his epistles, and at least twelve in his addresses, this being a very low

estimate of what a genuine zeal would demand.

When we turn to the Scriptures, what do we find? that in the whole of

Paul's recorded ministry the word 'hell' occurs but once!  What answer has

orthodoxy to this?  Was Paul slack? unfaithful? unsound?  Such a question

lays an axe to the root of our faith.  It may be, however, that Paul has said

enough in that one reference to 'hell' fully to exonerate him from such

charges.  We must therefore quote his statement in full and not omit a

consideration of the context:

'O grave (margin hell), where is thy victory?' (1 Cor. 15:55).

This is Paul's solitary reference to hell.  The context is entirely

devoted to the glorious theme of resurrection.  A study of Paul's one

reference emphasizes three things:

That hades, and its Hebrew equivalent sheol, mean the grave.

That the context shows that it means the grave.  (Hell as a place

of eternal punishment, tradition places after resurrection).

That the traditional hell had no place in the apostles' creed.

The following terms embrace Matthew's teaching on the subject: hell,

hell -fire, torment, gnashing of teeth, everlasting punishment.

The two occurrences are Matthew 11:23 and 16:18.  One passage speaks of

the city of Capernaum being brought down to 'hell', and a glance at the verse

will show that 'hell' here is in contrast with 'heaven'.  If 'hell' be

literal, then 'heaven' must be literal, but who is there so foolish as to

maintain that Capernaum had once been actually exalted unto heaven itself?

Matthew 16:18 uses an expression ('the gates of hell') that every reader of

the Old Testament in the Lord's day would recognize as a quotation from

Isaiah 38:10.  Hezekiah had been told by the prophet to set his house in

order, for he was to die and not live.  Hezekiah in his sickness said:

'In the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of sheol: I am

deprived of the residue of my years' (Isa. 38:10).

When the message of deliverance came to him, Hezekiah said:

'Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption

... for the grave cannot praise Thee, death can not celebrate Thee'

(Isa. 38:17,18).

No words of ours are needful to make this passage clear.  Those who

accept the Scriptures as the last word on any subject will know the meaning

of 'the gates of hell' in Matthew 16:18, and those who wish to retain their

own traditions, in spite of the testimony of Moses and the prophets, would

not be persuaded though one rose from the dead.  In Revelation 20:14 we read

that 'death and hell (hades) were cast into the lake of fire'.  If hades be

rightly translated 'hell', then we have hell cast into hell, which is neither

sense, good doctrine, nor of any help to those who say that hell goes on for

ever.  Hades is, as we have said, the equivalent of sheol, and as we propose