The Two-Hundred-Forty-Sixth (Death)

This week we’re going to take a dive into a topic that has been purposely avoided as a main point of study up to now.  It may be obvious, but the reason being that it’s a challenging aspect of scripture to piece together, there are many preconceived notions about it based on the various different Christian views regarding it, and it’s taken this long to try and seek out the scriptural truth about it.  Much like many of the differing beliefs believers have on a wide variety of scriptural topics, this one seems to have produced views that are based on one or more verses but don’t fully fit with others.  That creates a confusing situation in which new believers struggle to understand and theologians don’t provide a satisfying explanation for, about a topic that is arguably one of the answers most sought after by mankind as a whole.

Going through scripture trying to piece together an answer to the question of what is death, it’s easy to go around in circles putting a set of verses together that lead to one explanation and a different set of verses that lead to another, seemingly contradictory, explanation.  However, as with many truths in scripture, the key that ties it all together and is able to provide one coherent interpretation is none other than our Lord and Savior, Yeshua.  He went through death in order that He should experience it for each and every person (Hebrews 2:9) and therefore, through the account of His death and the prophecies associated with it, we can understand not only what it is but how it has changed based on His sacrifice.

Before we get too far into it though, there are some things to understand about the wording used to describe death in scripture.  Some of these words we’ve talked about previously, so this is partially a review.  Additionally, when you compare original text with English translation, you find that in some cases a Greek or Hebrew word that was translated to one thing in one verse is translated to another in a different verse, and this just adds to the confusion of trying to make sense of it all if you are only using the translation to do the study.  

The first thing to understand is the name used for the place people go to, or went to, upon physical death.  In Hebrew, it’s called Sheol, and in Greek it’s called Hades.  Now, this is not what is commonly referred to as Hell, although sometimes that’s what it’s translated to.  This is simply known as the “abode of the dead,” and while it has different sections to it, it’s just the place where a person’s spirit went when it separated from the physical body at death.  We’ll get into that in more detail later, but for now, just understand that where you see Sheol in the original Hebrew text and Hades in the original Greek text, that’s the place it’s talking about.

The next thing to understand is the name used for what people would consider Hell.  This is not just a holding place for spirits of the dead, it is a place of torment and torture, and it’s proper name is the Valley of Hinnom.  In Hebrew, it’s Ge-Hinnom or Ge ben-Hinnom, and the Greek just transliterated this name into Gehenna.  This place is also synonymous with the lake of fire, the connection of which you’ll find if you look at the descriptors given with the name Gehenna.  Given what occurs there, torment, torture and destruction (Revelation 20:10, Matthew 10:28), you can see that in contrast to a holding place like Sheol, Gehenna is a place of judgment.  Like many other instances of YHWH using for good something intended for evil, the name of this place comes from an actual location near Jerusalem where some of the Israelites had sacrificed their own children to the god Molech by “passing them through the fire” (2 Chronicles 28:3, 33:6, Jeremiah 7:31, 19:2-6).  So, fittingly, the judgment for wicked and evil people is them passing through the lake of fire, only this is a permanent spiritual death.    

The last thing to understand about some words related to death in scripture is that many times it is referred to as sleeping.  In Greek, out of the eighteen times koimao, sleep, is used, fourteen of them describe death.  Similarly, in Hebrew, the phrase “sleep with his fathers,” is used to describe death in some verses.  This is the basis for many believing that death is something of a spiritual sleep, and that when one dies physically, the next thing he or she knows is that they “wake up” in heaven, or perhaps at the second coming of Yeshua.

The problem with this view, is that it doesn’t align with two different instances in scripture where we see the spirits of the dead referenced in detail.  The first instance is when we see Saul using a medium to contact the spirit of Samuel (1 Samuel 28:7-20).  When confronting Saul about contacting him, Samuel does not use any of the same language used to describe waking up from a sleep.  He says Saul disturbed him, and the Hebrew word used means agitate, rage, or perturb.  

The other instance is when Yeshua describes the experience of a rich man and a poor man, named Lazarus, upon physical death (Luke 16:19-31).  He tells of the rich man being in a certain part of Hades (Sheol) where he was in pain and suffering, and Lazarus being in a certain part where Abraham, who we know was righteous, was also.  The phrasing used in some translations is “Abraham’s bosom,” however based on other uses of the same word for bosom, we can determine that this is just a way to say "by Abraham’s side" (John 1:18).  

The picture Yeshua provides is that where Abraham was, Sheol was a relatively pleasant place to be.  It even had water for Lazarus to dip his finger into.  The rich man’s location, on the other hand, was one of fire, and there was a chasm between the two places.  As far as what is meant by the rich man being in suffering and it being related to fire, and how it’s different from Gehenna, in order to reconcile other verses related to Sheol I personally believe the fire the rich man was experiencing was related literally to the particular location in Sheol vice anything directly intended for persecution or judgment like the lake of fire.  

To get more into that aspect of what Sheol actually is, we can look at other words that are used as synonyms for Sheol.  The most common is Pit (Numbers 16:30, Psalm 30:3), which is usually translated to Abyss in the Septuagint.  When we do a search on these words, making sure to correlate the original language words vice the English translations, we start to see that just like there are different heavens (remember, at least three, according to Paul 2 Corinthians 12:2) there are different Pits.  One of the Psalms describes descending to the “lowest” Pit (Psalm 88:6).    

The other interesting part is that we see other verses where spirits that are not of man are also connected with the Pit/Abyss.  The demons Yeshua allowed to go into the pigs begged Him not to send them to the Abyss (Luke 8:31).  Clearly, this is a place even they did not want to be.  The almost comical part though, is that the pigs end up running into the sea and dying.  Do you know what another synonym for the Abyss is?  That’s right, the sea! (compare LXX Deuteronomy 30:13 with Romans 10:7)  So, the demonic pigs ended up going into the allegorical representation of the place the demons asked Yeshua not to send them!

As a side note, following the representation of the Abyss as the sea, it makes you consider other teachings of Yeshua that included the sea.  For instance, when He said someone with little faith would even be able to tell a mountain to be cast into the sea (Mark 11:23), He said it in context of the fig tree that He cursed and it withered away.  This fig tree was a representation of apostate Israel, and we know this because that cursing was done in the context of Yeshua and the apostles going to and from Jerusalem to preach against the current state of affairs of the Jewish faith.  The fig tree had no fruit but it wasn’t the season for fruit and Yeshua cursed it anyway.  He saw leaves and no fruit, which was a representation of the fact that the Jewish faith at the time looked ok because they were supposedly following all the commandments of YHWH, but they didn’t have the heart of the commandments and the resulting good works that came out of that.  Elsewhere in scripture, we see mountains as representing societal or religious governing structures, so Yeshua’s double meaning here was that the “mountain” of the Jewish faith would be cast into the sea, which represents the Abyss.  Isn’t it amazing how all these things tie together?!  

Moving on, we’ve got a good enough background at this point for us to finally look specifically at death.  The first time we see any sort of death referenced in scripture is YHWH’s commandment to Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17).  He very specifically states that in the same day that Adam eats of the fruit, he will die, yet later when Adam actually does this, we find that he lives all the way to 930 years old (Genesis 5:5).  Based on this, we obviously know that YHWH was not talking about physical death, which means the only other thing He could have been referring to was spiritual death.

This leads us to understand a few things.  First, we know that there is a such thing as physical death just by personal experience, but we now also know that there is a such thing as spiritual death.  Second, we know that spiritual death does not result immediately in physical death.  And third, we know that this first spiritual death, that is a result of sin, does not mean a permanent death because we require our spirit in order to be alive physically and Adam and Eve remained alive physically after their sin.

From the previous verses we looked at regarding Sheol, we also know that upon physical death spirits go to another location, meaning they remain in existence.  So, what is this first spiritual death that YHWH said in the Garden was a consequence of sin?  It is a spiritual separation from YHWH.  Paul describes it as an alienation, or estrangement, from YHWH (Ephesians 4:18).  

As stated earlier, Yeshua is the key to understanding death, because He went through every aspect of it.  While He was in close, direct communication with YHWH throughout His whole ministry, on the cross He became spiritually separated from YHWH when He became the sin of every person who had ever lived (Matthew 27: 46).  He called out to YHWH for being forsaken, but He had to be because once He became sin, YHWH could no longer even look upon Him let alone be spiritually connected with Him (Isaiah 59:1-2, Habakkuk 1:13).  It wasn’t until after this spiritual separation that Yeshua’s physical death happened, and it wasn’t immediately after or directly a result of that spiritual separation (Matthew 27:50, Luke 23:44-46, John 19:28-30).

In the same way, just over a more lengthy time, we had a spiritual separation from YHWH and we will have a physical death.  We were born with that spiritual separation based on the sin of Adam and Eve.  Upon our physical death, our spirit separates from our body just as Yeshua’s did.  Can you see a pattern here?  If you look at it generally, death is simply another word for separation.  First, a separation from YHWH, then a separation from our physical bodies, and it all centers around our spirit.

A lot of people look at sin as a separation from YHWH, but they’re confusing sin and death.  Sin is the action, and in and of itself that’s all it is.  The result, or the wages, of that action is the separation.  That’s the death.      

The good news is that by faith in Yeshua as the Son of YHWH and our Lord and Savior, we can be resurrected spiritually.  This occurs as soon as we truly believe in Him after repenting of our old, sinful ways (John 5:24).  His crucifixion made atonement for the sins that caused our spiritual separation, and by believing, we use that atonement for our spiritual resurrection.  

After that sacrifice, man no longer has to be separated from YHWH in death, either.  Whereas once our spirits ended up in Sheol once they separated from our physical bodies, believers are now able to be with YHWH.  Upon Yeshua’s resurrection, we see that righteous people, called saints, were physically resurrected with Him once He had preached to those in prison (another allegory of Sheol) (1 Peter 3:19, Matthew 27:52-53).  In fact, Yeshua Himself prophesied this to occur (John 5:28-29), and it tells us that from that moment on, something different would happen to the spirits of those that die physically.  

Not only do we find resurrected saints at Yeshua’s resurrection, we see that other New Testament writings tell us what happens to our spirit as believers when we physically die.  Paul tells us that when our spirit is absent from our physical body, we are present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8, Philippians 1:23).  He also states that there is an eternal house in the heavens which we will dwell in once our “earthly tent” (our bodies) are destroyed in physical death (2 Corinthians 5:1).  This aligns with one of the last things Yeshua told His disciples: that He was going to prepare a place for believers in YHWH’s house (John 14:2).  So, once Yeshua was sacrificed for our sins, from that point forward a righteous person’s spirit goes to the heavens, to YHWH’s house, at physical death.  

A couple of questions that you might be wondering are what all the references to sleep mean and what the future holds.  The connection of sleep and death is in reference to our physical bodies as we see with Paul’s description of the events of Yeshua’s return.  In order to reconcile this description with all these other verses the sleep has to refer to the body rather than the spirit (1 Thessalonians 4:14-16).  It also aligns with things like Yeshua calling Lazarus asleep when he was physically dead, something that even confused the disciples (John 11:11-12).  

As far as the future, we see what is to happen in the book of Revelation.  We find that at some point, Death and Hades will give up their dead, those that did not believe (Revelation 20:12-13).  We know that these are non-believers, because they are potentially thrown into the lake of fire, the second death (Revelation 20:14-15), and believers are not subject to the second death (Revelation 20:6, 1 Peter 2:9).  

I hope this has shed some light on a subject that might have been confusing or perhaps you hadn’t looked too deeply into before.  We hope you have a great week!  Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!

-Rob and Sara Gene