sheol

Sheol is a Hebrew term used in the Hebrew Bible to denote the realm of the dead. The word is often translated as “the grave” or “the pit,” and in some Greek texts as Hades. In the oldest biblical books, Sheol is not a place of punishment or reward but a shadowy destination beneath the earth where all die and lie in darkness, separated from the living world and from God.

The concept is largely neutral in the Bible, with descriptions of Sheol as dark, silent, and distant. The dead are imagined as existing in a type of sleep or oblivion rather than enjoying conscious life. The text does not present a systematic afterlife doctrine; ideas about judgment, reward, and resurrection increasingly appear in later Jewish literature and in the New Testament.

In later Judaism, Gehinnom emerges as a designated place of punishment, while Sheol continues to function as the general realm of the dead. By the Second Temple period some texts envision a future resurrection and differentiated fates beyond Sheol for the righteous and the wicked.

In Christian interpretation, Sheol/Hades is treated as the underworld in the New Testament, with later doctrine distinguishing heaven, hell, and purification after final judgment. The term thus bridges ancient Hebrew conceptions and later religious traditions about life after death.