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"HELL NO PART OF DIVINE REVELATION"
"AN article under the above title, by the Rev.
W. E. Manley D.D., appeared in the Arena.
The writer begins by laying down the proposition
that there is no term in the Hebrew or Greek Scriptures
which has the meaning of the English word hell,
and continues:
"When our late revision of the Bible was in
progress, Canon Farrar (now Archdeacon and Doctor
Farrar) said in substance as follows: --'If the revisers
do their whole duty, when their work is done
our Bible will not contain the word hell, nor damnation,
nor everlasting punishment.' This covers the
whole ground of our proposition, and something more.
The revisers, it seems, have not done their whole duty,
though they have gone a good way in that direction.
There are four words in the Bible that are translated
hell, though not uniformly so translated. One of these
is a Hebrew word, sheol, and is found in the Old Testament
sixty-five times. In the old version it is rendered
thirty-one times hell, thirty-one times grave, and
three times pit. In the revision it is rendered hell fifteen
times, grave fifteen times, pit five times, and is left
untranslated thirty times. The revisers admit that the
word does not mean hell, but say it is a place of departed
spirits, good and bad, and must therefore embrace
a hell and a paradise, though these places, and
the separation between them, are nowhere mentioned
or alluded to in that part of the Bible. With the views
the revisers had of sheol, it was manifestly improper to
render the word either hell or grave. There was but
one consistent course to take, and that was to give the
original in every instance, as they have done in nearly
half of them, and as the New Testament revisers have
done with the word hades. In passing, we may remark
that Sheol was the proper name of the first king of the
Hebrew nation, and of him who became the apostle to
the Gentiles, with some difference of pronunciation--a
pretty good evidence that their respective parents did
not attach to the word the meaning of hell, unless it
had to them a more musical sound than it has to some
of us. The true meaning of sheol is grave, and the
translators of the old version have given their sanction
to this view by so rendering the word in nearly half
the instances in the ancient Scriptures; and if we add
the three times it is rendered pit, often the synonym
of grave, the rendering 'grave' will be in the majority.
It should be borne in mind that the translators of the
old or authorised version had but one word for the two
renderings, 'grave' and 'hell,' and that the former was
the sense of the term more often than the latter. It is
as plain to us as anything well can be, that in the whole
Hebrew Bible they could not find a word for the idea
of hell. It is often affirmed by learned Hebrews that
there is no such word in the Hebrew language, in the
Bible, or in any other book. This is confirmed by the
revisers, who confess that sheol has no such meaning;
and they name no other word in the Hebrew language
to fill the place. Finding no word for hell, they made
use of the word sheol, grave, and attached to that the
desired meaning when the connection would not betray
the fraud. The meaning of hell was not in the word;
but they could inject it, and then it would be there,
and the Old Testament would not be obliged to bear
the disgrace of having no hell. The people, having no
knowledge of the Hebrew tongue, and not doubting
that the translators, of high standing in the Church,
were pious, good men, accepted the new version as an
inestimable boon to the English people, as no doubt on
the whole it is. The revisers confess that hell is a
wrong translation; but they have not altogether rejected
this rendering."
* * *
We commend to colporteurs, and to all interested
in serving the Truth, the booklet "What Say the Scriptures
about Hell?" (See second page.) It is quite
convincing to readers in general that God's Word has
been misrepresented and misunderstood on this subject;
and after reading it they are generally ready for the
study of the divine plan of the ages.
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