments for the righteous and the wicked). Few would claim that Saul was a regenerate man, and thus it seems extremely unlikely that Samuel’s words could refer to heavenly rest for Saul (who is conspicuously absent from, say, the “hall of faith” in Hebrews 11, where even Jephthah’s and Samson’s names appear). Even compromised Lot is called a righteous man in scripture, but such a clarification seems strikingly absent for Saul.
Third, a few key New Testament texts can be marshalled to suggest a limbus patrum.
22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”
(Luke 16:22–31)
The compartmental theory hinges largely on this text in Luke 16. Much is made of the ability of the rich man to see Abraham and Lazarus, though far off, and the ability of Abraham to have a conversation with Lazarus. It is assumed that those in heaven could not have such an encounter with those in Hades (though that is quite the assumption). Caution must be taken lest we press such details too far. Such a conversation from such a distance would normally seem impossible even if we accept the compartmental theory of Sheol or Hades. Jesus is telling a story describing the realities of death to make a point about the unbelieving Pharisees (lovers of money according to verse 14 of Luke 16) and about his own coming resurrection; but Jesus is accommodating his description to images we can somewhat comprehend. Unless the dead are given temporary forms of some sort, the imagery of Abraham’s bosom and the rich man’s eyes and tongue and Lazarus’s finger do not seem to be literal descriptions of disembodied spirits. We can simply say that Jesus is telling a story about heaven (where Abraham the father of the faithful is) and hell (where the departed spirits of the wicked are currently tormented). Indeed, there is a great chasm fixed between those two realms; yet Isaiah 66 even describes the redeemed in the eternal state viewing the wicked who have been consigned to the second death. Those in the lake of fire are said in Revelation 14 to be forever tormented in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb, though the holy angels and Jesus will have their abode in the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, and none of the damned will ever enter that city. When speaking of heaven and hell, we must be careful not to draw conclusions beyond what is written, conclusions which the scriptures may not intend to imply.
The apostle Paul’s words in Ephesians 4 have also become a battleground regarding the meaning of “the lower regions” which he mentions there.
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth [or, “the lower parts of the earth”]? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
(Ephesians 4:7–10)
This text is used by some to say that Christ at his death went to the “paradise” compartment of Sheol/Hades under the earth and “took captive” those who had been captives there (Old Testament saints), bringing them to heaven in connection with his resurrection and ascension. Indeed, at the conclusion of my own Master of Divinity work at Detroit Baptist Seminary, this was my written position in the detailed doctrinal statement each of us seniors had to write and discuss. Here is what I wrote at the time:
Individual members of the human race continue to consciously exist after physical death. Before the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the spirits of all deceased people went to the lower parts of the earth (often identified as Sheol or Hades in scripture): the regenerate to a paradise of comfort and blessing, and the unregenerate to a place of fiery torment (Luke 16:22–31). These lower regions also contain holding places for certain demonic spirits (Rev 9:1–11). When Christ died, he descended to these lower parts, both to proclaim his triumph to imprisoned rebel spirits (1 Peter 3:19–20) and to release the righteous for their ascent to the third heaven (the Paradise of God) (Eph 4:7–10). These spirits of righteous men made perfect now inhabit the Heavenly Jerusalem, along with the deceased saints of the church age (Heb 12:22–23). All Christians who die immediately enter the blessed presence of Christ in heaven (2 Cor 5:8). Unbelievers continue to enter Hades at death.
That’s what I wrote in 2013. Since then, I’ve seen significant problems with the teaching that the righteous dead before Christ’s resurrection went to a subterranean holding place. Allow me to explain in the next post.
[1] Though Sam Renihan has now tragically disqualified himself from the gospel ministry and has withdrawn his self-published books (including the book just mentioned), I still feel it proper to acknowledge this notable and recent presentation of a position I respectfully reject. Sam Renihan, Crux, Mors, Inferi: A Primer and Reader on the Descent of Christ.
[2] Loraine Boettner, Immortality (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1956), 102.
[3] Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, translated and edited by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020), 1103.
