The Teaching of the Old
Testament
The plan in presenting the subject of the Doctrine of Eternal Punishment will be primarily that of an historical survey. We shall not attempt to be exhaustive in treatment lest we get lost in a maze of details. To find out what the Bible teaches, and what Christians have believed about the subject are the major concerns. Since Christian belief is rooted in Hebrew teaching, it is necessary to determine exactly what the Hebrews believed about eternal punishment.
That portion of the history of Hebrew belief which is most important is found in the Old Testament. Here we have not only the record of Hebrew beliefs over a period of many centuries, but most important of all, we have the beginning of divine revelation on the subject. Those, however, who expect to find a great deal of material dealing directly with the doctrine of eternal punishment will be disappointed. The Old Testament contains little information about the eschatological future of the individual, and almost all of this is concerned with the future of the godly
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rather than that of the ungodly. In the study of this subject one must not read back into the Old Testament concepts which were not held until much later in the history of doctrine. On the other hand, even the critical scholar Burney points out that "Those who believe that in the Old Testament we have the record of a revelation, partial and fragmentary indeed, but divinely inspired and leading up to the manifestation of our Lord in the fulness of time, will realize that in many cases the statements of Old Testament writers and the ideas which they embody are susceptible of a deeper significance when read in the fuller light of New Testament revelation."1
That there is little material dealing directly with the doctrine of eternal punishment does not mean that there is little or no valuable information in the Old Testament regarding the study of our subject. General information in the Old Testament with regard to the subject of the life after death provides a background for the study of the doctrine of eternal punishment. The common conception of the life after death held by the Israelites in the Old Testament period was existence in a place called Sheol. This was a shadowy, limited existence compared to this life, but it was a very real existence. Belief in Sheol was a doctrine of immortality, not of annihilation. Furthermore, side by side with this common conception of the life after death, passages exist here and there that reveal glimpses of a more wonderful life after death for the believer, and a few which hint at a more terrible life after death for the unbeliever. Also, great concepts are revealed in the Old Testament which led the Jews of the Inter-testamental period from the general concept of Sheol to a more developed doctrine of individual destiny including a clearly defined doctrine of eternal punishment.
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First the concept of Sheol must be studied. This concept was similar to that held by other contemporary peoples. All of the civilization of the Middle East believed in a place where the dead went to live in a rather shadowy type of existence. The Egyptians called this place Amenti, the Babylonians called it Arallu, the Greeks called it Hades, and the Israelites called it Sheol. The Egyptians especially had a rather completely developed eschatology, including the concept of judgment of evil. In the centuries which the Israelites spent in bondage in Egypt, they must have come into contact with these ideas.
It must be recognized that the word Sheol translated "hell" in the King James Version of the Old Testament does not refer to a place of eternal punishment, but to this place of shadowy existence where the good and the evil continued to exist together after death. That the latter idea is intended is recognized by the more accurate rendering of the American Standard Version where the word "hell" is not used in the Old Testament, and Sheol is left untranslated.
The etymology of the word "Sheol" is uncertain. Some scholars believe that it is derived from the verb "to ask," and connect this derivation with the practice of consulting the dead. Others consider this derivation as describing the insatiable nature of Sheol, always asking for more inhabitants (Proverbs 30:16). Others believe the derivation comes from the verb "to be hollow," referring to the idea that Sheol is a hollow place under the earth.
A careful study of the Old Testament will indicate the common conception of Sheol to be that of a continued existence in a very dreary underworld.
Numerous passages of the Old Testament give such a description, of which the following are examples:
a. Sheol was a place of darkness. "Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness . . . as darkness itself/ and of the shadow of death, without any order, and
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where the light is as darkness"2 (Job 10: 21-22). "For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead" (Psalm 143:3).
b. Sheol was a place of silence. "Unless Jehovah had been my help, my soul had soon dwelt in silence" (Psalm 94:17). The dead praise not Jehovah, Neither any that go down into silence" (Psalm 115:17).
c. Sheol was a place of forgetfulness. "Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? And thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness" (Psalm 88:12)?
d. Sheol was a place of separation from God. "For in death there is no remembrance of thee; in Sheol who shall give thee thanks" (Psalm 6:5)?
e. Sheol was a place without knowledge of what transpires on earth. "His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them" (Job 14:21). "For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. As well their love, as their hatred and their envy, is perished long ago, neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol, whither thou goest" (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10).
The above passages reveal that the individual, upon his entrance into Sheol, was but a shadow of his former self. However, as we have already mentioned, we have here a doctrine of immortality, not of annihilation. Existence in Sheol may have been limited in comparison to this life, but it was very real existence. There are other passages describing the state of the dead which present this side of the truth.
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"Abraham was gathered to his people" (Genesis 25:8). Sheol was a place of reunion: Jacob said regarding Joseph, "I will go down to Sheol to my son mourning" (Genesis 37:35). David said of the child that was smitten, "I shall go to him, but he will not return to me" (II Samuel 12:23). The Hebrew word for those who were inhabitants of Sheol is Rephaim. "They that are deceased tremble beneath the waters and the inhabitants thereof" (Job 26:5). The marginal translation for "they that are deceased" (Rephaim) is "shades." The next verse is rendered: "Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon hath no covering." Evidently Abaddon is another name for Sheol, and here the marginal note has "Destruction." Speaking of the effect on the Rephaim of the descent of the King of Babylon, Isaiah 14:10, 11a says, "All they shall answer and say unto thee, Art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol." Ezekiel 32:17-32 consists of a long passage describing the inhabitants of Sheol, and also implies recognition among its inhabitants. These passages as well as others show that those in Sheol are sentient beings, that they recognize and can talk to each other. This is further evidence of the fact that although existence in Sheol was considered less active than life on earth, it was still a state of continuing existence, and certainly not annihilation.
There was, however, little distinction between the good and the evil people in Sheol; both together were engulfed in comparative gloom. The fine conservative scholar, Oehler, says, "In no part of the Old Testament is a difference in the lot of those in the realm of death distinctly spoken of. Job 3:17-19 describes them there as all alike. Only in Isaiah 14:15, Ezekiel 32:23, where the fallen conquerors are relegated to the uttermost depths can we find an indication of different grades in the realm of the dead — perhaps in the sense in which Josephus (Bell. Jud. iii, 8.5) speaks of an outer darkness for self-murderers. Elsewhere, only a
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division into peoples and races, and not a division of the just and unjust, is spoken of. 'Tomorrow,' says Samuel to Saul, 'shalt thou and thy sons be with me' (1 Samuel 28:19). The inhabitants of the kingdom of the dead 'have no more reward' (Eccles. 9:5ff). In itself, the condition in Sheol, which is in the main the most indefinite existence possible, is neither blessedness (although longed for as a rest by him who is weary of life), (Job 3:13-19) nor positive unblessedness: for to those who are swept away in the midst of the enjoyment of life the punishment consists in being thus carried away (Numbers 16:30ff., Psalm 4:16). The Mosaic retribution has its sphere entirely on this side of the grave."3 Later there emerged a clear distinction between the compartment where the good dwelt in Sheol, and that where the evil existed; but that distinction took place after the Old Testament period closed. As to the location of Sheol, it was generally believed to be somewhere underground.
Two possible views are tenable regarding the facts just described. One is that at death the Old Testament saints actually did go to this dreary place called Sheol, and that they remained there until the time when Christ paid the price for sin, descended into Sheol, and brought the redeemed into heaven. In Lange's Commentary, E.R. Craven has a very detailed discussion supporting this view.4 This was the prevalent view held by the early Church, and it was such a descent into Sheol which was originally intended by the words of the Apostles' Creed, "He descended into hell." It is, however, significant that this article was evidently one of the last to be added to the Creed. Vast literature has been written on the subject to which reference will be given later. This view has this to commend it: it connects the
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salvation of Old Testament believers directly with the cross of Christ. There is also here a close connection with the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory. This, however, is beyond the scope of our present study.
The other possible view of Sheol is based on the fact that revelation in the Bible is progressive. As Hodge states: "The progressive character of divine revelation is recognized in relation to all the great doctrines of the Bible. One of the strongest arguments for the divine origin of the Scripture is the organic relation of its several parts. They comprise more than sixty books written by different men in different ages, and yet they form one whole; not by mere external historical relations, nor in virtue of the general identity of the subject of which they treat, but by their internal organic development. All that is in a full-grown tree was potentially in the seed. All that we find unfolded in the fulness of the gospel lies in a rudimental form in the earliest books of the Bible. What at first is only obscurely intimated is gradually unfolded in subsequent parts of the sacred volume, until the truth is revealed in its fulness. This is true of the doctrines of redemption; of the person and work of the Messiah, the promised seed of the woman; of the nature and office of the Holy Spirit; and of a future state beyond the grave."5 (Italics are mine.)
At the beginning of the Old Testament, God's people naturally shared more or less the erroneous conceptions of the pagans on many subjects; only gradually the light of Divine Revelation was shed on these subjects. According to this view, the passages describing Sheol are a record of the conceptions of the Israelites before they had learned the wonderful truth that at death the souls of God's people go immediately to heaven. This second view has its problems, yet it fits in more fully with the way in which we would expect God to treat those who lived close to Him in Old
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Testament days. "Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of Jehovah forever" (Psalm 23:6). Under this conception it would follow that the souls of the ungodly in the old dispensation also went directly to the place of punishment, in keeping with later revelation, rather than to the more neutral Sheol of the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament, side by side with the descriptions of the shadowy form of the immortality of Sheol, there are clear intimations of the revelation of a more wonderful life after death for God's people. These passages tend to confirm the second of the two views just described. On the other hand, most of these passages can possibly be interpreted as a future rescue from Sheol, which took place at the time of the descent into Sheol, and which Christ effected at his death according to the advocates of that view.
The first of such references is found in the very description of the creation of man, in the fact that he was created "in the image of God" (Genesis 1:26), and that God himself "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (Genesis 2:7), so that man became a "living soul." Although this cannot be considered absolute proof of the natural immortality of man, it certainly points in that direction. Of the first passage, the critical scholar Oesterley says, "It means that the breath breathed in by a Creator who was immortal conferred thereby on man the faculty of becoming immortal."6 He also says, "In all the three accounts referred to, the immortality of man will be accounted for because of the mode of his creation, a part of his partook of the divine, and therefore immortal nature."7 Bartlett, the author of a very fine book refuting the doctrine of annihilationism, comes to this conclusion: "The Hebrew view of the nature of the soul was such as to lay a natural foundation for a belief in its
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continued existence after death. The human being is specially distinguished from the animal world in his creation, and the soul is specially distinguished from the body, and allied to God, its creator."8
Another intimation of immortality is found in the existence of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. It is mentioned in Genesis 2:9, "And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food: the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." Even more significantly, after the Fall it is recorded, "And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil, and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life" (Genesis 3:22-24).
The translations of Enoch and Elijah are especially significant. They clearly demonstrate the possibility of continued fellowship with God, and the possibility of the total being, body as well as soul, escaping the penalty of death.
The phrase "to go to one's fathers" also speaks of immortality. It is often descriptive of death in the Old Testament, and meant more than simply burial in an ancestral tomb, for in several instances the phrase is used where no such common burial took place. Gerlach, commenting on Genesis 15:15 says that this phrase is "the gracious expression for a life after death." Baumgarten says "a continuance after death is assuredly expressed therein." Delitzsch commenting on Genesis 25:8 says "The union with the fathers is not a mere union of corpses, but of persons."9
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The fact that the magical invocation of the dead persisted in Israel in spite of clear prohibitions indicates the popular belief in a life after death, and in a form of life which included certain power and knowledge.
Jesus' refutation of the doctrine of the Sadducees also has a bearing on the subject. The fact that long after the patriarchs died, God called Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was for Jesus proof that "God is not a God of the dead, but of the living" (Matthew 22:32). Though the average Old Testament Israelite may not have grasped this implication, this in no way invalidates the reality of its truth. As Oehler comments, "To him who has an eternal value for God an eternal existence is assured."10
Moreover there are a number of passages in the poetic section of the Old Testament that express hope of a life beyond death of a higher nature than the gloom of Sheol. Abraham's words to his servants, "I and the lad will go yonder and we will worship, and come again to you" (Genesis 22:5) are interpreted in Hebrews 11:19 as implying that Abraham believed that God would restore Isaac to him and at least suggest belief in a life beyond death. Another such passage is Job 19:25-27, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger." The Hebrew is difficult to translate, and there is a wide range of interpretation of these verses; nevertheless it is difficult to see how anyone can miss the sense that Job expected a vision of God in the world beyond. Burney accepts this interpretation. He says, "The idea of a future life using the expression in the sense of an existence after death not wholly removed from the presence of God — has been hinted at, as we have seen, earlier in the book, though to the
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writer it seemed beyond the reach of aspiration. Here it bursts forth into an expression as a conviction."11
Psalm 16 states, "My flesh also shall dwell in safety. For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life: In thy presence is fulness of joy: In thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (verses 9b-11). Again there are differences of opinion as to exactly what David's hope as expressed here was, whether to be kept from death, or of a fuller life beyond Sheol. The context certainly seems to favor the latter interpretation.
In Psalm 17 we read, "As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with beholding thy form" (vs. 15). There is a difference of opinion whether this awakening refers to ordinary sleep or the sleep of death. The idea of beholding God, however, certainly fits the latter idea rather than the former. The skeptical scholar De Wette denied the basis of the Davidic authorship of this Psalm on the ground that it clearly expresses the hope of immortality.12
Psalm 49 contains the following passage: "But man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he will receive me." (verses 12-15). It is significant that the verb in verse 15, "he will receive me," is the same in the Hebrew as the one which describes the translation of Enoch. As Burney says, while warning against the danger of reading New Testament doctrine back into the Old Testament, "The
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more I examine this Psalm the more does the conviction force itself upon me that the writer has in view something more than the mere temporary recompense of the righteous during this earthly life."13
Psalm 75 records "Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, And afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart fails; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever" (verses 24-26). In verse 24 the verb is the same as that describing Enoch's translation.
In summary: the Old Testament clearly teaches a life after death, commonly in the form of an existence in Sheol, where good and evil alike share a similar dreary fate. However, there are also passages of inspired hope in a better life beyond death for the believer, a life of glorious fellowship with his God. Although there is in these passages no direct teaching with regard to the eternal punishment of the unbeliever, there is the beginning of a differentiation between the lot of the unbeliever and that of the believer. While the believer is rescued from Sheol, no such hope is expressed for the unbeliever. In the light of the highly ethical teaching of the Old Testament with its strong emphasis on reward and punishment, it should not cause surprise that in the Inter-Testamental period there should be a further development of a more detailed description of the blessed condition of the believer and of the severe punishment of the unbeliever.
We now turn to passages in the Old Testament which hint at future retribution. One very clear reference to future punishment is found in Daniel 12:2, "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."
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A few more verses should be noted. One is Isaiah 24:21, "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth." A.B. Davidson states that he believes that this verse contains the germ of the idea of future punishment.
The last verse of Isaiah says: "And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." This passage contains some of the phrases later used to describe eternal punishment. Exactly what they signify in Isaiah, however, is a difficult question to answer. It is important to notice that the word rendered "abhorring" is the same Hebrew word as that rendered "contempt" in Daniel 12:2. Delitzsch describes it as the strongest word for "abomination." This same commentator adds, "It is perfectly obvious, that the thing itself, as here described, must appear monstrous and inconceivable, however we may suppose it to be realized — he is speaking of the future state, but in figures drawn from the present world. The object of his prediction is no other than the new Jerusalem of the world to come, and the eternal torment of the damned."14
Some commentators believe that the following verses refer to future punishment:
"Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks; walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow" (Isaiah 50:11).
"For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:14).
In some of the older literature, the following passage is
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used as a proof that the punishment of the wicked shall be eternal: "If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth; and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be" (Ecclesiastes 11:3). While this verse can hardly be considered an absolute proof of the eternal nature of punishment in the world to come, yet it is in a context describing principles by which God deals with men, and therefore carries that implication.
Of more importance than individual verses are the general principles which run throughout the Old Testament. The whole Old Testament certainly pictures God as hating sin and punishing it most severely. It is completely silent regarding any further opportunities after death. The critical scholar A. B. Davidson says: "There is the universalistic view according to which all shall be restored. Then there is the view, stopping short of this, which demands a place of repentance and sphere of development beyond the grave, and which, assuming many gradations of salvation, finds a place for at least most of the race. And there is the view which calls itself that of conditional immortality, according to which those finally and persistently evil shall be annihilated. These views are in addition to the one which has been generally accepted. Now, of course, such questions will not be decided on Old Testament ground, but in the light of the clearer revelations of the New Testament. I do not wish, therefore, to speak with great decision on such a question; but my impression is, that the whole scope of the Old Testament is in favor of the ordinary opinion. In all those Psalms which have been alluded to, faith in the future sustains itself by planting its foot on the present. The view of the Old Testament saints is chiefly confined to the present — the future is to him, so far as he himself is concerned, and so far as the wicked are concerned, but the prolongations of the present . . . . So far as the Old Testament is concerned,
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a veil is drawn over the destiny of the wicked in death; they descend into Sheol; death is their shepherd; they die in the old sense of death, and nothing further seems added in regard to them. There is no indication that their personality in Sheol ceases, or that they are annihilated . . . . As Job expresses his assurance of seeing God's face after death, this might seem to carry also the opposite, that the wicked have no such vision."15
Chapter 2 || Table of Contents
1. C.F. Burney, Israel's Hope of Immortality (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1909), p.6
2. Note: All Biblical quotations throughout this book are from the American Standard Version unless otherwise noted.
3. G.F. Oehler, Theology of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1883), p. 173.
4. J.P. Lange, A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, The Revelation of John (New York, Scribner, 1874), E.R. Craven, "Excursus on Hades" pgs. 364-377.
5. Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, I (New York, Scribner, 1871), 446.
6. W.O.E. Oesterley, Immortality and the Unseen World (London, Society for Printing Christian Knowledge, 1921), p. 198.
7. Ibid.
8. S.C. Bartlett, Life and Death Eternal (New York, American Tract Society, 1866). p. 148.
9. Bartlett, Op. Cit., p. 156.
10. Oehler, Op. Cit., p. 174.
11. Burney, Op. Cit., p. 54.
12. Bartlett, Op. Cit., p. 16.
13. Burney, Op. Cit., p. 41.
14. F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophesies of Isaiah, II (Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1949), p. 517.
15. A.B. Davidson, The Theology of the Old Testament (Edinburgh, T. and T. Clark, 1904), pp. 529-531.