Greek · Strong's G86
ᾅδης
Hádēs (HAH-dace)
noun, masculine
The unseen realm of the dead in the New Testament, the Greek counterpart to the Hebrew Sheol, distinct from the final lake of fire.
Hades is a Greek term the Septuagint adopted to translate the Hebrew sheol, the shadowy realm of the dead. The New Testament inherits that usage and refers to Hades as the present, intermediate abode of disembodied persons awaiting bodily resurrection and final judgment. It is not yet the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14, where Hades itself is finally cast in), and it is distinct from Gehenna (G1067), the place of final, conscious judgment.
Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is the most extensive window into how the first century pictured Hades: a divided realm, with the righteous comforted at "Abraham's side" and the unrighteous in conscious torment, separated by an uncrossable chasm. After the resurrection of Christ the New Testament shifts: believers who die now go to be "with Christ" (Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8), so Hades increasingly functions as the holding place of the unrighteous dead.
Most importantly, Hades has been disarmed. Christ holds "the keys of death and of Hades" (Revelation 1:18), and He promised that its gates will not prevail against His church (Matthew 16:18). Hades is real, but for those in Christ it is no longer the end of the story.
Common English renderings
- hell
- grave
- Hades
Key verses
"And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."
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"And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom."
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"Because thou wilt not leave my soul unto Hades, Neither wilt thou give thy Holy One to see corruption."
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"and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades."
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"And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, eventhe lake of fire."
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