What The Hell?

By “Dr. Bob” Morgan, Catholic Evidence Guild of Guam

In our last article, we looked at the difficulties of finding descriptions of the revealed truth of Purgatory in Scripture.  Some of the verses that look like they may be supporting Purgatory are actually referring to Hell, and some of the verses that seem to be referring to Hell are actually referring to Purgatory.  To make matters worse, some translations of the Bible actually use words from the original Greek, Aramaic, or Hebrew without sufficient explanation.  Take the word “Hades”, for instance.

Most people seem to equate “Hades” with “Hell”.  The animated movie “Hercules” seemed to play on the misconception that the Greek god Hades, brother of Zeus, is identical to Satan.  Further, if the god Hades is Satan, the place where he lives must be Hell.

Sounds logical enough but the conclusion “Hades=Hell” is false.  While the Greek god Hades bears some similarity to the fallen angel, there are much larger differences.  Those differences translate into how we think about God, the Evil One, and Hell.  Is Lucifer the brother of Jesus? Of course not, but it would follow from the analogy. 

Hell is the state of eternal and total separation from God. The mythical land of Hades, on the other hand, was a place where daring adventurers could go, and from where they could expect to return

At any rate, Hades was a place of shadow, it being the underworld and all.  It was not, however, a place of never ending torment. The Biblical analogy is explicitly stated in The Catechism of the Catholic Church #633, where we find the word sheol used.  “For who among the dead remembers you? Who praises you in Sheol?” (Pss 6:6)

Where did the Greeks go to get punished, then?  Well, eternally at least, that land was Tartarus.  This was a particular place where the Titans were chained and tortured for warring with the Olympian gods (Zeus and his tribe).  Now, the Titans were also immortal, like the Olympians, so no matter how they were tortured, they could not die.

How were they tortured?  The Titan Sisyphus, for instance, was condemned to roll a large rock up a mountain every day.  Just before reaching the top of the mountain, however, the rock would roll back to the base of the mountain, waiting for Sisyphus to start again.  Every day, for all eternity.  The Titan Tantalus was chained midway between a hanging branch of a fruit tree and a clear running stream below.  When he would stretch his neck to try and bite the fruit, the tree’s branch would withdraw to just outside his reach.  And when he stretched down to drink from the stream?  You guessed it, the stream immediately dried up.

Eternal hunger and thirst.  Never ending labor without any hope of rest.  Sound like Hell to you?  Well, it certainly did to Saint Peter.  In his second letter he writes: “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to Tartarus to be held for judgment.” (2 Pet 2:4)

Well, why didn’t he use Hades?  Like our mythology scholars of today, he (or his scribe) knew that Hades would not convey the meaning of eternal pain and separation to a Greek speaking world.  Tartarus, however, would undoubtedly get that meaning across.

Hades is certainly used in Scripture, but it doesn’t generally indicate what many of our separated brethren think it indicates.  Saint John tells us about the Final Judgment after which there will be no more death in his Book of Revelation: “The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  The lake of fire is the second death.” (Rev 20:20)

Wait a second.  If death and Hades are no more, what was Hades in the first place?  What possible revealed truth could our Jewish friends have been trying to get across to the Greeks?  Well, Hades was an unpleasant place that did not eternally bind people.  In fact, heroes were made of people who went there and made it out!  We learned from Saint John that Hades exists until the Last Judgment, so it couldn’t be only the waiting place described by Saint Peter for the souls waiting for Jesus “to preach to the spirits in prison.” (1 Pet 3:19)

The only revealed truth that fits this description is Purgatory.  The next time one of our separated brethren asks where Purgatory can be found in Scripture, ask them for a better explanation of Hades.

(This article along with many more may be found online at the Catholic Evidence Guild website www.cegguam.org )