Biblical Concept of Hell. William Hyland
to the lost sheep of Israel gives a special insight into the Third Person’s functional identity: “For it is not you who speak but the πνεῦμα of your Father who speaks in you” (Matthew 10:20). πνεῦμα is the Koine Greek equivalent of רוּחַ and both convey “breath” 2.4 percent in the New Testament and 9.4 percent in the Old Testament [my published statistics]. An interesting example of this particular employment is Luke 8:55:“καὶ ἐπέστρεψεν τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτῆς, καὶ ἀνέστη παραχρῆμα.” (And her πνεῦμα returned and she rose up immediately.)Jesus, with Peter, John, and James {cf. Mark 5:37} entered the house with the “dead” (vv. 49 and 53) daughter’s parents, and verse 51 infers that these six people were alone in the presence of the “dead” girl. The parents (and others; v. 49) already knew/understood/perceived (οἶδα, v. 53) she was dead, but Jesus declared the girl “has not died, but is asleep.” Now from the practical perspective, when declaring a person to be dead, what enables the declarer, particularly a physician like Luke, to assert that fact? Since she was declared asleep (v. 52) by the Lord, would there still not be visible, physical, and/or audible traces of her breathing to those around her? Yes, there would be, but they weren’t mentioned. The absence of such traces indicates the disappearance of life. Also, what had disappeared (the opposite of ἐπιστρέφω in verse 55) from her? Her πνεῦμα, which traditionally has been translated as “spirit.” The human “spirit” evidences each individual’s emotions and unique character and becomes severely affected by the process of dying; the eclipse of one’s “spirit” is a feature of that process but not the cause of life’s cessation. This is well exemplified by interpreting Matthew 27:50 and John 19:30 in light of Mark 15:37 and Luke 23:46. Without life, there is no breath, the final vestige of living. Commencement of death is indicated by the disappearance of breath. Therefore, it is “breath” that disappeared from and then returned to the dead daughter; her revival was totally dependent on her breath’s return.Now when Jesus declared:οὐ γὰρ ἀπέθανεν…ἀλλὰ καθεύδει (Matthew 9:24)οὐκ ἀπέθανεν ἀλλὰ καθεύδει (Mark 5:39)οὐ γὰρ ἀπέθανεν ἀλλὰ καθεύδει (Luke 8:52)He was declaring that the daughter has not died but is asleep. But if she was asleep, would not her breathing be visible and audible? The others present, having observed no evidence of any life signs, considered her physically dead (ἀποθνῄσκω). Jesus was not disagreeing with their assessment inasmuch as the clause following His conjunction ἀλλὰ was not presented by Him as contradictory to the one prior to it; instead, He preferred καθεύδω (to sleep, fall asleep), which was in keeping with the Old Testament’s metaphoric rendition of the girl’s afterlife status {cf. Chapter 2}, just as Paul did: Jesus “died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep (καθεύδωμεν), we may live together with Him.” (1 Thessalonians 5:10). Those “asleep” [οἱ νεκροὶ], include those who looked forward to the coming of their Messiah (Psalm 2:2) but had fallen asleep before God’s Son had become incarnated:Jesus: “An hour is coming and now is, when οἱ νεκροὶ (the dead) will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” (John 5:25)Human breath sources and conveys words, the process of which is identified as individual speech. I am convinced that Yahweh’s רוּחַ is the conveyor of His words in the same way our breath is employed when we speak. He is His Holy Breath, Whom I identify as the Person functioning as the Father’s specifically located presence (as opposed to His omnipresence) and executing agent:“Thou dost send forth Thy רוּחַ, they are created…” (Psalm 104:30)Yahweh: “…I will be with your mouth and (Aaron’s) mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do.” (Exodus 4:15)This is why I maintain רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים is God’s Breath, not His Spirit; all of “God is spirit (John 4:24);” each Person is a spirit, not just Their third Person.
5 All verses translated in English are sourced in the New American Standard Bible and LXX refers to the Septuagint.
Man’s Evolving Understanding of Death
(God) has also set eternity in (men’s sons’) heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
Since his creation, man’s inquiring mind has been pondering and theorizing what is beyond death. The spectrum of answers includes “Just like it was before the world began” as well as “There’s some kind of afterlife.” And the greatest source for providing hope for an afterlife to the inquiring mind is the Word of God.
Though “God…spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many