Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au>]

Hi Ron!

Perhaps I should clarify a bit more.

I think "Hell" is a bad translation for "She'ol". Sheol is not a place a 
torment, as is Hell, and
so they are two different concepts, as Irene also noted.

Yes, digging a hole in the ground, one could bury a dead person in Sheol. But 
this was just the
outward or physical part of Sheol. There was also a concept behind Sheol - 
that it wasn't just a
hole in the ground, but a place or state of unconscious being.

As for Samuel, the idea that his spirit was just a manifestation of the devil 
does not make sense.
This is, I believe, an attempt to account for why Samuel was not in "Heaven" 
with God. Also, we
never have a concept in the Hebrew Bible of the devil, or the Satan, being a 
creature who inhabits
Sheol, or even "Hell". The Satan is merely a prosecuting lawyer in the spirit 
world of the gods,
who seems out to break allegiances between men and their god(s). Nothing 
about Sheol ever comes
into the picture.

It is clear that everyone goes down to Sheol in the Hebrew bible upon death. 
The body is eaten
away, the bones placed in an ossuary, and the soul, or some semblance of the 
person, lies
unconscious in Sheol. Now, Samuel comes "up" to appear to Saul and medium at 
Eyn-Dor, and complains
at having been disturbed (as if from sleep) and brought up. This is in full 
accord with the idea of
Sheol. The souls of the departed go down into a realm of unconsciousness. 
Both the medium and Saul
have no doubts that the person who "came up" from the earth was Samuel, and 
by his character and
speech, the person is definitely Samuel.

Best regards,
GEORGE ATHAS
Dept of Semitic Studies,
University of Sydney
- Email: gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au
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