The Abode of the Dead

Sheol is the abode of the dead in the Old Testament: the place where all the departed went down before Christ, the just and the wicked alike, far from the light of the living and from the sight of God. It is there that Christ descended, and from there that he drew the just.

Sheol in the Old Testament

The Hebrew word rendered by “abode of the dead” is she'ol (שְׁאוֹל); the Greek version translates it by Hadēs (ᾅδης). It is the place below, the pit, the depths, where one goes down in dying. All go there, the just like the wicked; one leads there a diminished existence, in shadow and silence, cut off from the living and from the praise of God. Jacob, believing his son dead, wishes to join him there: “I shall go down to my son, into the abode of the dead, in mourning.” Genesis 37:35 And the psalm laments this severing: “In death there is no remembrance of you; in the abode of the dead, who praises you?” Psalm 6:6 The hope of Israel does not yet reach the opened heaven: it waits.

The bosom of Abraham

All went down to the abode of the dead, but not in the same state. The just rested there in consolation, awaiting the Redeemer; the wicked already knew torment there. Christ shows it in a parable: poor Lazarus dies and finds rest, the pitiless rich man wakes in the flames, and between the two an impassable chasm. “The poor man died, and he was carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham.” Luke 16:22 This place of rest for the just is called the bosom of Abraham, or the limbo of the Fathers, from the Latin limbus, the border: there the saints of the old Covenant waited, Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets, turned toward the promise still to come.

Christ descended to the dead

At his death, Christ descended to the abode of the dead. The Creed confesses it: he descended into hell. The Latin word it uses, inferi, “those below”, first names the underground place where all the dead go down, before also coming to designate the place of the damned. It is to the first that Christ descended, not the second: he came there as victor, to find the just who awaited him and to bring them the news of salvation accomplished: “He went and preached to the spirits in prison.” 1 Peter 3:19 He then opened the heaven that sin had closed, and made the just pass from waiting to glory.

Since Christ

Since this descent and the Resurrection, the abode of the dead is no longer what it was. Heaven is open: the just who die in the friendship of God enter into his sight, at once or after the purification of purgatory; the limbo of the Fathers is empty, its waiting accomplished. The place of shadow where the just waited has already come to an end with the descent of Christ. There remain hell, for whoever turns away from God to the last, and the wait for the final day, when the risen body will rejoin the soul. Then death itself will be destroyed: “Death and the abode of the dead were cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:14