Hades or Hell

The place called “Sheol” in Hebrew is the same place that Greek writers would call “Hades.” In English, it means “the Grave.” From one end of the Bible to the other, it is described as a place where all dead humans go to sleep until a day of judgement that is described in Revelation 20, starting at verse 11.

All ten times the word appears in the New Testament, the King James Version translators translated it as “hell.” The Complete Jewish Bible translates it “Sh’ol” every time, because those translators see it to be the same place that is called by that name in the Old Testament.

It is the place from which Samuel was called up to the earth by the witch at Endor for Saul (1 Samuel 28), so it is not what the Romans called “hell.” Other versions translate the word as either “Hades” or “the Grave.”

Both death and the grave are thrown into the lake of fire in Revelation 20:14. Only the KJV inserts “hell” as being thrown instead of the grave.