HADES

• Thayer: a dark and dismal place, in the very depths of the earth, the common receptacle of the disembodied spirits.

• Vine: "it corresponds to 'sheol' in the Old Testament. In the AV it has been unhappily rendered 'hell,' 'the grave', 'the pit' ---it never denotes the grave, nor is it the permanent region of the lost; in point of time, it is used for such intermediate between decease and the doom of Gehenna.

• New Testament passages - Matt. 11:23; 16:18; Luke 16:23; Acts 2:27, 31; Rev. 1:18, 6:8; 12:13; 20:14; 1 Cor. 15:55; Luke 10:15

SHEOL - hebrew word, similar to Hades in greek.

• At times, Sheol is the place of punishment for the wicked - Deut. 32:22; Psalm 9:17; 55:115; Prov. 15:11, 24, etc.

• In other passages, it probably refers to the GRAVE, - Gen. 44:29, 31; 1 Kings 2:6, 9, etc.

• In yet others = the state of death, disembodied existence. This state of separation between soul and body is represented AS IF IT WERE A PLACE - 1 Sam. 2:6; equipped with 'gates' - Isa. 39:10

GEHENNA

• Used ONLY of final abode of the damned.

• Is the place where BODY and SOUL reside eternally -

• Thayer: (valley of Hinnom) - the name of a valley... which was so called from the cries of the little children who were thrown into the fiery arms of Moloch. The Jews so abhorred the place after these horrible sacrifices had been abolished...that they cast into it not only all manner of refuse, but the dead bodies of animals and of unburied criminals who had been executed...(they) regard it as the natural symbol of penalty; and then this name was transferred to that place...where the wicked after death will suffer punishment"

• See Matt. 5:22, 29-30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33 Mark 9:43,45,47; Luke 12:5; James 3:6

TARTARUS

• Only in 2 Peter 2:4 - the place of punishment for evil angels, the same then as the place of 'torment' in Luke 16.

PARADISE

Robinson: "in the later Jewish usage, and in the N.T., paradise is put for the abode of the blessed after death namely:

1. the inferior paradise, or the region of the blessed in hades, Luke 23:43

2. the paradise of God, the celestial paradise where the spirits of the just (shall) dwell with God, 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2:7

SEEMS TO BE SPOKEN OF IN TWO SENSES

• Present sense, in hades: Luke 23:43. "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise,' - but Jesus went to hades Acts 2:31. That is a realm of disembodied spirits, for Jesus had not YET ascended bodily, John 20:17; Acts 1:9.

• Eternal sense: heaven. 2 Cor. 12:2,4 - the third heaven is paradise. Rev. 2:7 - speaking of eternal reward, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God.

WHY CONFUSION ABOUT TARTARUS, GEHENNA AND HADES?

• Scholars sometimes mix opinions and scholarship.

• Tartarus is not for AFTER judgment, but spirits are there NOW - 2 Peter 2:4, to be reserved UNTO judgment.

• Gehenna cannot be part of hades (the place of disembodied spirits) for it is the place where God is 'able to destroy both soul and body', Matt. 10:28.

• Gehenna always signifies the FINAL place of punishment of the wicked AFTER the judgment.