THE THIRTY-ONE "GRAVE" TRANSLATIONS
It is hid from those who use the King James Version that "grave" in these thirty-one passages is the same word that is translated "Hell" in thirty-one passages and “pit” in three passages. Did the translators do this deliberately? The definition of death by today's theology is that death is only separation of an immortal soul from God. If that were right, then the separated soul could not be in sheol (the grave), for if it were then it could not be in Hell where they believe it to be. If those in sheol were alive, sheol would have to be two places.
1. One place where the righteous dead in sheol would be in Heaven.
2. Another place where the unrighteous dead in sheol would be in Hell.
WHERE ARE THE DEAD?
According to the Old Testament
Where the dead are depends on which translation you use.
1. The King James Version used the same word to put the dead in both the grave and Hell at the same time without and before the judgment, and by putting the dead in the grave, it destroyed the Protestant view that all the dead are in Heaven or Hell and none are in sheol.
2. The American Standard Version and many others leaves sheol not translated, and put all the dead in sheol with none in Heaven or Hell before the resurrection.
3. The New International Version translated sheol into grave, and puts all the dead in the grave, both the good and the bad; this translation also puts none of the dead in Heaven or Hell before the resurrection and Judgment Day.
I read the Bible for many years without seeing this so I can understand how many read it and cannot see through their theology, and cannot see what God has so clearly said, that not now or at the judgment we can have no excuse for not understanding and believing His word. No excuse for teaching something in His name, which is in opposition to what God did say.
THE THIRTY-ONE "HELL" TRANSLATIONS
In the Hebrew, sheol is a common noun as is grave in English (sheol a common noun in Hebrew = grave a common noun in English). How can a common noun be translated into a proper noun (sheol a common noun in Hebrew = Hell a proper noun in English)? It is against all rules of translation to change a common noun into a proper noun.
The King James Version left it a common noun thirty-four times, but thirty-one times they changed it into a proper noun. The same word, which is a common noun, is translated into two common nouns, grave and pit, and one proper noun, Hell. Which one did they think it is, common or proper? How did they know when they should change this common noun to a proper noun? They put Hezekiah, a godly king in the grave (Isaiah 38:10 but put the wicked in Hell (Psalm 9:17) despite the fact that God used the same word (sheol-grave) for where both would be after their death.
The New American Standard Version did not translate it, but used the Hebrew word in the English translation; however, they capitalized the common noun as if it were a proper noun.
The New International Version translates the common noun "sheol" into the common noun "grave" sixty times and into the common noun "death" five times and did not capitalized it.
In none of the sixty-five passages where sheol is used is it said to be a place of fire or torment. It is said to be a place of silence and darkness, but never fire. Sheol is never used with the word eternal or everlasting, and sheol will be destroyed (Hosea 13:14).
HOW SHEOL IS TRANSLATED ALL SIXTY-FIVE TIMES
IN THE KING JAME VERSION
· Bad individuals in a pit, a hole in the earth in 3 passages.
· Nations in the grave in 4 passages.
· Nations in Hell in 14 passages.
· Good individuals in the grave in 11 passages.
· Bad individuals in the grave in 7 passages.
· Both good and bad individuals in the grave in 9 passages.
· Both good individuals in Hell in 9 passages.
· Bad individuals in Hell in only 8 of the 65 passages that has sheol.
(1) DOWN INTO A PIT, A HOLE IN THE EARTH (In 3 passages)
(1) Numbers 16:30 "But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them. And they go down quick into the PIT (sheol-Hell)." They and all that belong to them fell into the pit in the ground. It is undeniable that the "pit" is a hole in the ground that they fell into. Does anyone think this hole in the ground is Hell? The translators of the King James Version did not seem to. They went down into sheol alive, their earthly bodies alive with all their belongings fell into the hole in the ground, which was their grave. Can the earthly body go alive to a place for an immaterial soul? Can anyone take all their earthly belongings with them to Hell or Heaven? This simply says they were buried alive, and that all their belongings were buried with them, not that they took their belongings with them to Hell. Physical things, such as all their belongings and weapons of war (Ezekiel 32:26-27) are put in graves, but not in "Hell." Neither could they have taken their things to the bad side of hades that many believe in, or a subterranean chamber under the earth where some think all the dead go.
(2) Numbers 16:32-33 "And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the PIT (sheol-Hell), and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation." It was their earthly bodies that went into their grave (sheol) while they were alive; they had not died unto the earth closed upon their bodies, “they perished from the midst of the assembly.” Do any that believe in Hell think they went to Hell while their bodies were alive? It was not their immortal souls that went to Hell, or to either side of a subterranean chamber under the earth; God called this hole in the ground in which they were buried alive, sheol, not Hell.
(3) Job 17:13-16 "If I wait, the GRAVE (sheol-Hell) is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness...They shall go down to the bars of the PIT (sheol-Hell), when our rest together is in the dust." The dead rest in the dust in bed in darkness, a description of being asleep in the grave, but definitely not a description of being awake in Hell or Heaven; both Korah and Job went to sheol, not to Heaven or Hell. The same word in the same context is translated both grave and pit.
(2) THE NATIONS IN SHEOL (In 18 passages)
Nations in the grave (In 4 passages)
Passages that are speaking of the destruction of nations and says nothing about the destruction of any individuals, nothing about where any individual will be after death.
In the King James Version,
· Four of the sixty-five passages with sheol that puts the nations in the grave.
· Fourteen of the thirty-one passages that translated sheol into Hell that puts the nations in Hell.
o Do some evil nations die and go to the grave, but other evil nations are tormented in an eternal Hell? Do nations of this earth go to a place of torment that most now believe to be not on this earth?
These eighteen passages have nothing to do with individuals; although what is said in these passages do not in anyway fit with today's theology of "Hell," they are often changed from speaking of nations to speaking of individuals to prove a place of eternal torment for individuals, mostly by the Jonathan Edwards type of Hell fire preacher who take them out of their context of speaking about the end of nations, and make them be speaking of lost individuals that they will have no end, but will live forever being tormented by God.
· Changed from the end of nations.
· To the endlessness of individuals.
(1) Isaiah 14:11 "Your pomp is brought down to the GRAVE (sheol), and the noise of your viols: the worm is spread under you, and the worms cover you." In the same context in the King James Version sheol is translated:
1. Hell in Isaiah 14:9, is the nation of Babylon being tormented in Hell?
2. Grave in Isaiah 14:11, or is Babylon a dead nation that no longer existed?
3. Hell in Isaiah 14:15, or did the translators change there mind again and bring Babylon back from the grave only to be tormented in Hell?
· According to the theology of today “Hell” and “grave” are two completely difference places, two places that have nothing in common, they are not synonyms, yet they are translated from the same word in the same passage. When translators are this irresponsible there is no way that their reader can know when they are reading what God said or what the translators wanted them to read.
In all three it is Israel's "taunt against the king of Babylon" (Isaiah 14:4), and is speaking of the destruction of Babylon, and Babylon joining the other dead nations in the grave (Isaiah 14:9-10). They do not seem to know whether they wanted to put Babylon in "Hell" or in the "grave." How inconsistent could they be? They were just as inconsistent throughout the Old Testament. "Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you, and worms are your covering" New American Standard Bible. The worms that eat the body are in the grave, not maggots in Heaven or Hell; Babylon was dead and in its grave.
(2) Ezekiel 31:15 “Thus says the Lord God; ‘In the day when he went down to the GRAVE (sheol) I caused a mourning.’” See notes on Ezekiel 31:16 where sheol is translated “Hell.”
(3) And (4) Hosea 13:14 "I will ransom them from the power to the GRAVE (sheol); I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be your plagues; O GRAVE (sheol), I will be your destruction." This is God redeeming the nation of Israel from captivity, not individual Jews being resurrected from the grave. The whole chapter is about the nation of Israel; God brought them out of captivity in Egypt (Hosea 13:4). "It is your destruction, O Israel, that you are against me, against your help. Where now is your king that he may save you in all your cities, and your judges of whom you requested, ‘Give me a king and a prince’? I gave you a king in My anger, and took him away in My wrath" (Hosea 13:9-11). "O Israel, return unto Jehovah your God; for you have fallen by your iniquity" (Hosea 14:1). The translators did not believe any one would be redeemed, individuals or nations, from Hell; therefore, they have the redeeming being from the grave; if they had translated sheol into Hell they would have had Hell being destroyed by God (“O sheol I will be your destruction”), but the Hell they believed in could not be destroyed, and no one could ever be redeemed from it.
Because 1 Corinthians 15:54 says, “Then shall come to pass the saying that is written,” many think Paul quoted Hosea 13:14 in 1 Corinthians 15:55, but it is difficult to see how “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death where is your sting?” is a quotation from “O death, I will be your plagues; O grave I will be your destruction" (Hosea 13:14). Hosea was speaking of Israel rebellion being their plagues and destruction. Paul was speaking of death being swallowed up in victory by the resurrection at the second coming of Christ.
· Hosea was speaking of the destruction of Israel.
· Paul was speaking of the victory of the faithful.
· Neither Hosea nor Paul was speaking of eternal torment after death.
Hebrew parallelism:
"I will ransom them (the nation of Israel) from the power to the GRAVE (sheol)”
“I will redeem them (the nation of Israel) from death”
Nations in Hell in 14 passages
(1) Deuteronomy 32:22 God's anger toward Israel. "For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest HELL (sheol) (“To the depths of Sheol” New Revised Standard Version), and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains." Hundreds of years from Genesis to Deuteronomy had passed, and it was not unto the seventh time sheol is used before the King James translators thought they could put the Hell they believed in into the Bible. But, what does this passage say? Jeshurun forsook God (32:15).
· They (Israel) provoked God to jealousy with strange gods (32:16).
· They (Israel) sacrificed unto devils (32:17).
· They (Israel) moved God to jealousy with that which is not a god, and provoked Him to anger (32:21).
· In God's anger, a fire is kindled which would burn to the lowest sheol (grave), and shall consume the earth (32:22).
This fire is on earth, and shall (figuratively) consume the earth, not torment individuals in Hell. Deuteronomy 32:23-26 says:
The "how" of this burning "unto the lowest hell (grave-sheol)," is described in Deuteronomy 32:21-26 in a way that it could not be the "Hell" that is believed in by many today, but is God's anger with the nation of Israel. This is almost a repeat of Leviticus 26:14ff of what would happen to Israel if they did not obey God.
· Verse 26 "I would scatter them (Israel) afar, I would make the remembrance of them (Israel) to cease from among men."
All this, including the fire unto the lowest grave, is God's punishment to the nation of Israel at that time. All these punishments are those that can only be inflicted on the living, not on an immaterial, invisible part of a person that has no substance. There is not one word about any individual, or about anyone burning in Hell after death, or nothing is said about anything after the judgment at the second coming of Christ. If it were a Hell, there would be beast, poison serpents, swords, etc. in Hell. Suckling babies would be destroyed in Hell.
If "lowest Hell" spoken of in this passage were the "Hell" that is taught today, was Israel forever tormented by God in this "lowest Hell"? Or was Israel in captivity for a period of time, then came out of captivity, and was restored as a nation? See Psalm 86:13 below where in the King James Version David says he was delivered out of the “lowest Hell.” Had David literally been in Hell and delivered out of it before his death, or had David been delivered from death and the grave (sheol), or had the nation of Israel literally been in Hell, or had Israel had been in exile (the lowest grave) and delivered out of it and had returned to their homeland? How many Hells did the translators believe in?
MORE THAN ONE HELL!
“Unto the lowest hell” King James Version
“Unto the lowest Sheol” American Standard Version
If there were a lowest Hell there would be other Hells above it. Some that believe in Hell has changed this to the lowest level of Hell in an attempt to keep from having more than one Hell, but according to the King James Version there is a lowest Hell; therefore, must be one or more Hell’s above the lowest Hell. It is undeniable that according to the King James Version there is more than one Hell, the lowest Hell with other Hells above it or it could not be the lowest.
From Genesis to Deuteronomy, centuries had passed before the King James translators first put Hell in the Bible although sheol had been used often. Hundreds more years passed before the New King James translators translated sheol into Hell the second time.
Five out of the first thirty-six: The New King James Version translates "sheol" into Hell only five times out of the first thirty-six times "sheol" is used.
· The first 6 times sheol was used it was not translated Hell.
· The next 12 times sheol was used it was not translated Hell.
· A place where there is no life or torment
· Be changed to a place of eternal life in torment?
o A place that is on this earth
o Be changed to a place not on this earth?
Grave and Hell (as the word is used today) have nothing in common; how did the translators get the two completely different words out of the same Hebrew word?