Articles
Did Jesus Go To Hell
The “Apostle’s Creed” (which is attributed to the apostles, but certainly was not written
by them) begins, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And in
Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin
Mary, suffered under Pilate, was crucified, died, and buried; He descended into hell …”
Even from Apostolic times, there has been confusion about the state of the dead. The
Hebrew word for the realm of the dead is Sheol, which is equivalent to the Greek word Hades.
These refer to the realm of the dead before the Day of Judgment. Another Greek word, Gehenna,
is the word properly translated hell. One problem that we have always faced in understanding
“the other side,” is that we cannot know anything about this other than what has been revealed in
the Bible.
Confusion over the place of the dead was compounded when the King James translators
used the word hell to translate both Hades and Gehenna, since at that time hell was thought to
refer to both the realm of the dead, as well as the final place of punishment for the wicked. Acts
the KJV reads, “He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not
left in hell, neither did his flesh did see corruption.” In this case, the word translated hell is
Hades, not Gehenna.
Hades, the realm of the dead, has one portion for the righteous, called paradise (Luke
23:43) and Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16). The wicked, such as the rich man (Luke 16), are in
torment in another portion of Hades. Did Jesus go to hell (Gehenna)? Hell is a place of outer
darkness, and everlasting punishment, away from the presence of God. It is the same kind of pain
Jesus experienced in His separation from His Heavenly Father on the cross (Matthew 27:46). It is
a place of no hope! B.Johnson
